Badal family tussle delays relief to food processing industry

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 26

A tussle between the departments of Investment Promotion and Food Processing, headed by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and his brother-in-law Adaish Partap Singh Kairon, respectively, has held up the grant of concessions to the food processing industry in the state.

During the Invest Punjab Summit organised by the state government in October 2015, Sukhbir had announced that purchase tax, value-added tax and CST (central sales tax) would not be imposed on inputs for the food processing sector. It was also announced that when the Goods and Services Tax (GST) would be rolled out, the state would forego its share (15 per cent) of the tax to this sector. The Cabinet is yet to ratify the announcements and subsequently issue a notification.

Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who heads the Union Food Processing Ministry, has been promoting Punjab as an investment destination in the sector.

Official sources said the Kairon-headed Food Processing Department failed to bring the agenda for the concessions before the Council of Ministers, forcing the Investment Promotion Department to do so at the August 10 Cabinet meeting.

Sources told The Tribune that when the matter came up for discussion, there were talks between Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Sukhbir and Kairon, following which the agenda was withdrawn. It was stated that the agenda would be brought before the Cabinet by the Food Processing Department at the next meeting, scheduled for mid-September.