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| Industries minister Pradyut Bordoloi at the news conference on Monday. Picture by Eastern Projections |
Guwahati, Feb 24 : Dispur today announced the 2008 Assam Industrial and Investment policy with emphasis on core competencies of the state to harness its natural assets and convert these into capital.
“The 2008 policy focuses on industrial development and enterprises around core competencies like bamboo, forest-based industry like plywood, horticulture, food processing besides a new emphasis on harnessing various natural assets such as water,” industries minister Pradyut Bordoloi told reporters.
He said the cabinet had given its nod to the new policy last week and it would be notified “shortly”. The policy will be binding for a period of five years till 2013.
The minister said the new policy had been prepared after detailed discussions with a cross section of stakeholders in the field of business, commerce and industry and on the recommendations of the Abhijit Barua Committee that was set up by the government earlier to review the 2003 Industrial Policy.
“The world is changing and more importance is now being given to nature,” Bordoloi said. “Bamboo is our core strength. There are a number of species and a lot of value addition can be done.”
He said a scientific system of green accounting would be incorporated to value the natural assets of the state.
On the common complaint of delay in getting power connections for the state, Bordoloi said there would be simplified procedures and a time frame for connections.
For those who want to invest Rs 100 crore or more, there is good news as all such projects will be given mega status.
All incentives, including priority land allotment, ceiling amount of subsidy and the period of validity of tax concessions, will be relaxed on a case-to-case basis.
Applications, complete in all respects for eligibility and sanction of incentives/concessions under the policy, will be disposed of within a maximum period of 90 days.
Many new institutes like the National Institute of Design and the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology are coming up to improve the human resource development skills.
The policy provides fiscal incentives complementary to the ones given in the North East Industrial and Investment Policy 2007.
“Till now we have received investment proposals worth Rs 2,100 crore in the joint sector,” Bordoloi said, adding that shortage of land, however, was a major constraint. “But we are trying our best to manage with what we have.”
The industries have been categorised under three broad heads — green, orange and red. The green category (non-polluting industries) will not be required to obtain “no objection” certificates but the red and orange categories will need to.
The classification has been done to fast-track the process of getting clearances from the Pollution Control Board of Assam.
The minister also announced plans for setting up a number of parks to boost industrial growth. The foundation stone of a Rs 100-crore mega food park will be laid on Thursday at Tihu. Apart from this, there will be a plastic park, a bamboo park, a textile park and a jute-processing park.
“The private sector will play the lead role in these projects. The government will simply play the role of a facilitator,” he said.
A State Investment Promotion Board, headed by the chief minister, will be constituted to act as the final authority in matters of policy concerning the industrial development of the state.
The Highlights
Focus on development of quality infrastructure in terms of industrial parks, industrial clusters and industrial estates
100 per cent reimbursement of stamp duty and registration fees to encourage setting up of industrial park/estate through purchase of private/government land
Entrepreneurs will be encouraged to revive sick units. Detailed operational guidelines will be formulated for the purpose
Units promoted by women and physically handicapped entrepreneurs will be given preference in trade fair
All applications for allotment of land upto 1 acre and shed up to 500 square metres in industrial estates/industrial area/growth centre will be cleared within a maximum period of 30 days
Applications for land beyond 1 acre and shed beyond 500 square metres will be cleared within 60 days by a state-level committee chaired by commissioner and secretary, industries and commerce department
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