Every now and then posts appear on social media praising Japanese with claims that they do not buy anything foreign. Ok, let us see what exactly they buy:
Mineral fuels including oil: US$174.6 billion (23.3% of total imports)
Electrical machinery, equipment: $101 billion (13.5%)
Machinery including computers: $72.9 billion (9.7%)
Optical, technical, medical apparatus: $27.6 billion (3.7%)
Pharmaceuticals: $25.5 billion (3.4%)
Vehicles: $24.6 billion (3.3%)
Ores, slag, ash: $22.4 billion (3%)
Organic chemicals: $18.2 billion (2.4%)
Plastics, plastic articles: $16.9 billion (2.3%)
Clothing, accessories (not knit or crochet): $14.7 billion (2%)
These are only the top ten commodities they buy. So the Japanese do buy a lot of finished goods from abroad. 25% of their imports are from China, a sworn old enemy, and 14% are from the US, the country that nuked them.
Fact is, a country not importing what is cheaper from abroad is only impoverishing itself. “Boycott” of foreign goods does not work in a free country. And no country can import from abroad till it exports some goods of equal value.
Boycott of Chinese goods will not give us jobs. Only setting the market free will give us jobs.
Here lies the choice: a country can export minerals or value-added goods. To export value-added goods, the country must be enterprising and must leave its entrepreneur free. It must have a free market and the rule of law. It must have the sanctity of contracts, and sanctity of private property. It’s ruling class must be honest, not thieving, and people must be hardworking, not drunkards and अफ़ीमचीं and मुफ़्तखोर.
How free are our entrepreneurs? Well, a sample of what compliances they have to file.
They have to file certificates that they have complied with:
Employees’ Provident Fund & Miscellaneous Provisions Act,
Minimum Wages Act,
Payment of Wages Act,
Payment of Bonus Act,
Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act,
Apprentices Act,
Employees’ State Insurance Act,
Payment of Gratuity Act,
Any other Law Applicable to the Company
Shop and Establishment Act
Any other State Laws applicable to the Company. That all the statutory payments, returns/forms required to be filed under the above laws, rules & regulations have been duly filed and there is no default whatsoever;
Maintained proper registers, records, documents and books and filed proper returns, forms and statements and furnished necessary particulars to the relevant authorities.
Above is just a sample of insanity that is called governance in India. Do we require citizens that they should file yearly compliance with Indian Penal Code? A certificate that “during the year I did not kill anybody nor looted anybody?” We prescribe laws, and we spell out punishments, and only if some crime comes to notice we take action. So why do we require businessmen to file hundreds of “returns?”
(Every return costs money and time.)
And then we have passed a most stupid Land Acquisition Act that has rendered most of the new projects unviable.
And then we cry why we are not getting jobs.
Boycott of Chinese goods will not give us jobs. Only setting the market free will give us jobs.
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The country needs to import but should also protect and develop its local industry and trade.
For example, the Chinese are dumping even the Pottery oil lamps used for Dipawali which once gave income to millions of village potters in India. All traditional Ganesh, Laxmi Murti are now manufactured in China on large scale and sold all over the world. You can find every single ethnic item sold in market is also imported from china.
How does it affect us. Well for some days the consumers are happy as they get it cheaper, but it kills the local tradesmen who would have generated some local employment. In the longer period all profits all taken away by the Chinese company (just like the East India Company / British colonialism).
It is the duty of the Government to ensure that adequate tariffs are put on all such imported items which may affect local industry. That does not mean that we protect companies like Ambassador Car / Premier Motors which started manufacturing cars even before the Koreans and Japanese but never put money in R&D to develop better technology.
So the Government needs to –
1. Make law to ensure that all industries spend money on R&D as a % of their profits. For small units it is not possible, so India needs regional design development labs funded by Government or attached to technical universities where all companies can request design development / improvement.
2. Make IP / copyright law stringent with a standard NDA which can become part of all agreements.
3. Stop import of finished ethnic goods from abroad. be it clothes, lamps, Murti etc. This can help the village industries.
4. Create training centres which help local product / process improvement for regional industry / individuals. This can be collective for industries like Pottery, Dairy, Packaging, Food Processing, Wood, Furniture, Leather, and many more. China has developed their industry by mass scale training of its workers and business men.
5. Make the Income Tax and compliance submission easier. This is the most important. We in India take pride in our IT industry but fail to create even a simple web site for our Banks or Government websites. If I compare the websites of SBI or other Indian Banks to Foreign Banks like HSBC or ANZ then SBI and any other Indians bank web site is pathetic. Any website, process or compliance or IT form should have clarity and should be simple to operate, which is understood by even a person of minimum literacy. Many forms require massive amount of useless information which can be reduced to minimum. I hope that with linkage to Aadhar card this problem may get solved.
6. Promote Clean industry parks at village levels rather than allowing the cities to get congested. The District administration should develop industrial parks with full infrastructure away from cities, with one type of industry grouped together for synergy. i.e. Carpet, textile, pottery etc. can be grouped in three separate parks with raw material suppliers, industry, and logistics combined together.
7. Most important – the IAS should change their mindset or we need to employ experts laterally on renewable contract of 5 years each. Rather all Government departments should employ staff on 5 year renewable contract.
The yearly appraisal of a List. Collector should include the development index of various parameters ie. industry, social, income, farm production, schools, infrastructure, pollution, crime etc.
What are the compliances needed from businessmen in other countries?
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