Govt undertaking an exercise to cut imports of non-essential items

The government is undertaking an exercise to cut imports of non-essential goods with a view to enhancing domestic production of those items, an official said on Wednesday.

Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal said that the commerce ministry has provided product-wise import figures to all the ministries.

"We are asking the different ministries that they should analyse that data and they should look at data from the angle that which imports are essential and which are non-essential," he told reporters here.

The ministries would look at issues like if those goods are being manufactured in India and if there is sufficient capacity for those products.

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"If there is a sufficient capacity within the country and still it is being imported, then we are trying to educate that it can be substituted by the domestic manufactured product," he said.

"What we are saying is that if our domestic maker is capable of producing the same kind of quality with the same price then obviously that should be substituted," the secretary added.

He said that different ministries will look at how they can encourage those imports to get substituted by domestic production.

"We are also looking at import diversification..the exercise will help manufacturers," he added.

Containing these imports would also help reduce the trade deficit, which has reached Rs 20.5 lakh crore ($247.52 billion) during April-February 2022 as against Rs 14.29 lakh crore ($172.53 billion) in the same period last fiscal.

Imports during the 11-month period of the current fiscal increased by 18.82 per cent to Rs 54 lakh crore ($653.47 billion).