Finance Minister Harpal Cheema calls on Jalandhar industrialists, seeks Budget ideas

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 9

A month after the AAP formed the government in the state, Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema held a meeting with local industrialists here on Monday. This came as a breath of fresh air for the unit owners, who said earlier the ministers would call on them near the elections. The minister sought their suggestions ahead of the Budget.

Several industrialists took part in the meeting and apart from giving suggestions, they also raised their long-pending issues. Prevention of MSMEs from Inspector Raj was one of the issues that was discussed.

Charanjit Singh Maingi, general secretary, Jalandhar Chamber of Industries and Commerce, said the process of getting even a small work done is so cumbersome with lots of formalities involved that a unit owner gets harassed by government department officials which force industrialists to bribe them to get their works at the earliest.

Tajinder Singh Bhasin, another industrialist, said there should be no requirement of change of land use (CLU) or NOC for the land which is reserved for industries in the master plan. “After 1991, there was no proper focal point for setting up industries in Jalandhar. The only provision is to purchase as per master plan 2001-2030, but we have to get the CLU/NOC even for industrial land reserved for industries as per the master plan. We had held a meeting last year with Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal where this issue was discussed, to which he had agreed and had assured us that there would be no requirement of CLU or NOC if the government came to power,” he apprised the minister, adding that now it was their duty to implement the same.

The industrialists also asked the minister to provide proper infrastructure in industrial areas. They said there was no proper funds or planning for the basic infrastructure in these areas. So, in the upcoming budget, focus should be on this issue.

Ravinder Dhir from the Khel Udyog Sangh also mailed his concern to the minister. He also raised the old issue of 18 per cent GST on sports goods and gym equipment accessories. Notably, such high GST on sports goods has been troubling the sports unit owners for a long time now, but this issue has not been resolved so far. Lack of technical manpower and Research and Development (R and D) centre is another matter that has been written in the mail.

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