Industry doesn't see biz ops in Himachal policy sops

CHANDIGARH: Blame it on the end-of-the year timing or the warped format, Himachal Pradesh’s New Industrial Policy has gone almost unnoticed among most business circles in the region.

With the ‘Rules Regarding Grant of Incentives, Concessions and Facilities to Industrial Units in Himachal Pradesh, 2004’, in the new policy, becoming effective within five days from December 31, not many are sure about these norms.

The new subsidies do not seem to have caught the fancy of those already settled in the state. “I could not find anything new in the policy statement,� said one Baddi-based entrepreneur, while another complained that the worsening power situation had not been addressed in the new policy.

“They are raising the limit of mandatory number of Himachalis employed in a unit that is availing the special incentives. What do we do if the locals are not ready to work,� says another industrialist.

The policy focuses on issues related to infrastructure like power, telecom, human resources development (vocational education), transportation, housing and tourism. Incentives are also being offered for productivity, quality, exports, performance in handloom, new testing centres and pollution control measures.

The policy also moots the creation of a ‘land bank’ to facilitate allotment of land to dedicated industrial estates, infotech/ biotech/textile parks, business centres, multiplexes, social infrastructure and housing projects, including colonies for labours.

Special incentives have been declared for a new ‘Specified Category of Activities’, that has been created to encourage value-added agricultural and horticultural products along with tourism and other allied sectors.

The state is also consolidating the industrial booty it acquired in the past five years hinting: “Wherever the financial implications of an incentive were without a ceiling, a cap has now been put.� Accordingly, allotment of land and sheds for industry and its usage has been streamlined.

The provision relating to the ‘minimum level of employment to bona fide residents of the state has been raised by 5%, to 70% of the total workforce for the Category ‘A’ areas while it remains the same (80%) for the Category ‘C’ areas.

A separate scheme called the ‘Himachal Pradesh Industrial Renewal Scheme 2004’ has also been floated while ‘spurious branding of products’ will be tackled through another scheme.’

Meanwhile, the state has now been categorised into three parts with ‘Category A’ industrial blocks spanning the area of Paonta Sahib located in the development blocks of Paonta Sahib, Kala-Amb in Sirmaur district, industrial areas of Baddi, Barotiwala, Nalagarh, industrial area of Parwanoo in Dharampur and development blocks of Solan district.