Released with much fanfare in October last year, the Industrial Policy-2009 of Punjab, which aims to give impetus to industry in the state is yet to be notified. One of the key feature of the policy, that contains VAT refunds, is uncertain.
The policy says that the Industrialists would be given VAT refund in 60 days instead of 90 days. It also has made a provision of payment of interest on refund beyond 60 days and action against concerned officials. Besides that Policy also mention 75 per cent of VAT refund against indemnity bond to those filing monthly returns. But the proposed salient features of the policy is yet to be implemented.
On being asked about the issue, Punjab Industries & Commerce Minister Manoranjan Kalia said,“Yes, the proposed feature is yet to be notified. So, in the interest of the Industry and the state, I brought into the notice of the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and requested him to look into in the matter. In order to resolve the issue, the Chief Minister, constituted a two member committee comprising, Tikshan Sood, Minister, Medical Education & Research, Parliament Affairs minister and Adesh Partap Singh, Food Civil Supplies and Consumer minister.”
“Already the committee has submitted the report and I am going to take up the issue in the upcoming Cabinet meeting. So we expect that the matter would be resolved and would be notified very soon. The result would be in the interest of Industry as well as the state,” said Kalia.
Industrial policy-2009, released in October 2009, after much delay aims to attract new industries.
The new Industrial policy has been drafted by seeking suggestions from United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). It may be recalled that the state government had formulated industrial policies in 1978, 1982, 1989, 1992, 1996 and last industrial policy of Punjab was notified in March, 2003.
Earlier, In an interaction with Business Standard, Manoranjan Kalia the thrust of the new industrial policy-2009 would be to facilitate potential investors to attract investment in the private sector and under the PPP mode, create Dedicated Fund for the development clusters, Common Facilities Centers and providing infrastructure support under the initiatives of Centre and state government.
He added, “ In order to attract new investments, Anchor units having scope for ancillary would be given concessions on case to case basis. Also, approval for change of land use from agriculture to Industry would not be required. Besides that the Industrial component of Industrial Park would be exempted from CLU charges and license fee.” Besides that, Policy has given special impetus to IT/ITES, agro and Knowledge-based industries to attract new investments.
