CHENNAI, Feb 10: The Indian Society of Lighting Engineers (ISLE) on Saturday urged the Union Government to hike the import duty for all lighting products, while demanding a ban on import of Chinese products to make the Make in India initiative a reality.
In a statement here, ISLE President Dilip Khumbat said “in order to ensure that Make in India becomes a reality with increased job opportunities, the import duty should be hiked for all lighting products, including SKD (Semi-Knocked-Down) imports, except for the LED chip”.
He also urged the central government to support the survival of domestic MSMEs of lighting and allied industries.
Mr Khumbat said small manufacturers of the light fitting were suffering in the hands of big traders and major branded manufacturers, who were now importing LED luminaires at a very cheap rate, thereby killing the development of local expertise and Make-in-India concept.
”Except for the LED chips per se, we can manufacture all the other components in a better way in India. The government should pay attention to this fact and hike the import duty similar to the increased rate for LCD and LED display panels for TV”, Mr Dilip Khumbat said.
“Ease of doing business is a promise and commitment of the Government and they have been trying various measures in this direction’, he added.
However, the small industries were unable to withstand the stress and torture of the Inspector Raj. It continues till date and more aggressively because many small industries were shut down, unable to compete with the traders who import and sell and high end manufacturers who make bulk imports with OEM tie up with Chinese companies.
”Ban on Chinese products import will make `Make-in-India’ initiative a reality. It is very convenient to import and sell since they have to face only the customs clearance work as against the MSME industries that have to deal with numerous statutory requirements”, he said.
”For MSME manufacturers not a day passes without meeting an inspector from one department or other. In fact, their productivity time is mainly spent in the unproductive meetings with these inspectors instead of finding solutions for efficient running of their industry,” he said. (AGENCIES)
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