India’s manufacturing ambitions will remain unrealised unless its MSMEs are allowed to compete on a level playing field, said Mr Praveen Khandelwal, Member of Parliament and Secretary General, Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), asserting that the downstream aluminium sector holds significant untapped potential for employment generation, export growth and domestic value addition.
Mr Khandelwal said that policy must enable MSMEs to access industrial inputs at globally competitive prices, adding that a fair and rationalised duty structure on primary aluminium is essential to strengthening the entire manufacturing ecosystem from raw material to finished product rather than protecting any single segment of the value chain.
Echoing this position, India’s leading downstream aluminium associations came together to appeal to the Government of India to create a level playing field for the sector, in line with the roadmap laid out in the Aluminium Vision Document.
“The downstream aluminium industry is the backbone of India’s MSME manufacturing base, yet it continues to operate under a duty structure that works against its competitiveness. We urge the government to implement the recommendations of the Aluminium Vision Document and rationalise the Basic Customs Duty on primary aluminium and aluminium scrap so that our members can compete on equal footing, both domestically and globally,” said Mr Naveen Pant, Secretary, Aluminium Secondary Manufacturers Association (ASMA).