Investors wait for years to avail Central subsidies

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, June 20

With the Ministry of Commerce and Industry failing to disburse various Central industrial subsidies in time, the investors were forced to wait for years to avail them. Though an annual budgetary provision is set aside by the ministry to grant the various subsidies, which include central investment subsidy (CIS) and transport subsidy, it is far less than the quantum of demand.

The ministry has barely granted Rs 21 crore to the state as CIS this year while claims worth Rs 94 crore were pending with the Industries Department. This has created a piquant situation before the officials as they have to accommodate maximum cases within this budget.

Since the investors had set up their industries in the lure of Central incentives the abysmally slow pace of disbursing these financial incentives had defeated their very purpose. Interestingly, while the 2003 Central industrial package had lapsed, the investors were yet to receive its incentives.

A key industrial unit approached the court as it had not been granted even a penny out of Rs 19 crore claim of transport subsidy till today despite this claim having been approved by the state level committee years ago. The court has now directed the state as well as the Centre to pay the subsidy within 10 weeks, informed an official of the unit.

Information secured from the Industries Department revealed that subsidies to the tune of crores were unpaid since 2012. While Rs 94 crore worth CIS was yet to be paid to the investors, as much as Rs 67 crore of Transport Subsidy and Rs 31 lakh of Freight Subsidy was also yet to be given to the investors.

Director Industries (DI) Rajesh Sharma, when quizzed, said they have been requesting the Central ministry to spare maximum funds for the state so that the pendency could be cleared but only Rs 21 crore have been received as CIS subsidy this year. He said a sum of Rs 60 crore was released for Himachal, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand and this has been apportioned between the three states.

These cases are processed by the state level committee headed by the DI and it also includes a representative of the ministry and such meetings are usually convened twice a year. The last meeting of the committee which approved cases of transport subsidies was held in April this year.