Industry and commerce minister Anand Sharma on the sidelines of a conference said his ministry will talk to the finance ministry for extending the tax holiday scheme for STPI by another year beyond March 2011. He also said that a National Manufacturing Policy to attract investments in manufacturing sector will be finalised by August this year.

Earlier, there was no mention of the STPI in Budget 2010 which had left the software companies disappointed, several of which are small and medium enterprises. IT industry body like Nasscom had also asked for the extension of STPI.

“We want to make India one of the factories of manufacturing industry in the world. Manufacturing sector holds the promises and new opportunities. We need something to fast trek the investments into this sector and the national manufacturing policy will make investments more attractive,” Sharma said.