Ancillary, downstream norms amended

Odisha approves changes in IPR 2007, announces new land grant policy

The State Cabinet has approved the amendment to the Industrial Policy Resolution (IPR) 2007, clarifying the definition of ancillary and downstream units for enabling them to claim fiscal incentives under thrust sector.

"Under the new definition, an ancillary industry is one that supplies at least 50 per cent of components to the mother plant. Similarly, for a unit to be categorised as downstream unit, it has to consume a minimum of 50 per cent of finished product of a large industry," said Sanjiv Chopra, principal secretary (industries).

Previously, industrial units providing direct employment to 100 persons with minimum capital investment of Rs 10 crore and using any percentage of waste/intermediate/final product were being categorised under downstream industries.

In another breakthrough, the Cabinet gave its nod to a new land grant policy for allotment of government land in Bhubaneswar.

As far as possible, individual plots will be auctioned under the new policy, said chief secretary G C Pati.

The policy is aimed at ensuring comprehensive development of the city by encouraging orderly growth of residential, commercial and institutional areas.

The Cabinet approved a revised draft notification of the excise department for settlement of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) off shops and country spirit shops by e-auction. The e-auction to be conducted by MSTC Ltd, is set to begin tentatively from April 1, 2015.

To promote scientific use of chemical fertilisers, a corpus fund of Rs 100 crore has been announced which is to be shared in the ratio of 75:25 between Odisha State Cooperative Federation (OSCMF) and Odisha Agro Industries Corporation Ltd (OAIC). The director of agriculture & food production would be the nodal officer to monitor the proper utilisation of funds.

OSCMF and OAIC handle 50 per cent of the total quantity of fertilisers used in the state and they play a key role in making fertilisers available to farmers at fair price.

Keeping to the announcement in the last Budget, the Cabinet also declared a corpus fund of Rs 100 crore to be shared on 60:30:10 basis between Odisha State Seeds Corporation Ltd (OSSC), OAIC and Odisha State Cashew Development Corporation (OSCDC). The funds released to these PSUs would be kept in a separate escrow account to be opened by each corporation to handle the loan amount in any nationalised bank or Odisha State Cooperative Bank. The interest free loan would be made available for seeds operation for a period of nine months and refunded back by the respective corporations to the government within the stipulated period.

In order to facilitate capital restructuring of OAIC, the Cabinet decided to convert its interest liability of Rs 32.70 crore. This will enable OAIC to have access to adequate borrowings from banks and financial institutions.

The tender for Mega Lift Irrigation Project Cluster-III was approved by the Cabinet. The tender has been awarded to Larsen & Toubro (L&T) which emerged the lowest bidder. While the government had estimated a cost of Rs 556 crore for the project, L&T quoted the price at Rs 514.89 crore.

The Cabinet approved 12 proposals including the plan to establish the Odisha State Open University at Sambalpur.