Sharma calls for package to boost industrial production
11 May 2012
Minister of commerce, industry and textiles, Anand Sharma has expressed concern over the decline in industrial production growth, which has been more pronounced in capital goods and manufacturing production.
The Reserve Bank of India should formulate a differential package of credit for the manufacturing sector considering the huge social dimension attached to the sector since it supports millions of jobs, he said.
He said there is an urgent need to make available bank credit at affordable rates for domestic industry and dollar credit for Indian exporters.
He said it becomes more worrying since the negative growth in industrial production in March is followed by a slowdown in export growth in April in the backdrop of the economic crisis in the Euro Zone.
''I will be undertaking a stock-taking exercise with all export promotion councils on 17 May 2012 and a meeting of the Board of Trade will be convened on 1 June 2012. After the stock taking exercise is complete, the government will intervene in sectors which require support,'' Sharma said.
The Foreign Trade Policy for this year will be announced in the first week of June.
He also mentioned that a meeting of the government-industry task force would be convened on an emergency basis after which he will have a detailed discussion with the finance minister and the prime minister.
