Centre to cut imports of non-essential items to raise domestic production

The government is undertaking an exercise to cut imports of non-essential goods with a view to enhancing domestic production of those items, an official said on Wednesday.

Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal said that the commerce ministry has provided product-wise import figures to all the ministries.

"We are asking the different ministries that they should analyse that data and they should look at data from the angle that which imports are essential and which are non-essential," he told reporters here.

The ministries would look at issues like if those goods are being manufactured in India and if there is sufficient capacity for those products.

"If there is a sufficient capacity within the country and still it is being imported, then we are trying to educate that it can be substituted by the domestic manufactured product," he said.

"What we are saying is that if our domestic maker is capable of producing the same kind of quality with the same price then obviously that should be ...