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| Sunday, 17 August 2003 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Plan to rescue copper wiredrawing plants In the aftermath of the banning of copper wires made of imported chips and profiles being exported to India due to a value addition problem, the Department of Commerce has planned a transactional scheme to rescue existing wire drawing plants by adding further value to their products to meet the 35 per cent domestic value addition criteria specified under the Indo-Lanka Free Trade Agreement. The scheme that came up under the directions of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Ravi Karunanayake proposes a further step of value addition by manufacturing insulated copper wires, PVC-coated copper wires and stranded wires and cables with a minimum of six strands, a Ministry news release said. Wire drawing firms registered before April 7, 2003 will be eligible for the scheme and they have to show 35 per cent value addition on FOB Colombo, from the floor value of US$ 1600 per Mt of copper raw materials in CIF Colombo to obtain country of origin certificates from Sri Lanka. The government had stopped issuing country of origin certificates to copper exports to India except for those made out of imported scraps from July 7, due to serious concerns from the Indian government that the wiredrawing process in Sri Lanka does not meet the 35 per cent value addition requirement. This situation was critical for existing wiredrawing firms, which were mostly BoI-registered Indian companies that came here for the sole purpose of obtaining duty-free concessions under the FTA, the release said. Minister Karunanayake in a meeting with the officials of the Commerce Department has expressed concern about rescuing these plants, as they employ hundreds of people; mostly unskilled labourers. |
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