Jagan govt releases white paper on Industries

Amaravati: YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government has released its second white paper on Wednesday, on the status of Industrial sector, in which it was found that the previous government had miserably failed in getting the Special Category Status and other incentives from the central government. It has revealed the facts on various aspects, like the failures and achievements of the previous government in promoting mega, major and minor industries, failures in getting subsidies from the central government and many others.

In the White Paper on Industries in AP during the period June 2014 – March 2019, the state government has established that out of 91 mega companies committed for manufacturing in the state, only 22 projects have actually started operations and the remaining are under various stages of development, delayed or dropped. All these agreements were taken place in the presence of the then Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who was also headed the State Investment Promotion Board (SIPB) as Chairman. Though they have committed to provide employment to more than 2 lakh youth with an investment of around Rs 1.7 lakh crore, they only invested Rs 9,681 crore and provided employment to 36,140.

It warned that, if there would be no further progress then the government would cancel the mega projects approved under the SIPB including Ultra Tech Cement with Rs 4,000 crore committed investment, Rs Gujarat Ambuja Exports Ltd (GAEL) with Rs 240 crore, Vayhan Coffee ltd Rs 276 crore, Longi Silicon Rs 1500 crore, Aquamall Rs 200 crore, Arrow Cables ltd Rs 510 crore, KPR Chemicals Rs 602 crore, Essel Infra Projects Rs 21,300 crore. All these 8 mega projects, which have shown negligible progress, have together committed an investment of Rs 28,628 crore to provide more than 30,000 employment. The rest of the projects in this SIPB category are under various stages.

Previous government entered MoUs with a total of 1,338 investment projects amounting to committed investment of Rs 12.51 lakh crore, during the Partnership Summit and Sunrise AP Investment Meet held for three consecutive years at Visakhapatnam. The industries and commerce department also entered into 327 MoUs to establish multiple large and mega projects, out of which only 45 projects started operations. Another 92 are in advanced stages. However, as many as 190 projects are either dropped or delayed. Government announced that it will review status, meet investors in order to quickly advance in grounding them or drop projects that are unlikely to begin work.

In the white paper, it blamed that previous government failed in strengthening the MSME sector.

The White Paper pointed out that Chandrababu Naidu could not able to get the concessions for the industries established in the seven backward districts, though the Central Board of Direct Taxes has notified for availing tax incentives under IT Act. At the same time, the previous government also failed in negotiating with the central government which was denied the Special Category Status. While denying it for AP, the union government approved the North East Industrial Development Scheme (NEIDS) in 2017, which offered all the benefits of SCS.

The TDP government also failed in ensuring integrated steel plant in Kadapa district, which was promised in the AP Reorganization Act. In addition to that, Chandrababu Naidu laid foundation for the steel plant without having proper plans for resources to construct it.

Visakhapatnam - Chennai industrial Corridor (VCIC) did not witness any progress for the last five years, though it was another promise from centre to state. On the other hand, the government of India had already supported the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) with grants as well, the state government raised the issue in the white paper.

At the same time, Jagan government assured that it will put all efforts to persuade to get SCS. It will work to complete the VCIC with the funds from central government. It will work with all PSUs to make petrochemical complex and Kadapa steel plant areality. Government also announced that it would give high priority to grounding the projects and generating employment.

Stressed the need for reforms in investment promotion process. All investments will be routed only through Industries, Infrastructure, Investment and Commerce (IIIC). The previous government used different yardsticks were used by different departments, but it would not happen in this government, it clearly mentioned. It also announced that the government would introduce a centralized approval process for providing incentives to companies, unlike previous government.