NEW DELHI: Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Wednesday announced that the Centre would work on drawing up a fresh agenda for stepping up the manufacturing sector growth rate from the current nine per cent to 12 per cent on the basis of suggestions and feedback received from the apex chambers of industry.

Briefing newspersons on the outcome of the detailed interaction with the apex chambers and industry leaders, Mr. Chidambaram said industry was of the view that a higher growth rate could certainly be achieved, provided certain major irritants and bottlenecks were removed to create a conducive environment.

In this regard, four apex chambers made presentations to highlight the problems, while providing suggestions to resolve them. These suggestions, Mr. Chidambaram said, would be examined by the Government closely to work out to see how best they could be implemented.

The "interesting" suggestions, Mr. Chidambaram said, pertained to a wide variety of issues such as flexibility in labour laws, power deficiency problems, irritants in the mineral and mining policy, self-certification by industry to curb `Inspector Raj,' the setting up of a national fund for acquiring high technology, incentives for industrial clusters and higher gross capital formation in infrastructure.

Despite various legislations, industry lamented that the manufacturing sector continued to be hamstrung by inadequate availability of power. The problems in the power sector — the engine for manufacturing — pertained to hassles of independent power producers, captive power, wheeling charges, high State taxes on power trading and payment securitisation.

On the labour front, industry argued for ushering in flexibility in the existing laws. On the lines of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, industry noted that enterprises would ensure 100 days of employment to a worker, provided the labour laws were made flexible.

Another major constraint, industry representatives pointed out, was the lack of availability of minerals at competitive prices. To tide over the problem, the chambers suggested reforms in mining laws to make them investor-friendly. Mr. Chidambaram said that another grouse of industry was the fact that de-blocking of coalmines was not taking place to enable captive mining. It also wanted single-window clearances for projects instead of the multiple approvals required currently.

Industry, Mr. Chidambaram said, also sought incentivisation for the development of industrial clusters, especially in footwear and apparel, and these would be different from the concept of special economic zones. Also, for eliminating `Inspector Raj,' industry suggested the concept of self-certification by entrepreneurs instead of relying on inspection by officials.

For easy access to high technology, industry leaders suggested the creation of a national fund which would aid in acquiring sophisticated knowhow to help domestic manufacturing companies to leapfrog into generation next. Although the Planning Commission, the Finance Minister said, was of the opinion that gross capital formation in infrastructure should be stepped up from 4.7 per cent to seven per cent, the industry felt that it should be at nine per cent. "This requires massive investment by the public sector,'' Mr. Chidambaram said, while noting that the issue would be discussed further with the Planning Commission.

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