Suresh Prabhu welcomes Apple to India, says iPhone maker has to submit specific proposals

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu said he is keen to have Apple in India but the company has to submit specific proposals on investment.

While talking to the Indian Express, he said, “We are very keen to have Apple here and ensure that their application is processed on time. So let them come with specific proposals on investment and it will be taken up with the line ministry (MeITY) for further action.”

On asked if any special dispensation is being planned for the given pre- conditions that Apple presented, he said, ”Let a specific proposal come from them and it will be sent to the relevant ministry for examination.”

He also talked about India’s position on public stock-holding of food grain at the upcoming World Trade Organization’s (WTO) ministerial meet that will be conducted in December in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina.

“We are very clear that our policies on public stock-holding are going to stay. We already have a permanent peace clause which protects India’s food procurement programmes against penal action from WTO members, if in case subsidy ceilings are exceeded. If we get a better solution than this, we will of course be more than happy to push for it. But until then, even with the current arrangement, our public procurement won’t get affected at all, and we won’t compromise on this issue either,” he said.

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He spoke about India’s service sector and how it attracts employment. ““We have some advantage in services trade, which will grow faster than goods trade in future and the services sector is very employment-intensive as well,” said Prabhu.

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He also spoke about the neutralization of taxes on exports after the launch of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). He said, “After the launch of the GST, the taxes on exports will be neutralized by and by. Initially, there was a bit of problem because of the delay in refunds; once that’s settled, exports will benefit from the GST regime in a big way.”