Indian IT, Biotech and pharma industries will not be impacted by to Donald Trump’s policies as the US is expected to continue “the commerce-related attitude” towards the country, according to union minister for chemicals and fertilizers H N Ananth Kumar.
“Prime minister Narendra Modi has already had a telephonic conversation with the US president (Trump). As per the relations we have been having with the US, I don’t think there will be any change in the attitude of the US in terms of commerce-related issues. I also don’t think, there will be any problem for the Indian IT, BT and pharmaceutical industries,” Kumar said.
He was replying to a query on Trump’s policy of protectionism at a news conference to announce the “Indian Pharma” and “India Medical Devices-2017” international conference scheduled to be held in Bengaluru from February 11 to 13.
Some of the key Indian companies have been sceptical about Trump’s stress on protectionism, including the IT industry. IT industry body Nasscom has been wary about Trump’s statement on visa-related issues.
Trump had said one of his first executive orders would be to order investigation into all visa abuses, which industry watchers say could mean facing of tough scrutiny under his administration by foreigner workers, including Indians.
Asked about his Ministry’s Budget wishlist, Kumar said: “The proposal is that inverted taxes for both pharma and chemicals and petrochemicals industries should be rectified.”
Under inverted tax structure, duties on finished goods are lower than the import duty on raw materials.
However, in the last two years, as many as 76 drug and formulations suffering from inverted duties have been rationalized.
“This year too, wherever such a situation arose, I have brought to finance minister Arun Jaitley’s notice,” Kumar said.
