With the national manufacturing policy expected by June this year, industry bodies CII and Ficci want it to address issues such as tax simplification, promotion of value addition, technology transfers and coordination of monetary and fiscal policies.

“To have a manufacturing policy that cuts across multiple sectors is a very difficult task,” CII director general, Chandrajit Bannerjee, said. “There are four major issues that we are concerned about. The most important is the simplification of taxes. Then, there is the cutting of transaction costs for manufacturing companies. Also, inter-state movement of goods should be made easier,” he added.

CII would also like to see more flexibility in the labour laws. However, Bannerjee was quick to add, “Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t that we are asking for a hire-and-fire policy. There should be some compensation for the employees, but in general, the labour laws have to be made more flexible.”

Chetan Bijesure, additional director, manufacturing and textiles, Ficci, said they were expecting the policy to help the manufacturing sector sustain 12-14 percent growth rate in the long run.

“We want the policy to promote value addition in the manufacturing sector. At present, in most cases only assembly line work is taking place. Instead of this, value addition by the industry has to be encouraged,” he said.

Stressing the need for co-ordinating other policies such as the monetary and fiscal policy with the manufacturing policy, he pointed out, “Other policies also affect this sector…tightening of monetary policy leads to a hike in interest rates, which of course has an adverse effect on the manufacturing growth. The policies, thus, should be aligned to its needs.”

Bijesure also emphasised that appropriate FDI regulations were required to encourage technology transfers into the country.

“As of now, we just look at the monetary value of FDI flowing into the country. But we also need to put in conditions of technology transfer, which is very important for the growth of manufacturing,” he said.

Duty structure is also one of the matters of concern for the industry. Giving the example of imported set-top boxes that flooded the Indian market, Bannerjee pointed out that the Centre should give some kind of leg-up to the industry.