MP expands list of industries getting sops

Industries that process, pack or manufacture products using soya, flour, oil or pulses will be soon be offered sops and concessions in Madhya Pradesh.

At present, a notification, issued 18 years back on 17 July, 1989, bars them from getting sops and concessions since soya, oil, flour and edible oil etc. fall under the negative list.

"A Food Processing Policy will soon be launched in the state that will remove these commodities from the negative list. It will pave the way for Madhya Pradesh Trade and Facilitation Corporation (TRIFAC) to offer exemptions to investment proposals from solvent extractors, pulse processors, edible-oil packers from tax. Also, the traditional small units like roller flour mills will also get benefit from it. The draft of the policy is ready and will be released this month," a government official told BS.

Most of the investors demand exemptions from mandi tax on procurement of raw material like wheat, soya, groundnut etc., and also exemptions from entry tax on transporting these commodities from one place to the other.

During April this year, the state government has already deleted rice and grape from the negative list. As a result, big investors have planned entry into the sector.

"The deletion of certain commodities from the negative list will not only attract industrial investment but also fetch better results for farmers. A firm is setting up a basmati rice processing mill in Mandideep which will certainly help farmers of the Raisen and Hoshangabad area," said the official.

But inclusion of certain commodities like soya in the negative list has some advantages too. Madhya Pradesh has soya-crushing facility of 2.5 crore tonnes, while production is stagnant at 45 lakh tonnes for years.

Thus, a large number of soya oil units are either closed or sick. So, inclusion of soya in the negative list restricts more investment in the segment.