Punjab will become industrial powerhouse that powers country: Gurkirat Singh

Chandigarh, December 1, 2021: “Punjab is not only headed towards a promising future, but the State Government will take all possible steps to ensure that it becomes the industrial powerhouse that powers the country,” said  Gurkirat Singh,  Minister for Industries, Commerce, IT & Science and Technology, Punjab, while addressing an Interactive session at Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Chandigarh, here today.

Punjab Government has recently reached the historic milestone of having investments worth INR 1.02 Lakh crores under various stages of implementation. More than 52% of these projects have achieved commercial production & another 36% are in various stages of construction. He added, I am very hopeful that India’s leading industrial houses with national / international presence but are not yet present in Punjab will soon make Punjab their home.
 
For developing urban and industrial infrastructure, the state government has adopted the cluster approach and have augmented the land bank in Punjab to encompass more than 6,000 acres by developing 3 mega industrial parks in Ludhiana, Bathinda and Patiala. As a business centric Government, we have identified the needs of the industry especially in terms of Infrastructure, Ease of Doing Business, Fiscal & Non-Fiscal Incentives etc.
 
I am happy to share that the State Government has already notified announcements such as Abolishment of institutional tax, Elimination of 50% electricity fixed charges for medium industries, Relaxation of rules for width of approach roads for industries, Extension of Punjab Right to Business Act 2020 to expansion units, Exemption from CLU for standalone industrial units.
 
Bhavdeep Sardana, Chairman, CII Punjab State & Sr VP & CEO, Sukhjit Starch & Chemicals Limited, said, “Though the successive governments have tried adopting the path of reforms in some key sectors such as Governance, Agriculture, Power & Industry, but we feel that there is a considerable scope of improvement in our implementation strategies, besides irrespective of Government in power, continuity in policies & programs, would help us in achieving the desired results.”
 
Dr P J Singh, Convenor, CII Punjab Policy Advocacy Panel & Chairman & Managing Director, Tynor Orthotics Limited, said, “We understand due to several constraints state government may not be able to offer many fiscal incentives to the industry beyond a point.  However, we firmly believe that state within its means can take several positive measures to attract investments. Some of them include facilitating ease of doing business, grant of permits and licenses, providing clearances within stipulated time or making them deemed approvals in most of the cases as far as possible and most importantly implementing the policies on ground in its true letter and spirit.”
 
Amit Jain, Managing Director, Shingora Textiles Limited, said, “Besides presenting the suggested CII Punjab Election Manifesto for upcoming Assembly Elections in early 2022, the objective of this interaction is to develop a broad vision for the overall development of the state and make it future-ready.”
 
Harpreet Singh Sandhu, Chairman, Punjab Information & Communication Technology Corporation Limited, said, “Covid-19 has demonstrated the importance of digital randomness which allowed business to continue their operations. Through Infotech and through our technology, we plan to go towards the online mode to give a full big bang to the ongoing corruption and to save time of our people of Punjab.”