Marico's Mariwala: Pak keen to trade, India should grab opportunity

Building business relations with Pakistan will be beneficial to both the countries and could be a big opportunity for India to grow, believes Harsh Mariwala, the chairman of Marico Industries and the president of the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

In an interview with _CNBC-TV 18_Mariwala gives his views on the economy, various policies and the possibility of trade with Pakistan.

Reduce wastage to curb inflation

The FICCI president said that inspite of all the monetary policies taken to curb inflation over the past couple of months, prices kept surging. “There have been 12 successive interest rate hikes, which itself is worrying and there is the threat of one more.”

Mariwala considered the inherent supply-demand gap, especially since the entire social sector spending by the government is the primary reason behind inflation. He suggested that the government should increase supplies, keeping in mind the change in food consumption pattern. “Earlier it was mainly wheat and rice but with increased wealth in the economy, people want to have more protein intake, they want to have vegetables, milk etc.”

He added that the key reform would be to reduce wastage, especially in perishable items like vegetables and fruits, which at present is around 40 percent.

Manufacturing policy to bring reforms

Mariwala said that the government should essentially bring out the manufacturing policy on its own as against the GST (Good and Services Tax), which needs constitutional amendment. He said the Commerce and Industry Ministry believes the manufacturing policy may be a game changer and hopes that it will be announced very soon. “We will see a lot of policy announcements in a few weeks,” he said.

Pakistan keen to trade; India should grab the opportunity

Mariwala said that Pakistan is extremely keen to do business with India. There are certain issues to be ironed out between India and Pakistan, but the two countries should act responsibly and resolve all issues, said Mariwala.

He further added that this will not only help Pakistan, but it will also help India which will now be able to export or develop business in Pakistan. “I think it will be big because currently we are not allowed to export most of our products to Pakistan because they are not in the positive list. Many companies have just almost written off Pakistan because of the problems of visa, issues relating to safety plus the ability to export. If there is hope, then I think a lot of Indian companies would look at Pakistan for it’s a captive market” Mariwala assured.

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