Amid lots of hue and cry over GST and its possible effects, foundry industry in the country is expecting double digit growth with the implementation the new tax regime from its current growth rate of around seven per cent.
According to Amish Panchal, president of the Institute of Indian Foundrymen (IIF) GST would bring transparency which would be instrumental in the growth of the sector. The foundry industry in the country initiated preparing for GST well in advance by organising awareness campaigns, staff training, aligning the ERP systems in order to tune with the new system of tax, said Panchal.
Headquartered in Kolkata, IIF is the apex body of India’s thriving foundry sector. IIF has also planned series GST trouble shooting workshops for foundry units across the country as out of more than 5,000 foundries in India, majority are SMEs. As far as Gujarat is concerned, there are around 1,200 units of foundry, mostly in Ahmedabad, Rajkot and Vadodara.
‘‘We don’t see any major disruption in business in long term. There will be initial hiccups as is expected in such huge changes. However, most issues are expected to be solved in next 3-4 months as everything will be clarified by the time,’’ said IIF president who runs a foundry unit in Ahmedabad.
With manufacturing gradually picking up and several emerging sectors opening up new opportunities, the more than $18 billion Indian foundry or casting industry is all set to double its revenue over the next three years, he opined.
India is the second largest player in the global foundry industry with 10 million tons of casting after China. The neighbouring country’s casting production is more than 105 million tonnes.