New Delhi [India], Jan. 18 : We want to make India an electronic-manufacturing hub, Union Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Wednesday, while detailing to the media the key decisions he took in a meeting with Union Finace Minister Arun Jaitley.
Prasad said, "We have as many as 108 crore mobile phones in the country and we had requested Arun Jaitley ji that they should be manufactured in India only.
And as it is there is zero duty in India for it due to international obligations. We had also been given duty differential." "In the last one-and-a-half years, as many as 42 mobile manufacturing companies have entered the market.
And 30 component manufacturing companies have also come. Proposals worth Rs. 26,000 crore have come and the best companies of the world like LG, Bosch Automatic and Samsung among others have also entered the Indian market.
Throughout this process, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have been very cooperative," he added.
Further detailing the crucial changes that have been brought in the MCF scheme, Prasad said, "We have modified the MCF scheme in terms of the incentives that are being given.
We have made changes to the amount of incentives given to electronics manufacturing companies. Firstly, we will accept proposals till March 18 and will allow incentives upto Rs. 10,000 crore." "If the investment is worth more than Rs. 6,000 crore, then a high-power commitee, headed by the Cabinet Secretary, will approve it. The companies seeking modified incentives can get approval till five years from the date of start of production," he added.
These changes have been brought as Prasad said the government is making an 'extraordinary effort in minimising governance loaded with redundant laws'.
Prasad also quipped that the government looks to give employment to over three crore people with the modifications.
"Through this, we have estimated, that there will be a roll-over investment of 150 billion dollar i.e.
Rs. 8.5 lakh crore. In the field of manufacturing hardware, it will be USD 500 billion dollar which makes Rs. 35 lakh crore. That means there will be employment opportunity generated for more than three crore people," he said. Commenting on the recently held 'Digi-dhan' melas, organised to to promote digital payments in the country, Prasad said, "The 'Digi-dhan melas' were held at 24 places in India in which many people came and learnt the dynamics of digital payments.
And under the 'Lucky Graahak Yojana', we have awarded 3,81,687 consumers and 21,000 merchants." Earlier, the Centre had said that they expect the electronics manufacturing market to reach USD 400 billion by 2020 and that it will focus on electronics manufacturing and plans to set up electronics clusters in 400 towns and cities across India.
Source: ANI
