Blue Star to take a final call on setting up Samba unit by June

Vijay C Roy

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 16

Air-conditioner maker Blue Star will take a final call on setting up greenfield manufacturing unit in J&K by June. The company said it was awaiting the state government’s response on fiscal incentives.

The company, in 2016, had announced to invest Rs 150 crore in setting up new unit at Samba in Jammu. At that time, every company was offered exemption from Central excise duty for 10 years for setting up a greenfield unit. However, with the rollout of GST such exemption has been withdrawn.

“We were contemplating to set up a unit in Jammu to serve northern and western markets. The total exemption in central excise duty leads to saving of at least 4% per unit. If we take into consideration the transportation cost, then the saving comes out to be 2.6% per unit. Since these benefits have been withdrawn now, it doesn’t make sense to set up a unit in J&K. However, the state government has told us that they are in discussion with the Central government and we have been asked to wait. So we will take a final call only after June,” said CP Mukundan Menon, president — sales & marketing, product business, Blue Star Ltd. He was in the city to launch 40 new models of room air-conditioners.

He said they will shelve the plan if the proposed sops are not extended.