The Himachal Pradesh government has appealed to the Central government to extend the special industrial package up to 2013. The package is currently valid till 2010.
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal made this request to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram in New Delhi on Thursday.
Dhumal said that according to SIA statistics released by the department of industrial promotion, there is no flight of industry from neigbouring states to Himachal.
"In the last one year (2007-2008) Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab have received investment proposals of Rs 6,350 crore, Rs 3,596 crore and Rs 10,737 crore respectively.
Making it very clear that the neighbouring states were far ahead in the case of investment proposals, Dhumal said, “The state had been receiving investment in the normal course even before the industrial package was announced in 2003.”