PM Manmohan Singh Will Meet The Industry Leaders - March 25, 2009

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will meet the industry leaders on March 28 to review the economic situation amid India Inc urging the government to seek poll panel waiver for key infrastructure projects. The Prime Minister, who is likely to seek their suggestions for restoring the growth momentum witnessed in the past four years, corporate sources said, has invited the heads of FICCI along with Assocham and CII and other industry leaders.

With Lok Sabha polls due in April, the government is onstrained by the Code of Conduct of the election Commission to implement projects involving expenditure from the exchequer.

Economic Woes To Persist In Next Fiscal - Jan 19, 2009

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the country through the next fiscal will have to live with economic woes because the policy measures of the government cannot fully insulate the domestic economy from the impact of the global downturn. "Growth in the current year will be lower than the last year and our problems will not be over in the current year. The difficult period will continue into 2009-10", Singh said at a function in Mumbai.

However, the Prime Minister said that the easing of inflation has given monetary flexibility to deal with the difficult economic environment. Fortunately the rate of inflation has eased considerably and is now 5.2 per cent and is expected to decline further. This gives ample flexibility for monetary policy. He said that next year as well the government would have to continue with the supporting the environment.

However, the Prime Minister said that in the wake of the growing fiscal deficit, the government has limited space for providing more tax cuts even though it (the government) has to "tolerate" it for the next year to accommodate the expenditure needed for stimulating the economy. The Prime Minister said estimates of GDP growth for the current fiscal vary between 6.5 and 7 per cent.

He also added "Our government has also taken a number of steps to counter the global downturn. We are encouraging the banks, especially the public sector banks, to lend more freely to help otherwise viable production units to cope with the temporary stress of the economic downturn,". The government and the Reserve Bank have announced measures including interest rate cuts and across-the-board reduction in excise duty to boost demand. Besides this, the exporters as well as the small-scale industries have been given packages - fiscal and monetary.

Sales Tax Cut On Fuel - June 6, 2008

Four states played good samaritan to people suffering from a hike in fuel prices by slashing taxes that made petroleum products a tad cheaper, even as the Prime Minister asked his colleagues to avoid foreign travel and cut back on spending.Delhi, Bihar and Tamil Nadu today followed West Bengal''s example and announced cut in sales tax on fuel sales to cushion the impact of yesterday''s steep price hike on users.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi and the BJP also separately asked chief ministers of states ruled by their respective parties to cut sales tax on petroleum products.Petrol and diesel prices were yesterday hiked by Rs 5 and 3 a litre, respectively, and cooking gas by Rs 50 a cylinder, a decision that was marked by protests and shutdown in Left- ruled states of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura today.Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who appealed to states to forego a part of their revenues from petro products, today wrote to his colleagues, asking them to take austerity steps.

The appeal was followed by cut in sales tax on LPG by the Congress-ruled Delhi government, on diesel by DMK-ruled Tamil Nadu and on petrol and diesel by the NDA government in Bihar. The Left-ruled West Bengal government has already slashed sales tax on petrol and diesel by up to five per cent giving a relief of Rs 2.12 and Rs 1.38 a litre on the two fuels respectively. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati threatened to launch an agitation against the price hike, saying tax cut by states was not a permanent solution.

PM Asks India Inc To Look At China

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked the domestic industry to look at China and to learn to both compete and cooperate even as India Inc sought his intervention for early removal of trade and non-trade barriers to reverse the adverse trade deficit which touched a record $8.6 billion last year.

Urging Indian business to think big, the Prime Minister asked the industry leaders to study China and to identify opportunities for business and greater engagement, stressing that their was enough space in the world for both countries to continue to grow. At a time when there are concerns about a global economic slowdown, China and India can sustain global growth through their own development, Singh said. Singh observed that a large part of the thinking in India about China is shaped by western views of China, and that there is need for greater investment in India in a better understanding of the processes of change in China. CII President Sunil Bharti Mittal said the industry leaders raised the issue of certain trade-related barriers faced by sectors like pharmaceutical industry on issues like generic product registration in China. The business leaders told Singh that they had overcome fears about Chinese imports but there were still areas of concern like very low-priced products from China which were creating problems for Indian industry. The Indian industry''s concerns come against the backdrop of the burgeoning trade surplus to the tune of $9 billion in China''s favour in the bilateral trade which has touched $38.6 billion in 2007, just short of the target of $40 billion by 2010.