 "Shivraj Singh Chouhan")
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was in Mumbai to address a meeting of industrialists, ahead of the global investors summit to be held in MP next month. In an interview to Sanjay Jog, he explained the government’s resolve to bring about labour reforms with a human face, amend industrial and other policies to help investors and boost agriculture and allied activities. Edited excerpts:
Madhya Pradesh proposes to implement labour reforms. What are the key features of the new policy?
The state Cabinet on Monday has cleared the labour reforms policy, which is a balanced one. It safeguards the interests of labour and also attempts to remove difficulties faced by investors. The government has reduced the application of nearly 17 central and three state laws for industry. The number of registers, an industrial unit needed to maintain has been reduced to one from 61. The number of returns (to be filed) has been brought down to two from 16 now.
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Your government has stepped up efforts to promote investment. What are the key changes made in the industrial policy?
To provide much-needed relief to the investor, the government has amended the industrial policy, whereby the investor can get 75 per cent refund immediately after the filing of VAT (value added tax) and CST (central sales tax) returns and the balance 25 per cent to be given after necessary audit is completed. Earlier, the investor had to first file VAT and CST returns and had to wait for three years for refunds.
The government has introduced a single-window system for quick decisions. Officials of the concerned departments sit together and clear investment proposals in a time-bound manner. The government proposes to fix a timeline for clearing various proposals after giving due approvals in a bid to prevent delays. The government is encouraging investors to apply online for land allotmentments. Already, the government has 25,600 acres in its possession and the details are uploaded on the government website. The government will focus on simplification of land allotment procedure, which will ultimately help investors to complete the project without time overruns.
What are the efforts your government took to ensure uninterrupted power supply?
The government focused on increasing the generation capacity through private players and MP Power Generation Company. The state's power availability currently is 14,000 Mw. MP, earlier known for power breakdowns, is now a power-surplus state. We are supplying power to Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab and a couple of other states. This apart, the government is promoting solar, wind and biomass power projects in a big way. MP plans to increase solar capacity to 4,000 Mw.
What helped MP achieve a record 24.99 per cent farm growth in 2013-14?
MP achieved farm growth of 19.4 per cent in 2011-12, 20.16 per cent in 2012-13 and 24.99 per cent in 2013-14. The government will step up efforts to increase it further. A slew of decisions, including increasing irrigated area to 2.75 million hectares from 0.75 million hectares, were taken. This will be further increased to four million hectares.
The government had also launched a seed replacement scheme. To implement this, farmers’ cooperatives were formed. Special attention was paid to ensure the timely and adequate supply of fertilisers. Loans were disbursed at zero rate of interest to farmers. Crop patterns were changed by bringing in new technologies, which led to rise in farm production. Also, the government gave bonus to wheat and paddy cultivators.
Is the MP government still opposed to a goods and services tax (GST)?
Our government was never opposed to a GST but was opposed to the manner in which it was planned to be implemented. The state government wanted clarity on compensation for the loss we would incur. I have personally spoken to the (Union) finance minister and the Centre has addressed our concerns. I am hopeful GST will be implemented.
