Punjab industrialists likely to be attracted by Gujarat

Ludhiana/Amritsar, September 7, 2012: Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal (PPBM) president Amrit Lal Jain, general secretary Sunil Mehra  and senior vice president Pyare  Lal Seth have said that the Punjab Government is yet to announce its industrial policy including textile promotion policy, but Punjab Government in its first move definitely announced “certain measures which will hamper its industrial growth”.

In a statement today, they said these measures included 0.5% increase in VAT, e-trip ( e filing of bills), annual processing charges on VAT dealers and property tax. They said on the other hand Gujarat government has announced its Textile Policy 2012, giving lot of concessions such as interest subsidy , cheap power , refund of VAT on purchase of plants and machinery , financial assistance, reimbursement of tuition fees to trainees etc.

They said Amritsar and Ludhiana were hub of textile industries and these units would be attracted to invest in Gujarat instead of investing in “suffocated” atmosphere of Punjab where traders are called “Chor (thieves)” by the governemnt.

A copy of Gujarat Textile Policy 2012 made available by Jain to city Air News. The text of this police is as under:

1. Interest subsidy of 5%, without ceiling for the period of five years on new plant and machinery for Ginning and Processing.
2. Interest subsidy of 7% on new plant and machinery for cotton spinning as well as for second hand imported cotton spinning machinery with certain conditions without ceiling for a period of five years.
   • Power tariff concession on new investment for cotton spinning @ Re.1/- per unit for five year period.
   • Refund of value added tax paid by cotton based units like ginning, spinning and weaving on purchase of cotton/cotton yarn and remission of tax collected on cotton yarn (applicable to the extent of investment in Plant and Machineries).
3. Minimum 150 acre land stamp duty exemption to developers and the units and assistance upto 50% with maximum ceiling of Rs.30 crores for common infrastructure for cotton spinning parks with or without weaving.
4. Stamp duty exemption to developers and units in parks and assistance upto 50% with maximum ceiling of Rs.10 crores for common infrastructure in parks and other textile activity.
5. For energy efficient and environment friendly modern dyeing and processing units;
   • Interest subsidy of 5 per cent on new plant and machinery, without ceiling for the period of five years in Dyeing and Processing.
   • Assistance upto 50 per cent for audit report amounting to maximum of Rs.50,000, assistance upto 20 per cent of cost of equipment subject to maximum of Rs.20 lakhs, eligible once in 2 years during operation period of the scheme, as support for energy and water conservation and environmental compliance, for Processing Sector and Entire Value Chain.
6. Garment and made-ups
   • Interest subsidy of 7 per cent on new plants and machinery without ceiling for a period of five years, for Garment and made-ups.
   • Refund of VAT paid by the units on purchase of raw materials and remission of tax collected on ready-made garments as VAT concession applicable to the extent of investment in plant and machinery.
7. Technical Textiles
   • Interest subsidy of 6 per cent on new plant and machinery besides second-hand imported machinery with certain conditions allowed without ceiling for the five year period.
8. For Apparel Training Institutes/Centres
   • Assistance upto 85 percent, subject to maximum Rs.3 crores, excluding land cost for setting up Training Institutes.
   • Need based support towards equipment for Upgradation of facilities in ITIs.
   • Assistance upto 50 per cent subject maximum Rs.20 lakhs for training centres.
   • Reimbursement of tuition fees to trainers as assistance at the rate of 50 per cent upto Rs.7000 per trainee per course.
   • Reimbursement of training cost with maximum of Rs.7000 per trainer per week, as assistance to training to trainers.
   • For training cost for skill development for weaving – Stipend to trainees @ 2500 per month for 3 months and allowance to weavers  @ Rs.200/- per day and to the jobbers at Rs.300/- per day as assistance for advance training to power-loom owners/jobbers/workers as training costs for skilled development for power-loom/weaving sector.
9. Technical acquisition and Upgradation
   • Financial assistance upto 50 per cent, with maximum of Rs.25 lakhs per process/product once during the operating period of the scheme, also available for manufacturing textile machinery for technology acquisition for entire value chain.