CNCI wants cohesive industrial policy

The Ceylon National Chamber of Industries (CNCI) the pioneer industrial chamber in the country calls on the Government to introduce a cohesive industrial policy which will encourage domestic industries.

Newton Wickramasuriya

Chairman, CNCI, Newton Wickramasuriya said that the country needs a clear cut industrial policy which will neither change with change of governments nor with requests from various industries. The policy helps the domestic industrialists to attract more investments and thereby providing more employment opportunities. When industrialists try to encourage overseas investors on joint ventures, they first would want to study the industrial policy. But, sadly we don't have a cohesive policy whereas our closest neighbour India has.

The cohesive policy should be introduced after an extensive study to ensure that each and every industry is included. There were policy problems which would not have arisen with CEPA. In addition when a sector is saturated with a governing body such as the IDB which should be in a position to warn the new industrialists who venture into a saturated sector. In addition the governing body should prepare a list and distribute it among banks, finance companies and the public so that everybody is aware of its position. This will be of immense help to industrialists who they will know the exact position of the industry in which they are investing and also will be able to encourage to start new industries.

He wants the Government to provide relief to investments in plant and machinery so that the industries will become competitive globally while the government should also encourage the establishment of high tech heavy industries so that there will be opportunities for feeder industries to be built around these industries.

The chairman said that another major issue faced by industrialists is spending a lot of time and energy on unproductive work such as computation of taxes for which a huge staff is required. If a company could send a lump sum to the relevant authority such as a bank with a standing order and they send the relevant amounts to the Inland Revenue, EPF, ETF it will thus save a lot of time and energy which could be instead used for some productive work, he recommended.

The chamber feels that the cess has been introduced arbitrarily and calls on the Government to consult the Chambers on these matters.

He said that although the duty on raw materials because of several other taxes, the effective rate of taxation is around 34% which makes it difficult to compete internationally.

CNCI feels that tax holidays granted has not generated much benefits to the business enterprises. Therefore more emphasis should be laid on upgrading the technology so that productivity would be improved.

Wickramasuriya said that there are plenty of opportunities in the North and East but at present the lack of a proper transport service pose a problem for industrialists but once these are sorted out there will be reawakening of the area where the people are very enterprising.