In a twin bonanza for new investors, Punjab Deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today announced waiver of input tax on the food processing industry and provision of power at the cheapest rate of Rs 4.99 per unit in the country besides welcoming the trust imposed on Punjab by the industry which signed 374 mous worth Rs 1.13 lakh crore in the second edition of Invest Punjab here.Beside this, the Deputy CM during the course of a 35 minute power point presentation also announced that the government was all set to launch an integrated food park at Ludhiana, a Green Tech Valley at Phagwara and a MRO (Maintenance, repair and overhaul) facility adjoining the international airport at Mohali.In his presentation, which was well received by prospective investors and corporate honchos, Mr Badal said Punjab was known as a producer of foodgrains but he felt that it should also be able to add value to its produce. “Keeping this in view and with the intention of making Punjab a hub for agro processing industry, I decided to waive all input taxes of agro processing industry. He said this included VAT, CST and purchase tax. The announcement was received with a standing ovation by ITC Chairman Y C Daveshwar.
Giving detail of other steps being taken by the government, Mr Badal disclosed the government had tied up with various corporates to establish 2,000 skill centers to train 1.5 lakh youth in various trades and professions in the State. He said companies involved in this task included ICICI Bank, Walmart, ITC, TATA Motors and Maruti besides others.Mr Badal also announced that Punjab would be the first State in the country to have 4G connectivity in the entire State with every village, rural school and hospital being covered under this facility by January next year. “Nowhere else in the country has this been done till now”, he said while thanking Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani for taking this initiative.The Deputy CM, while acknowledging the huge response the Investment Summit has received with representatives pouring in from nine countries with Poland even being represented by a ministerial delegation, disclosed the State had established a conversion rate of 60 per cent on the mous signed during the last summit in 2013. He said Punjab had received an investment of Rs 41,187 crore against mous worth Rs 63,000 signed in 2013.
Mr Badal also announced the end of Inspector Raj in the State. “We inherited this system from the British who did not trust Indians. “We however have started self-declaration and adopted third party inspection system”. He announced that in future no inspector from labour, boiler or pollution department would visit factories in future”. Highlighting the fact that the State had been successful in its endeavours because of the physical infrastructure it had created in the run up to the investment drive, Mr Badal said Punjab had created two international airports besides three domestic airports. He said in the next 18 months all towns in the State would be linked with four to six lane highways which were coming up at a cost of Rs 21,349 crore.Explaining the philosophy behind the State’s approach to investment generation, Mr Badal said “when we started on this drive I felt we needed to make it easy for business to set up shop in the State”. He said accordingly the State established the Invest Punjab office which has the powers of 23 departments and now gives all necessary statutory clearances within a period of one month of application. “This has made ease of business a reality in Punjab”, he added.
Talking about the success of the first investment summit in 2013, the Deputy Chief Minister informed that Punjab had fulfilled all its five major promises including ease of doing business, best connectivity, industrial parks, power surplus state and urban development infrastructure.The Deputy Chief Minister said the investor friendly initiatives of the Punjab has resulted in the State achieving the recognition of “the best state to start ease of doing business initiatives” by the World Bank and the Union Government. “We are far-far-far ahead of other states and have implemented revolutionary initiatives that no other state could think of realizing such system”, he added.Disclosing other laurels won by the State, the Deputy CM said the State power utility PSPCL was earlier ranked 17th in power sector but now in 2015 POWERCOM had been declared as the best power utility by the Union government.Declaring the SAS Nagar to be the IT hub of the country in future Mr. Badal said that Mohali International airport would boost economic activities in Punjab. He said this along with the creation of 2147 e seva kendras offering 200 citizen centric services to the people would be a gamer changer in the State and result in ending corruption.