Government to soon announce measures to deal with coronavirus impact on industry: FM Nirmala Sitharaman

The government on Monday allayed fears of price rise in commodities, which are facing the heat of the coronavirus outbreak in China and said measures to deal with the situation will be announced shortly after discussing the issue with the Prime Minister's office (PMO).

“We have met pharma, telecom, mobile, metal, health and automobile sectors among others but none of them have flagged price worries,” said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman after her meeting with over a dozen industrial sectors, in which export bodies and officials from the ministry of commerce also participated.

She, however, said that the some essential raw materials will have to be obtained and the government will have to act speedily. But there were no reports of shortage of medicines or medical equipment.

The minister said pharma, solar and chemical industries did flag issues of disruption in supplies from China.

The sectors, which are expected to be hugely impacted are automobile and pharmaceuticals.

Industry sources, however, said that they have sought import duty cut on goods that were being imported from China to help them source such goods from other countries.

Industry bodies Ficci, CII and Assocham were present in the meeting.

To a question on whether the virus impact could slow the Make in India and thereby the economy as whole, she said, it was too early to assess the impact of coronovirus on the economy.

According to a CII report China accounts for 45% of India's total electronics imports. Besides, one-third of machinery and almost two-fifths of organic chemicals that the country purchases from the globe, come from China. Automotive parts and fertilizers are other items where China's share in India's imports are more than 25%.

India also sources about 65-70% of active pharmaceutical ingredients and close to 90% of certain mobile phone parts from China.