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Anil Mukhi
With globalisation becoming the current buzzword, most countries have understood the advantages of open and unrestricted trading policies. Alas, not so India. There is still a hangover of the old conservative mentality, with emphasis on inspections and procedures, rather than an acceptance of the spirit of adventure and risk-taking displayed by the entrepreneur.
Take the sport of horse racing, for example. introduced to India by the British a couple of hundred years ago, the sport relied almost entirely on imported racehorses, mainly from England and Ireland, right upto the first quarter of this century. Organized breeding activities on a commercial scale commenced only in the 20s, with the foundation stallions and broodmares being recruited chiefly from among the ranks of retired racehorses. There were no significant foreign exchange restrictions on import of horses into India either for racing and breeding during the British Raj.
Even after India attained independence in 1947, imports continued withoutany need for a licence until 1958. It must be remembered that only about 20 per cent of the races run were open to foreign participation, so Indian horses were well catered for. From that year, a system of import licencing was introduced and extremely limited numbers of racehorses as well as breeding stock were imported under this scheme until 1977. Due to a heavy increase in Customs Duty on horses, the breeders' representative association, National Horse Breeding Society of India, negotiated a revised scheme with the Government of India in 1977, whereby Customs Duty on breeding stock would be levied at a concessional rate, provided import of racing stock was discontinued.
Despite the liberalisation initiated in 1991, this scheme continues to this day. A brief spell of relaxation in 1994/95, when import of horses was moved from the negative list to the SIL list must have ruffled the feathers of some vested interests, as the lock was soon placed on the door. This writer was part of a delegation thatapproached P Chidambaram, the then Commerce Minister, in May 1995 with a request not to turn the clock back. All that he would allow was that the reversal was ``done for certain reasons'' and that the gates would be re-opened in ``two or three years.'' Well, here we are in 1999, and the latest import policy continues to require licensing. When those who produce goods other than horses are permitted to import virtually any kind of plant, machinery or equipment as capital goods, is it not discrimination to deny this facility to horse breeders, for whom broodmares and stallions constitute ``plant & equipment?'' After all, we are not talking here about sacred cows like motor vehicles or beef tallow!
Agatha Christie would have been hard put to devise a more complicated `plot' than that which prevails for the manner in which licences are applied for and granted. First, a horse breeder must register a stud farm with the Ministry of Agriculture and wait for 3 years. Then apply to the Director General of ForeignTrade through the State Director of Animal Husbandry, which will depute a representative to inspect the farm. Then an inter-departmental meeting between the agriculture and commerce ministries is held. Despite numerous representations that decisions be made early in each financial year, such meetings are rarely held before October or November, by which time international sales of bloodstock are in full swing and many potential bargains have been missed. Several rounds of paperwork follow before the actual licence is in hand, the letter of credit established and -- at last -- the import effected.
A potentially vast export market in the UAE, Bahrain, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Macau, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and even mainland China exists. Except in the last-named country, conditions do not permit good quality equine breeding, and hence they are virtually permanent importers of horses. How can Indian breeders produce the requisite quality if they are so tied up in strings by their own Government?
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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This story was printed from Net Express located at http://www.expressindia.com. Net Express provides a portal to India, with news from The Indian Express and The Financial Express along with sites on travel and tourism, the entertainment industry, the power sector, the environment and much more.
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