Uttarakhand gets serious on industrial package

Ahead of the Union Budget, serious efforts have been initiated in Uttarakhand for the extension of the 2003 industrial package till 2013 with Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment Harish Rawat today lending his full support.

Rawat, an MP from Uttarakhand, said he would shortly meet Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee seeking the extension of the package, which is expiring in 2010, amid growing demand from industries in the hill state in this regard. “I fully support the demand that this package should be given extension for the overall development of Uttarakhand,” Rawat said.

Under the package, the centre is offering a slew of tax incentives that have attracted industries to set up new manufacturing units at Pantnagar, Haridwar and other industrial areas.

Earlier chief minister BC Khanduri in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also sought extension of tax breaks till 2013. Khanduri also wrote similar letters to all the five Lok Sabha members from Uttarakhand to seek their support over the issue.

“Industrialists who want to invest in Uttarakhand are in a state of dilemma since the industrial package is expiring in 2010. This industrial package should be extended keeping in view special geographical and economic conditions of the state,” Khanduri said in the letter. He also pointed out that the tax incentives given to Uttarakhand were far less than those given to the Northeast states where the industrial package had already been extended by 10 years in 2007.

Last year too, Khanduri had met the Prime Minister twice on the issue. Khanduri has been pitching for the extension of industrial package after his government last year announced a special hill industrial scheme for a period of 10 years by doling out a series of sops.

“It will be good in case the tax breaks are extended by another three years since industrialists are hesitating to invest in the hills due to recession” said an official.

Following the special tax holiday scheme of January 2003, an industrial boom was witnessed in Uttarakhand where top notch companies like Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, Nestle, Mahindra and Mahindra, Britannia, LG set up new units to take the benefits of the various tax incentives given by the centre.