Written by: Express News Service
2 min readLudhianaApr 11, 2014 06:06 PM IST
First published on: Jun 4, 2013 at 02:24 AM IST
The new industrial policy unveiled by the Punjab government on Monday has failed to bring cheers to the existing industry of the state. With no incentives announced for the sector,the Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal has sent a detailed report card to the state to ponder on the fate of the existing industry.
Beopar Mandal president Amrit Lal Jain said: “More than 300 factories have shifted out of Punjab because of the non-friendly policies of the government. It first needs to think about the exodus of such units.”
According to a survey conducted by Mandal members,in Amritsar alone,nut bolt and ceiling fan factories have shifted to trading because manufacturing wasn’t earning them any profits. While around 70 dyeing,printing and processing units in Amritsar have also closed down,in Sirhind — famous for building trucks — only half of such units are left.
“In Ludhiana,around 12,000 knitwear units are operating with investment worth Rs 9,000 crore. In the last three years,no expansion has taken place in these units. Mandi Gobindgarh — the steel hub — has seen 30 per cent of the factories shifting to neighbouring states. Same is the condition of foundries in Batala,” Mohinder Aggarwal,General Secretary of the Mandal,said.
He added: “The government seems to be immune to old and existing units and wants to burden only the existing Rs 2.23 lakh VAT assesses.”
P D Sharma,president of Apex Chamber of Commerce and Industry,added: “The policy seems to be outdated. It is primarily based on freebies being offered to the agriculture sector.
“The existing industry is already shifting from Punjab and the new industry,if at all will come,won’t share the burden. Hence,it will further dent the old units.”
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