Commerce minister Piyush Goyal on July 30 came down heavily on domestic industry for their lack of ideas and initiatives on a range of policies by the government, including ease of doing business and Make in India.

Ironically, speaking at an event organised by apex industry body Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Goyal said, "When I appeal to you that one person can you use a (made-in-India) product by another person, you say you can save if you import that same product. Are you even worried about India's foreign exchange? Foreign exchange is not your responsibility! It is the RBI's and government's responsibility!"

Goyal also criticised the industry for not actively taking part in committees tasked to design and fine-tune government policies such as the production-linked incentive scheme (PLI).

"PLI scheme came out of a SCALE committee (Steering Committee on Advancing Local value-add and Exports). Pawan Goenka headed it. I want to know which industry partners of CII attended and took part in the SCALE committee meetings or recommendations actively. FICCI and Assocham were never part of these meetings. So, it is important you make up your mind. You tell us how do we initiate change?"

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Pawan Goenka, IN-SPACe chairman and former chief executive officer of Mahindra & Mahindra used to head the SCALE committee and played a key role in designing the PLI scheme.

The commerce minister urged the industry to be more demanding and active in aiding policies that are being envisaged and implemented by the government.

He further pointed out the low levels of participation from the industry to help improve policies around Ease of Doing Business (EODB) and National Single-window System (NSWS). The minister also asked industry to step up on ideas to help reduce the compliance burden of businesses.

The minister added that Indian industry's resistance on tax concessions for goods sent to partner nations could hinder the country's ability to clinch key trade pacts with the likes of United Kingdom (UK) and European Union (EU).

This is not the first time that the commerce minister has expressed disappointment over the lack of initiative and suggestions from the industry towards policies of the government. On July 10, Goyal revealed that he was "struggling to prepare Jan Vishwas II" amid lack of ideas from the private sector.