Building plan approval to be made easy in Punjab; booster pill for MSMEs on cards

Tribune News Service Vijay C Roy Chandigarh, September 11 From addressing the pain points of the industry to facilitating ease and cost of doing business, the new draft Industrial and Business Development policy 2022 approved by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann proposes to transform the state as the most preferred destination for doing business. The draft, which is in public domain for comments and suggestions, aims to attract Rs 5 lakh crore of investment in five years, increase the share of secondary sector in GSDP to 30 per cent and tertiary sector to 62 per cent. The new policy is likely to be notified by October 17, 2022.

According to industrialists, although there are no major changes in fiscal incentives, but definitely this policy is better than the previous policy. If some of the suggestions of the industry are incorporated in the final policy, this will give major fillip to industrialisation in the state. Let’s have a look on the major proposals and what the industry feels about it: Building plan approval One big relief in the draft policy is that building plan approvals are now with single agency — Director (Factories).

“This was the pain point due to which maximum industry of Punjab suffered. The delay by the Housing and Urban Development Department in building plan approvals caused biggest loss to the industry. Now, the Director (Factories) shall be declared as a competent authority to approve building plans, which is a big relief,” said Amit Thapar, president, Ganga Acrowools Limited and Chairman, CII, Punjab.

Rationalisation of power Industry shall be allowed to buy power from the energy exchange as per the charges fixed by the regulator. Some of the other proposals include rationalisation of fixed charges based on season and industry, change in captive DG set definition bringing it under the captive power for continuous process industry and relaxation of solar power rules. Now, Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) will promote the solar industry and advise the industry to install solar power units to augment the solar power generation.

Focus on MSMEs, start-ups For the focused development, a dedicated wing will be created which will address the concern of MSMEs. Also, single window system will be created at district level for them. Other incentives for MSMEs include development of cluster, setting up of technology centres and common facility centres, access to finance and markets.

The state will facilitate 1,000 start-ups in five years and 10 incubation centres or accelerators in the state. PPP for infrastructure The policy proposes setting up of effective mechanism for partnering with various national and international agencies and develop effective PPP model for infrastructure, technology support, skills and other requirements of the industry. Skill development The policy proposes to build strong linkages with all major educational institutions to facilitate setting up of 50 entrepreneurship development centres in colleges, to set up one skill university in the state, to set up one skill centre for each identified industrial cluster and to set up advance skilling centre on hi-tech manufacturing, design and IT skills for five identified sectors.

Existing industry should not be hit The government must consider that the new policy should not have any adverse affect on the existing industry. For example: As in the case of steel units covered in investment policy are producing steel at Rs 600 per tonne lower than the units out of the policy. So, the government must focus on existing industries and they shall be given the similar benefits as of given to the new industry, according to Badish Jindal, national president, All Industries & Trade Forum.

Non-fiscal incentives need more attention According to industrialists, better work could have been done on non-fiscal incentives. They are of the view that not much has been proposed to boost or attract export-based units. Also, employment thresholds could have been reduced to attract more companies to invest.

#bhagwant mann.