Machine tool sector seeks sops from government

Published: 17 Mar 2009 23:48:19 PST

In a bid to deal with the economic slowdown and cope with the scenario of a steep fall in sales, the machine tool manufacturing sector has sought sops from government agencies. N K Dhand, president of the Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers' Association (IMTMA), said, "There is a need to support the machine tool industry at this point of time. We are keen that machine tool buyers be provided depreciation benefit on the lines of what has been announced for the automobile sector in the recent economic stimulus package." He added that a report prepared for IMTMA by research firm Frost&Sullivan indicated that any growth would only happen during the second half of the current calendar year. Shailesh Sheth, media chairman of IMTEX-2009, said, "We witnessed growth rates of over 30 per cent during the last five to six years but that phase has ended. The industry's growth this fiscal will be nowhere close to what it was even in FY08, when it grew by 20-22 per cent."