Shimla, May 5 (Inditop.com) Commerce and Industries Minister Anand Sharma’s visit to Himachal Pradesh Friday has once again generated hope that the tax holiday scheme which had attracted industries to the state in the past seven years will be restored.
The scheme expired March 31. The National Democratic Alliance government had granted a special industrial development package to the state in 2003 for 10 years that provided 100 percent excise duty exemption also. But it was later curtailed to 2010.
“We are still hopeful of getting the industrial package extended till its original scheduled time of 2013,” Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal told Inditop Wednesday.
In January, the commerce ministry had recommended extending the scheme to 2013 to the prime minister and the finance ministry.
Dhumal said he had pleaded with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a number of times to extend the package and a delegation from the state would soon meet him in this regard.
“I have also requested senior state leader and former union minister Shanta Kumar to meet Manmohan Singh along with other MPs to apprise him about the need for the restoration of the package. Even (state) Industries Minister Kishan Kapoor is meeting Anand Sharma in Shimla May 8, requesting him to plead the state’s case with the prime minister and the finance minister,” Dhumal said.
Sharma, visiting the state for three days, is scheduled to hold meetings with captains of industry at Baddi, the prominent industrial town in Solan district, and Shimla.
The industrial package has lured investments in the pharmaceutical, food processing, textile, packaging and light engineering sectors in the state.
Official data shows the state had approved 13,195 projects after the package was announced. Of these, 6,356 units with an outlay of Rs.6,523 crore have begun production.
Industries Minister Kishan Kapoor said the latest survey of the Secretariat for Industrial Assistance revealed that the state had been able to attract only 0.52 percent of the total investment in the industrial sector in the country since 1952. Around 99 percent of the investment is in small-scale units.
