The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) in a communication sent to Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi today urged him to constitute a Group of Ministers (GoM) on the impact of Coronavirus on trade & industry and supply chain of the Country.
CAIT National President Mr. B C Bhartia & Secretary General Mr. Khandelwal in communication sent to Prime Minister said that during more than last one decade, China has made deep-rooted inroad into trade & small industry of India either by supplying finished goods or supplying raw material required by small industries or supplying spare parts for Assembling units in the Country for production of goods by assembling the spare parts. Large scale of imports from China for all such items is ample testimony of the above fact. Unfortunately, having easy and cheap imports from China, the importers in India did not explore any other substantial alternative source from other Countries.
Both Mr. Bhartia & Mr. Khandelwal said that at this crucial juncture when Industries and people are locked down in China and all exports have been completely stopped, it is apprehended that it may cause substantial disruption in supply Chain of our Country and accordingly the CAIT has urged the Prime Minister to form a Group of Ministers which may look into all aspects to ensure uninterrupted supply chain and assessing the need of required facilitation for immediate expansion of production capacity or usage of spare capacity to optimum level of small Industries in the Country.
The CAIT has further said that like India, large number of other Countries in the World also largely dependent upon China for sourcing of goods. In this context, we also request you to explore the possibilities to make India as an alternate hub by encouraging more and more people to set up production facilities in India under Make in India program.
Both Mr. Bhartia & Mr. Khandelwal has suggested that at the first instance, the GoM should examine as to whether import of goods from China or Chinese goods imports from other Countries poses any threat to health of Indian citizens and if so, remedial steps should be taken to ensure no entry of such imports into India by any means including e commerce. Immediate steps are needed to provide a package to Indian traders and small industries to strengthen their production capacity so that flow of supply chain should not be disturbed. Under long term measures, the Government should also carve out ways and means to ensure that over dependence on any Country should not happen as it will cripple our economy. The CAIT has assured full support of business community of the Country comprising of 7 crore small businesses in India.
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