Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday expressed confidence over India’s attractiveness as an investment destination amidst slowing global growth. She also underlined that Atmanirbhar Bharat is not a protectionist measure but is aimed at promoting Indian manufacturing.
“Atmanirbhar Bharat should not be misunderstood as a protectionist measure. It is protectionist to the extent that if you have consumer goods, which are final products and are manufactured in India, I need to save those units that are producing in India,” she said, while addressing the Raisina Dialogue 2023. Raw materials and intermediary goods for manufacturing will continue to be imported.
Noting that toys are the best example of this initiative, she pointed out that India is today an exporter of toys from being a huge importer some years back. This also provides jobs and takes the ‘Make in India
“We are reviewing the situation item-wise and only then we are levying the duty. It is not protective in that sense,” she said. The policy was announced in 2020 during the pandemic as a reform measure to ensure the country’s forex is spent for imports that are required as raw materials for manufacturing or as intermediary goods and to encourage domestic manufacturing. While imports of these items will continue, goods which are flooding the market, for which there are enough domestic producers will be discouraged.
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“We wanted to ensure that Atmanirbhar Bharat is more towards encouraging manufacturing in India, s services in India and therefore ….are not levied on goods which are required for these activities. But of course, stop goods which are flooding the market, for which we have enough producers. Atmanirbhar Bharat should not be misunderstood as a protectionist measures,” she stressed.
The minister also highlighted India’s attractiveness as an investment destination noting that the country has the “right combination of things which matter for a growing economy”. This includes well trained youth, a middle class, which provides a captive market and has purchasing power, public infrastructure in the digital world, rule of law and respect for business.
“There is more and more facilitation for business to feel at ease to do their work,” she said, adding that states are also working to attract investments. “Many are getting into the race of saying ‘is my state attractive enough? Are we alluring enough investments,’” she noted.
Speaking on the G-20, she said India is being the voice of the global south. She highlighted that issues relating to debt and debt-related stress of small economies were taken with all seriousness and there wasn’t any difference of opinion on the issue at the recently held G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) meeting.
Govt not in ‘crazy rush’ to sell everything: FM
The government is not in a “crazy rush” to sell everything and it will continue to have a presence in four strategic sectors, including telecom, the finance minister said on Saturday. In strategic sectors, a bare minimum presence of the existing public sector commercial enterprises at the holding company level will be retained under government control.
The remaining enterprises in a strategic sector will be considered for privatisation or merger with another PSE or for closure.
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Speaking at the Raisina Dialogue, the minister said the country will have government-owned professionally-run companies in four broad strategic sectors. As per the PSE Policy, the four broad strategic sectors are — atomic energy, space and defence; transport and telecommunication; power, petroleum, coal and other minerals; and banking, insurance and financial services.
The G-20 finance ministers’ track and later the foreign ministers couldn’t come out with a communique as there wasn’t unanimity on issues relating to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, she said, adding that a communique is released only when all issues are agreed upon by all of them.
“Except for one issue, the finance ministers track had about 17 paragraphs, 15 of them were agreed to,” she said.