Industry raises demands ahead of state Budget

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, February 23

In a bid to speed up investment in the state, the Baddi- Barotiwala- Nalagarh Industries Association (BBNIA) has raised demands ahead of the forthcoming state Budget.

The industry association has demanded creation of a municipal corporation for the BBN area, which houses 89 per cent of the state’s industry in a bid to streamline infrastructure projects. Since different departments execute such works in this industrial belt, it results in inconvenience and confusion, said Sanjay Khurana, president of BBNIA. He said all such works should be routed through a single agency and creation of a municipal corporation will solve this problem.

In order to identify gaps in development, the association has raised another demand of conducting an infrastructure development study of the area and allotment of Rs 250 crore to the municipal corporation to speed up infrastructure development works.

Upgrade of the First Referral Unit at Nalagarh to a multi-specialty hospital to save precious lives lost while taking an accident victim to the PGI Chandigarh has also been raised vociferously. The association also demanded grant of an additional police force to the area for effective traffic management as the area witnesses entry of thousands of vehicles on a daily basis.

Since a majority of the industries are small and micro, a demand to install common fire hydrants for a group of industries has been put forth as space constrain inhibits small investors from doing so. Presence of a full-fledged disaster management team to deal with eventualities was another demand.

Several land-related issues have also been raised by the association. These include easing of procedure for facilitating sale of land under section 118 of the HP Tenancy and Land Reforms Act, 1972, which at present was a cumbersome process.

The association, however, lauded the efforts of the state government to simply permissions under this Act. Reducing circle rates in line with the prevalent market rates to reduce high stamp duty charges was also put forth by the association.

In view of high power tariff, a demand to make the tariff attractive to attract investment and creation of a circle office of the HP State Electricity Board Limited at Baddi has also been put forth, informed Khurana who said this will make the board’s working more effective.

The issue of double taxation also figured in the list of industry demand. Investors once again raised a demand to do away with state-level levies like Certain Goods Carried by Road Tax, Additional Goods Tax and Entry Tax by enacting the necessary legislative amendment to the SGST Act.

A revival policy for the sick units, incentive to the mother industries supporting the Mukhya Mantri Swabhlamban Yojana and undertaking need-based labour reforms have also been voiced to facilitate the industry from certain binding laws.

Demands put forth

• The association has demanded creation of an MC for the BBN area which houses 89 per cent of the state’s industry in a bid to streamline infrastructure projects
• It has demanded an infrastructure development study of the area
• Upgrade of the First Referral Unit at Nalagarh to a multi-specialty hospital to save precious lives lost while taking accident victims to the PGI in Chandigarh has been raised
• Since a majority of the industries are small and micro units, a demand for common fire hydrants for a group of industries has been put forth
• Several land-related issues have also been raised by the association