Industry Minister adds to confusion on units that have closed down

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 2

Everybody in Punjab —across the political spectrum — claims that industrial units in the state have closed down. But how many units have actually closed down is a matter of dispute.

Punjab Industry Minister Madan Mohan Mittal today tried to clarify on the issue on which a “false propaganda (is) being launched against the Akali-BJP government”. Instead, his statements have only complicated the matter further.

Mittal, during a media interaction called to highlight the achievements of his trip to China to seek investment in Punjab, claimed that only 193 units have closed in the state between 2007 and August 2015.

Flanked by the Principal Secretary, Investment Promotion, Karan Avtar Singh and Director Industry SR Ladhar, the Industry Minister maintained that during the same period, 16,274 new industrial units have come up.

“Every now and then, those opposed to the progress that Punjab is making, including the Opposition parties, maintain that hundreds of industrial units have closed down in the state. I decided to get an exact survey done and the department survey has now clearly established that the number of units that have closed down is 193 only,” he said.

Mittal was replying to queries on why the industry in Punjab was closing shop and taking flight to neighbouring hill states that offered tax concessions.

Denying that the industry from Punjab had shifted base to the tax-exempting states, Mittal said that the state’s industry had only expanded operations in Himachal Pradesh and not shifted their units there.

His statement is contrary to what the Punjab Government affidavit in the Supreme Court says.

In a case filed by the Punjab Government seeking withdrawal of tax concessions to the hill states, Punjab had maintained that 274 industrial units from the state had shifted to the neighbouring hill states, involving an investment of Rs 3,679.79 crore.

Ludhiana was the worst-hit with investment worth Rs 2,027.34 crore shifting to other states while Malerkotla lost an investment of Rs 742.50 crore and Gurdaspur/Batala suffered a loss of Rs 461.11 crore.

Last year, in a reply to the RTI application filed by Jasdeepak Singh, in charge of the RTI Cell of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, the industry department had given him the figure of industry that had closed in Punjab between 2007 and 2013 as 18,770 units. In Mandi Gobindgarh alone, over 600 units are believed to have closed down between 2011 and 2015 and 1.90 KW of electricity load has been permanently disconnected from Punjab State Power Corporation Limited.

However, Mittal today denied these figures and maintained that the number of units that have actually closed down is 193, of which the major units are the ones in Mandi Gobindgarh.