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GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY (DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE) RAJYA SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 221 TO BE ANSWERED ON 02nd JANUARY,2019 IMPORT DEALS FOR SUPPLY OF PULSES *221. SHRI ANUBHAV MOHANTY: Will the Minister of COMMERCE & INDUSTRY be pleased to state: (a) whether the soaring price of pulses during the year, 2016 resulted in the increase of acreage on the back of incentivisation by a higher Minimum Support Price (MSP) with technical intervention to ensure higher domestic production; (b) whether those statistics pointing to over supply were completely ignored by Government and signed long-term import deals with other countries; (c) whether for the first time this year, Government has allowed the miller, as opposed to the traders, to import pulses; and (d) if so, what was the reason that necessitated Government to take such a decision for the first time? ANSWER okf.kT; ,oa m|ksx ea=h ¼ Jh lqjs”k izHkq ½ THE MINISTER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY (SHRI SURESH PRABHU) a) to d): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House. ***** STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) to (d) OF RAJYA SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 221 FOR ANSWER ON 02ND JANUARY, 2019 REGARDING “IMPORT DEALS FOR SUPPLY OF PULSES”. (a) & (b): India is the largest producer and consumer of pulses in the world. During the year 2015-16, despite efforts made by the Government to enhance production of pulses, the domestic production of Kharif pulses was lower by 5%-10% and the acreage of Rabi pulses was also lower by 2.4%. Consequently, domestic production had fallen short of the domestic demand in the year 2016. Further, the demand of pulses had been steadily increasing over the years from 21.77 Million Tons in 2013-14 to 24.61 Million Tons in 2016-17. Thus, deficit between domestic consumption and domestic production of pulses pushed up the domestic prices. The statistics did not indicate any oversupply when the government signed long-term contract with Mozambique for import of pulses in 2016. The gap between demand and supply led to strategy for increasing production as well as productivity of pulses through National Food Security Mission- Pulses & through higher MSP & procurement by government agencies. (c) & (d): Based on the recommendation of the inter-Ministerial Committee, it was decided that only millers/refiners should be allowed to participate in the process of import of pulses for the fiscal year 2018-19 to avoid market manipulation by traders. Accordingly, DGFT vide Trade Notice No.6/2018-19 dated 11.5.2018 laid down the modalities for such import. ***** GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY (DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE) RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2265 TO BE ANSWERED ON 02nd JANUARY,2019 CATEGORIZING SEZs UNDER INFRASTRUCTURE SECTOR 2265. DR. K. V. P. RAMACHANDRA RAO: Will the Minister of COMMERCE & INDUSTRY be pleased to state: (a) whether there is any proposal with Government to categorise Special Economic Zones (SEZs) under infrastructure sector; (b) if so, the details thereof; and (c) the contribution of SEZs in attracting foreign and domestic investments and their contributions in exports? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY (SHRI C. R. CHAUDHARY) (a) and (b): Sir, common infrastructure for Special Economic Zones (SEZs) under category social and commercial infrastructure has been treated as infrastructure. Further, a Group constituted to study the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Policy of India has recommended that infrastructure status may be extended to all components of the SEZ scheme. The recommendations of the Group are examined by way of Inter-Ministerial consultations. (c): The details of contribution of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) towards investment (foreign and domestic) and exports during the past two years and current financial year is as below: Financial Years Investment* Exports (Rs. in crore) (Rs. in crore) 2016-2017 4,23,189 5,23,637 2017-2018 4,74,917 5,81,033 2018-2019 4,92,312 3,33,661 (April to September, 2018) * calculated on cumulative basis. ***** GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY (DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE) RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2266 TO BE ANSWERED ON 02nd JANUARY,2019 BILATERAL TRADE AGREEMENTS WITH FOREIGN COUNTRIES 2266. SHRI C. M. RAMESH: Will the Minister of COMMERCE & INDUSTRY be pleased to state: (a) the details of countries with whom India have long term bilateral trade agreements; and (b) the bilateral trade agreements signed by India during PM's visit abroad during the last three years, the details thereof and the likely additional benefits India will get by signing such agreements? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY (SHRI C. R. CHAUDHARY) (a) The countries with which India has bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) and preferential trade agreements (PTAs), with the details thereof is at ‘Annexure 1’ (b) India has not signed any new bilateral free trade agreement or preferential trade agreement during the last three years. **** Annexure-1 Bilateral FTA’s already in force S. Name of the Agreement Date of Signing of the Date of Implementation of the Agreement Agreement No. 1 India - Sri Lanka FTA 28th December. 1998 1st March, 2000 2 India Nepal Treaty of Trade 27th October 2009 The Treaty has been extended for a further period of 7 years and is currently in force till 26th October 2023. 3 India - Bhutan Agreement on 17th January, 1972 Renewed periodically, with mutually agreed Trade Commerce and Transit modifications. Agreement dated 29th July 2006 was valid for 10 years. With mutual consent, the validity was extended for a period of one year or the period till the proposed new Agreement comes into force. The renewed Agreement has been signed on 12.11.2016 and came into force with effect from 29 July 2017. 4 India - Thailand FTA - Early 9th October, 2003. 1st September, 2004 Harvest Scheme (EHS) 5 India - Singapore CECA 29th June, 2005 1st August, 2005 6 India - South Korea CEPA 7th August 2009 1st January, 2010 7 India - Japan CEPA 16th February, 2011 1st August, 2011 8 India - Malaysia CECA 18th February, 2011 1st July, 2011 Bilateral PTAs already in force: Sl. Name of the Agreement Date of Signing of the Date of Implementation of the Agreement Agreement No. 1 India - Afghanistan 6th March, 2003 13th May, 2003 2 India - Chile 8th March, 2006 11th September, 2007. The agreement has been expanded on 6th September, 2016 and came into force w.e.f. 16th May, 2017. **** GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY (DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE) RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2268 TO BE ANSWERED ON 02nd JANUARY,2019 BENEFITS OF AGRICULTURAL EXPORT POLICY 2268. SARDAR SUKHDEV SINGH DHINDSA: Will the Minister of COMMERCE & INDUSTRY be pleased to state: (a) whether Government has chalked out any new Agricultural Trade Policy aimed at fixing farm export limits even during low supplies; and (b) if so, how the farmers and the country will be benefitted? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY (SHRI C. R. CHAUDHARY) (a) The new Agriculture Export Policy, while providing a stable policy regime for boosting exports of agricultural products, aims at identifying the commodities essential for food security of the country. Under extreme price/ low supply situations, a high-level committee would decide on putting export restrictions on such identified agricultural commodities. (b) It is expected that the assurance of stable export policy regime will encourage farmers to engage in export-oriented production and thereby increase the realization from their produce. ********** GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY (DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE) RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2269 TO BE ANSWERED ON 02nd JANUARY,2019 IMPACT OF CHINESE IMPORTS ON DOMESTIC PRODUCTION 2269. SHRI TIRUCHI SIVA: Will the Minister of COMMERCE & INDUSTRY be pleased to state: (a) whether it is a fact that Chinese imports have resulted in India cutting down its production or shutting down production completely in certain sectors; (b) if so, the details thereof; and (c) whether Government plans to take steps to monitor sub-standard Chinese imports and if so, the details thereof? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY (SHRI C. R. CHAUDHARY) (a) & (b): Production is based on domestic requirement and exports. Imports may impact the production of domestic industry in sectors where domestic industries are not competitive including the manufacturing sector. Government has been implementing various schemes/programmes to help the domestic industries compete effectively with imports. To promote the domestic manufacturing, schemes like ‘Make in India, ‘Digital India’, Software Technology Parks(STPs), Electronics Hardware Technology Park (EHTP) Scheme/ Export Oriented Unit (EOU) Scheme, Special Economic Zone Scheme (SEZ) etc. which provide support for promoting domestic manufacturing capacity in the country, are under implementation. (c):The Government takes necessary steps to prevent sub-standard imports through appropriate trade remedial measures such as anti-dumping duty, safeguard duty, technical regulations, quality control orders etc. Central Government has brought 136 products under compulsory BIS certification and 50 electronics, IT and Solar products under compulsory BIS registration through issuance of various Quality Control Orders (QCOs). ***** GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY (DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE) RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2271 TO BE ANSWERED ON 02nd JANUARY,2019 FINALISATION OF NEW AGRICULTURAL EXPORT POLICY 2271. SHRI K. SOMAPRASAD: Will the Minister of COMMERCE & INDUSTRY be pleased to state: (a) whether the Agricultural Export Po1icy, 2018 has been finalised; (b) whether Government is aware that certain agricultural products such as rubber, banana, cashew, pepper and cardamom are excluded from the Agricultural Export Policy, if so, the reasons therefor; and (c) whether any request from Government of Kerala has been received regarding the exclusion of the above products to be included in the district cluster, if so, the details thereof? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY (SHRI C.