The Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab Sukhbir Singh Badal today said that all new investments in Punjab would be cleared within 30 days even as he expressed satisfaction at working of Punjab Bureau of Investment promotion which had brought down the clearances time for new projects from years to 60 days at present.
In a first of its kind open house discussion with industrialist from across the state Mr. Badal gave a patient hearing to the issues raised by them. He also informed the industrialists gathered on the spot that the Government would pass a proposal to give 100 % incentives to existing units in the next cabinet on September 23. Badal also make it clear to the investors that any investment which occured within a year of initiation of a project would be counted as a new project. Mr. Badal assured the industrialist investing in the sector of food processing that state government would coordinate with Union food processing ministry to ensure that the subsidy fixed by union government for food processing units could be provided to the industry in time.
On the issue that no rules had been framed for expansion of existing units, Mr. Badal said that Punjab government was revising the industrial policy to bring required change to further make it more investment friendly. He assured the industrialist that all the benefits would be given to them with retrospective effect.
In the conversation with the Deputy Chief Minister, some industrialists raised issues regarding the delay in clearances from National Highway Authority of India , Ministry of Forest and Central Drug authority . Mr. Badal said that he would personally take up the issue with concerned Ministries. The Deputy Chief Minister also informed the Industrialists that Forest Ministry had already amended the procedure for clearances and now onwards compensatory deposited would be counted as clearance. It may be mentioned here that earlier after the depositing compensatory fee, industrialist had to wait for the clearance certificate from the Ministry of Forest.
Speaking on the suggestions made by investors, Badal has also announced that Punjab Government would take up the issue with Union Government to set up a National Tourism office at Amritsar as the city had a great potential to emerge as a tourism hub. He also informed that Punjab is all set to launch the Tourist travel circuit to increase tourist presence from existing 2.9 Lakh to 10 lakh annually.In reply to peak load issue Mr. Badal said that the government was open to revise its policy and imposing peak load charges on industry for four moths only instead of the entire year. He also disclosed that being a power surplus state Punjab has issued tender notice to sell 3000 MW power in the open market and subsequently the power tariff would be slashed in the coming year.
Sharing their experiences with the Deputy Chief Minister, most of the industrialist said that they were surprised at the sea change in the system after the implementation of new Invest Punjab programme. The investors also informed about their new projects which mainly include expansion of tractor Unit by Sonalika group with the investment of Rs. 300 crore, setting up of super speciality hospital by MKL group at Zirakpur, Hotel worth Rs. 1130 crore at Amritsar by the Singapore based DJB company, investment of Rs. 15 crore by DSM Pharmaceutical at village Taunsa in Ropar besides three projects by Sportking in Bathinda.Prominent amongst present on the occasion included Mr. Karan Avtar Singh Principal Secretary Investment Promotion, Secretary Power and CEO of PBIP Mr. Anuridh Tiwari, Special principal secretary to Deputy Chief Minister Mr. Ajay Mahajan, Kamal oswal from Oswal group, J.S.Chauhan from Sonalika, R.P.Dhaliwal from UI agro, Dr. R.K. Anand from DJB infra, Praveen Gupta from Sportking, Achvuth Iyengar from Cargill, Vimal abbot from Shannor foods, Kartike Sharma from Piccadilly, Gulshan Ahuja from Ahuja cotspin, Dalbir Singh from DSM, Aditya from ST Cottics and Dr. Nibber from M. care medical.