India Inc wants time-bound reforms in labour, administration, FDI and fiscal regulations, it has told the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council (NMCC) at its last meeting held on August 11.The NMCC is aiming for a 12 per cent growth rate for manufacturing by 2012, as outlined in its draft paper on National Strategy for Manufacturing. It last met on Thursday to determine what India Inc believes will facilitate competition in the manufacturing sector.Members of the high-profile NMCC, headed by former SAIL Chairman V. Krishnamurthy, include Shekhar Chaudhuri, Director, IIM Calcutta, M.S. Ananth, Director, IIT Madras, economists Bibek Debroy and Isher Judge Ahluwalia, Ratan Tata, Venu Srinivasan, Y.C. Deveshwar, Jamshed Godrej, Surendra Kapoor and the industry chambers Ficci, CII and Assocham.All members presented their views separately to the council, but converged on a common overarching agenda: Make reforms speedy and time-bound and back policy up with actual implementation.‘‘Given the constraints faced by Indian manufacturing, this (12 per cent) growth rate can be achieved only by providing a time dimension to reforms,’’ said Ficci President Onkar S. Kanwar in his presentation to the NMCC.The NMCC, which itself distributed copies of the strategy paper to its members, was in turn presented with a three-stage reform process across sectors that can push reforms through in a couple of years flat.The actual suggestions worded by Ficci include a three-stage labour reform starting with a pilot project where SEZs, export oriented units (EOUs) and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are allowed to hire contract labour to stay competitive despite China’s ultra-flexible labour laws. In later phases, the contract labour can be extended to cover all SMEs in all industries.On tax reforms, NMCC has been presented with making all indirect taxes, including state and local levies becoming countervailable. In the second phase, VAT rates can be harmonised across states and all state and local levies withdrawn — including Central Sales Tax, Entry Tax, Octroi, Transportation Tax, etc.
