Yogi Adityanath govt's new UP industrial policy targets crony capitalism

The new policy also addresses the land cost arbitrage issue

The new industrial policy of Uttar Pradesh would not only facilitate faster industrial and economic development, but also target the spectre of crony capitalism, said a senior cabinet minister in the Yogi Adityanath government.

“With the announcement of the new industrial policy, an era of transparency has been introduced and the days of crony capitalism are numbered,” UP health minister and state government spokesperson Siddharth Nath Singh said on July 4 after the Yogi Adityanath cabinet had approved the new policy framework.

“Now, if the company is unable to set up industry on the allotted land within six months, the land would revert to the respective development authority and there would be no land use change in such cases,” said Uttar Pradesh industrial development minister Satish Mahana on the issue of land cost arbitrage where private companies allotted with large tracts of lands for proposed units used it for real estate development.

He also slammed the previous Akhilesh Yadav government for organising a string of investors’ summits across the country, but failing to attract investors due to sloppy policies and lack of adequate infrastructure.

“During the last 15 years, UP has lost heavily in terms of industrial neglect and as such employment generation was never on the agenda as well.”

The new industrial policy talks about promoting ‘Brand UP’ and ‘Make in UP’ as its flagship themes going forward.

The policy provides higher incentives, sops and subsidies for industrial units setting up plants in the comparatively backward socioeconomic regions, including Bundelkhand and Purvanchal.

The state government would also organise industrial summits and road shows in the months of October-November, in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi would also be invited.

Besides, the incentives part would not only be calculated on the basis on investment made by the private companies, but would be commensurate to the quantum of jobs created, women and members belonging to the disadvantaged sections of society employed.

The policy seeks to invoke confidence among investors about the state law and order machinery by posting senior police officials in industrial clusters and hubs for security.

“In the erstwhile regimes, the investors had the lurking fear of falling into the hands of extortionists, which partly kept them away from coming to UP,” Mahana noted.

Meanwhile, allied polices pertaining to textiles, IT Parks, Pharma Parks etc are also in the offing for a 360 degree approach towards industrial and economic development.

“The new industrial policy is ‘competitive industrial policy’ in the backdrop of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime. Since, UP is basically a consumer state with over 200 million consumers and GST, being a destination based tax structure, is designed to benefit companies more if they produce in a consumer state,” he added.