The Finance Minister of India, Nirmala Sitharaman in a statement on Tuesday elucidated that the government has not increased custom duty on components or intermediary items. She particularly talked about the startups in the semiconductor or allied sectors that make use of these components or intermediary items as their primary input. She further went on to explain how the government visited the duty structure at an interaction with citizens on the Atma Nirbhar Economy which the BJP Karnataka unit had organized in Bengaluru. Let’s find out more.
The Accusations of Price Hike of Components
Recently, some of the startups, in particular, those in the semiconductor and the related sectors have shown concerns that some critical components that they use as inputs will now become expensive. Denying all these suggestions the finance minister explained that the idea of the Atma Nirbhar campaign is not to make goods produced using imported components more expensive. She added that the government cannot make it expensive and that the guiding principle of the Atma Nirbhar campaign is to build capacities in India, scale-up production and make imports costlier of those products that are made and available in India. Sitharaman talked about the accusation she faced after the recent union budget which claimed that she has hiked customs duties on some products because of which they have become costly. Justifying these accusations, the finance minister stated that wherever duties have gone up, the government has done it consciously only in cases where those products are available locally. Moreover, the government had very carefully applied its mind wherever it has changed the customs duty structure. Bringing in the production linked incentive (PLI) schemes in the context, she informed that the government has identified 14 sectors as champion sectors. She added that the said incentives are necessary to provide enough ground for people to come out of China and invest in India. Furthermore, the PLI applies to areas where India has good advantages which includes sectors that are scalable, the products of which have a demand and market in India, and where jobs can be added. The finance minister added that the government is working on bringing in newer areas where the future lies within the PLI ambit.
