'Tax sops can help India surpass China'

India can surpass China as a global production hub for consumer durables with rationalisation of tax structure and policy support from the government, says a study by industry body Ficci and financial consultancy company PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The study suggested tax rebates for high-end technology companies that set up research and development centres in India.

To rationalise tax policy, it asked for reducing overall tax levels and simplify tax structure.

To avoid cascading effect of taxes, the government should speed up the introduction of Goods and Services Tax.

"Indian market . . . is still under penetrated with a huge untapped potential ... there exists an opportunity for India to develop itself as a manufacturing hub for consumer durables . . . we need to focus on policy initiatives," PwC executive director (financial advisory services) said.

During the last decade, China has been successful in developing large home-grown companies and has grown into a large manufacturing hub for consumer durables, NMCC chairman V Krishnamurthy said.

Ficci secretary general Amit Mitra said that India still continue to import a large amount of these items from the world and especially from China.

The National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council has entrusted PwC and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry to conduct the study.