Panel to draw up plan for chemical industry

The decision was taken at a meeting of captains of the industry convened by the Union minister for chemicals and fertilisers, SS Barnala in the capital on Tuesday.

It was also decided to set up a joint team comprising government officials and members of the industry to have a look at the functioning of the existing chemical industrial estates and propose appropriate sites for setting up new estates which would provide common facilities.

A large number of participants expressed concern about thegrowing trend of dumping of products by foreign companies and called for simplification of procedures for dealing with such cases. They also felt that customs tariff needed a fresh look and that the tariff structure needed to be rationalised.

Industry representatives made a strong plea for inter-ministerial coordination for sorting out various problems confronting the industry like, availability of feedstocks at international prices, tariffs, duties and fiscal incentives. None of the industry representatives objected to the idea of dereservation of SSI norms for certain chemical and petrochemical products as mentioned in the agenda papers.

The need for organisation of an international exhibition also came up for discussion. It was decided that the industry would take the lead in organising an exhibition which would be held on fixed dates every in a year and could come on the international calender. It was recognised that such an exhibition would project the developing Indian chemicals and petrochemicalindustry, provide a forum for buyer-seller meet and help in boosting Indian exports.

The meeting focussed on the challenges before the chemical and petrolechemical industry in the next millenium.’

In his inaugural speech, Barnala called upon the industry to prepare itself for the new challenges it faced in view of the changing scenario due to liberalisation of the economy, control of licensing procedures, opening up of the domestic market, globalisation of the economy and lowering of customs tariffs. He stressed upon the need for improving the quality of products and adoption of the latest technologies, which are safe and user friendly.

He also emphasised the need for developing new processes which ensure chemical safety and do not cause environmental population. Barnala urged the industry to gear itself up fully to meet the challenges of the new millennium and assured the industry of all help from the government.

Summing up the discussions, secretary, department of chemicals and petrochemicals,Deepak Chatterjee felt that the challenge before the industry was to become globally competitive and capture a larger share of the world market.

In his valedictory address, the Union minister of state for chemical and fertilisers, A K Patel expressed the hope that decisions taken at the meeting would be implemented at the earliest. He called upon the secretary, chemicals and petrochemicals to ensure this through regular reviews.