new delhi amid concerns over delays in customs clearance for imports from china transport and msme minister nitin gadkari has written to the finance and commerce ministers urging them to remove roadblocks to the quick release of goods at ports arguing that these shipments have reached indian shores based on payment made by industry playershe told a webplatform that a delay in the passage of these imported goods will hurt indian players and not china our focus is to reduce imports and to do so we can increase import duty but holding up already imported items will harm our entrepreneurs as they will incur huge losses gadkari saidhe wrote to finance minister nirmala sitharaman and commerce industry minister piyush goyal after receiving a representation from a farmers association highlighting how there was a delay in customs clearancefarmers body met gadkari over importsa delegation of farmers association that met gadkari highlighted how there was a delay in customs clearance for consignments of mechanical sprays and their spare parts used for pesticide controldue to the covid19 pandemic there was a massive diversion of spraying equipment to urban areas resulting in shortage in the farms as a result companies decided to import the equipment which are held up at ports as the customs authorities decided on 100 examination of consignments shipped from chinawith gadkaris comments sparking considerable comment as they were seen to be at odds to the enhanced scrutiny of chinese products and the selfreliance campaign of the government the minister took to twitter to clarify he was responding to a specific question i am among the strongest proponents of atmanirbhar bharat anyone who is even slightly acquainted with me would know about my passion and work towards supporting as well as encouraging make in india indian business has the strength and skills to grow further and power our journey towards selfreliance under the strong leadership of prime minister narendra modi the government of india is proactive and initiating pathbreaking reforms that will help businesses and micro small and medium enterprises msmes he tweetedin his letter to sitharaman and goyal transport and msme minister nitin gadkari has sought priority for clearance of imported agricultural equipment though he has not named any country from where such items are being imported sources most of such spraying equipment come from chinawatch lac standoff holdups at ports will hit india not china says nitin gadkari