Coming out in favour of free trade pacts, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Wednesday said India "clearly and unambiguously" needs to ink more such agreements.
India has signed free trade pacts with about 20 countries including Japan, Korea, ASEAN nations, Sri Lanka and Nepal, while it is negotiating market opening pacts with Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the European Union.
"We should (go for FTAs) quite clearly and unambiguously," he said when asked whether India should refrain from signing more free trade agreements (FTAs) as it hurts revenue.
An FTA permits free trade in goods and services between the countries with minimal tariff barriers.
The issue of FTAs came up for discussion at a meeting of the Trade and Economic Relations Committee, which was chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Among others, the meeting was attended by Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council Chairman V Krishnamurthy and Mr Ahluwalia.
Some of the participants reportedly expressed concern over the effectiveness of such free trade pacts. It was argued that India should focus on promoting manufacturing activities within the country, instead of going in for more such pacts which leads to loss of revenue.
Those against FTAs, argue that promotion of manufacturing sector would generate more jobs within the country.
Replying to queries on different pricing of domestic and imported coal, Mr Ahluwalia said, "We need to find a way of doing that and that is not agreed yet. But it should be done in my view."
He said a coal user sitting next to a port should be allowed to import the fuel at a premium for another consumer situated far away.
"Let's create a possibility where if a guy in (near) port says I don't mind importing little more...providing he pays me higher price than I would have to pay for it. The trouble is that it is interpreted legally as trading," he said.
"Basically all economics consists of trading to optimize profits. If you are not going to be given that option, why should anybody go for costly imports," he added.
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