In a tweet , 2 days back , Elon Musk had expressed
reservations re setting up of a EV manufacturing plant in India
He had presumed that such a plant would have to source , at least
30 % of the components locally – a condition , which he felt , was difficult to
comply with
Yesterday , DIPP
has clarified ( of course , in a “ tweet
“ for “ tweet “ fashion ! ) that , for setting up a local manufacturing plant ,
there is no such condition
What that tweet did not say :
Tesla is welcome to
import any and all the components that it wants to – of course , after paying
the applicable “ import
duty “ – like all other foreign car manufacturers who have set up manufacturing
operations in India , over the last 15 years
Now , ordinary
mortals like me felt that this “ omission “ was due to the 140 characters limitations of a tweet !
But who could have suspected that the REAL REASON for this
omission could have well been, today’s following announcement ?
“ GOVT READY TO OFFER APPLE , TAX SOPS IF IT MAKES MORE
IN INDIA “
Economic Times provides following highlights :
·
Government agrees with Apple that some of the components that go
into its products can’t be immediately manufactured in India
·
Govt has made a list of products
that can be imported duty
free till they are ready to be made locally
·
Govt has defined different
components that will be ready to be made locally over the next three, five or seven years
Eco Times quotes , Aruna Sundararajan , Sec , Ministry of Electronics
& IT as follows :
“ Apple’s road map is slightly different ( from ours
) and we are looking at harmonizing it
If they agree, then they don’t need any
special concessions because then they will be falling in line with our
manufacturing plan “
Govt has proposed to Apple , the following Phased Manufacturing Program ( PMP ) :
2017-18 :
Mechanics , Die-cast parts, Microphone
and Receiver , Key Pad and USB cable
2018-19 :
Populated Printed Circuit Boards, Camera Modules, and Connectors
2019-20 :
Display
Assembly, Touch Panels , Vibrator Motor and Ringer
Nothing revolutionary here to anyone who
applied for an Industrial Manufacturing License , around 1970 !
At that time , one was required to submit
a PMP , along with
the IL Application
And , even provide the figures of increasing “ local content ( by value )
“ in the selling price of the product proposed to be manufactured locally ( indigenization )
And even provide , figures of “ Anticipated Value “ of Import Licenses required
for each phase ! And provide figures for components imported and products made
/ sold , each year !
One only hopes that what Govt proposes to Apple is made “ public “ on DIPP web site so that there is ,
·
Total transparency
·
No ambiguity ( no scope
for arbitrariness / discretion )
·
Absolute clarity
And if an identical policy frame work is prepared – and made public on DIPP web site – in respect
of Electric Vehicles
, there would be no need for Elon
Musk to tweet ( his apprehensions ) , nor any need for a tweeted
response !
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear
Elon :
For immediate approval ( in 24 hours ) , pl submit your
PMP as follows :
2017-18
:
Set up factory next
to Mundra Port (
Gujarat ) to facilitate world-wide exports
2018-19 :
Source locally , Tyres / Chasis / Body / Electricals / Windows / Dashboards ..etc
2019-20 :
Manufacture in your own factory , Li-ion
Battery / Wall-mounted Powerpack Storages
/
Solar Roof Tiles
2020-21 :
Manufacture RFID Sensors - Cameras – GPS locators
2021-22 :
Augmented Reality Devices / Autonomous
Navigation Devices ( Radar – Lidar )
Now , it is very
possible that neither Shri Gadkariji , nor Shri Goyalji , would be satisfied with such a slow PMP
, spread out over a period of 5 years
They may , well request Elon
to cut it down to 3 years
And , if
they do, I get a feeling that Elon would telescope the entire PMP , in 2 YEARS !
After all , Elon is the
biggest proponent of :
24 May 2017
www.hemenparekh.in
/ blogs
No comments:
Post a Comment