GUWAHATI, Nov 26 - The Government of India has revived the North East Industrial and Investment Promotion Policy, 2007 with major modifications, with the basic aim being to give a boost to small-scale industries.
The Union Ministry of Commerce and Industries, by a notification, said the policy through which a package of incentives and concessions were given to promote industrialisation in the eight Northeast states, was suspended with effect from December 1, 2014 to review the outcome of the implementation of the same. After the review, the Centre, by a notification issued on November 22, revived the same but made some major modifications in it.
Official sources told The Assam Tribune that the freight subsidy given to the industries under the policy has been withdrawn. The freight subsidy was earlier termed as transport subsidy and from 2013 onwards it came to be termed as freight subsidy. Sources admitted that there were lots of allegations about misuse of the transport or freight subsidy and the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) had also pointed out a number of irregularities in the same. However, the transport or freight subsidy might have helped day-to-day functioning of the industries, but that did not help much in asset creation, the sources said.
Earlier, there was no limit for capital investment subsidy. But, as per the new notification, the capital investment subsidy will be limited to Rs 5 crore for the industrial units operating in the manufacturing sector, and to Rs 3 crore for the units operating in the service sector. Sources said that this was being done to give a boost to the small-scale units.
Similarly, the interest subsidy will be limited to term loans up to Rs 10 crore, the notification said.
The notification further said that from now on, the subsidies payable to the industrial units would be disbursed through direct benefit transfer mechanism by the Chief Controller of Accounts (Industry), for which the units would have to register themselves on the e-payment portal by providing requisite documents. The quantum of eligible subsidies will be based on the recommendations of the state-level committee and credited directly into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries after due check, verification and audit, the notification said.