India cuts duty & port clearance time to counter Corona effect |
India will soon be announcing a set of measures to tackle possible disruption in supply of drugs and other manufactured goods due to the coronavirus outbreak in China. The solutions may include a reduction in customs duty on some essential inputs, apart from speeding up port clearances. On Tuesday, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman met industry players and instructed her team of officers to discuss the issues with ministries concerned for a brainstorming on Wednesday. Sitharaman said that the issues raised will be informed to other departments as well and then they will apply their mind and come back on wednesday afternoon to find out possible solutions, post which they can have a discussion with the Prime Minister`s Office. The Finance minister also said, “Speedily, some response will be announced at the earliest,” to tackle supply disruptions due to the coronavirus scare. She said this after meeting representatives from around 20 industries which do business with China. The government would look at suggestions to airlift some inputs and raw material used for manufacturing life-saving medicines and reduce duties to offset the impact of higher transportation cost. There were indications that some announcements to address the concerns will come over the next few days.
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