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| Wednesday, 25 August 2004 |
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India-lanka discuss issues on textile and cement Trade, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle said that the benefit of tariff concessions of cement imported from India should be passed on to the consumer. He expressed these views when he met the Indian Commerce Ministry delegation led by Special Secretary S.N. Menon who visited Sri Lanka to have discussions on FTA and CEPA recently. Minister Fernandopulle said that local consumers pay high retail prices for Indian made cement imported at concessionary duty rates. Discussions focused on the issues such as bilateral co-operation in facing the challenges of post MFA era and possibilities of reducing the current retail price of cement. Menon told the minister that the Indian Government is fully aware of the problems that Sri Lanka will have to face with the expiry of MFA and added that actions being taken to organise a workshop in India soon exclusively for India and Sri Lanka with the objective of identifying areas of co-operation and the possibility of integrating the textile sectors of both countries. Minister Fernandopulle said that since a substantial quantity of cement is imported from India at a very low import duty under the ISFTA, the benefit of tariff concessions should be passed on to consumers. The Indian delegation agreed that with the tariff concessions cement imported from India should be made available to the consumers at a lower price than the cement imported from other sources. S. Wirithamulla, Secretary to the Ministry and Director General of Commerce K.J. Weerasinghe were also present. |
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