Govt earmarks Rs 1,400 cr for DMIC project in 2016-17 Budget

The government has earmarked Rs 1,400 crore for development of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) in the Budget for 2016-17.

However, in case of Amritsar-Kolkata Industrial Corridor (AKIC) project, a token amount of Rs 3 crore has been set aside by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

The DMIC project has been planned as a global manufacturing and investment destination around the high speed 1,483 km length of western dedicated freight corridor of the railways as the backbone.

The project envisaged to provide modern infrastructure through smart futuristic and sustainable industrial cities across six states including Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Similarly, the AKIC has been proposed to give a boost to industrial development in the densely populated states of northern and eastern India.

Further for the 'Make in India' initiative, the government has alloted Rs 324.35 crore in the Budget 2016-17.

As a whole, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), the allocation has been raised to Rs 3,026.55 crore from Rs 2,435.75 crore in the revised estimates of 2015-16.

According to the Budget document, the Department of Commerce will get Rs 4,362.8 crore next fiscal, marginally higher than Rs 4,338.65 crore in revised estimates for 2015-16.

It has earmaked Rs 725 crore for various export promotion schemes; Rs 1,200 crore towards duty drawback scheme and Rs 1,000 crore for interest subsidy scheme.

These allocations assume significance as exports are in negative zone since December 2014.

Jaitley in his Budget speech yesterday said that more support will be provided to exporters to give a boost to overseas shipments.

Under the duty drawback scheme, the government refunds duties on imported inputs for export items.

Exports dipped for the 14th month in a row, down 13.6 percent in January to USD 21 billion due to fall in shipments of petroleum and engineering goods, although trade deficit showed improvement.