22-03-2023 : In a meeting of the Executive and Advisory Committee of the Association of Industries held under the chairmanship of its president Sh. Rajesh Jain, the members expressed their anguish over the callous attitude of the administration of J&K UT towards the existing industries. The Industrial Sector of J&K UT is under huge stress.
Association of Industries, Gangyal has always supported J&K Govt. for their move to invite new investors for the Industrial development in J&K UT but we are constrained to mention that Govt. is least interested in the survival of existing units. AOI is of the view that we are the brand ambassador of the Govt. For new investment and the existence and survival of existing industrial units is a basic need to attract new investors to the UT whereas official authorities think otherwise.
J&K Govt's withdrawal of purchase preference leaves hundreds of local/micro/small manufacturers jobless
AOI has been knocking on the doors of various offices for the removal of anomalies in Govt. notifications providing incentives to Local/Micro/Small units but all is still in vain. The unit holders are denied/deprived of the committed and declared incentives only on the basis of some petty avoidable reasons. AOI suggests that Govt. should constitute a committee to find the reasons behind the closure of hundreds of units since last five years. AOI is confident that this fact-finding committee shall bring forth the stress upon which the existing units are running under.
AOI urges Govt. to exempt Property Tax on industries established on private land adjoining industrial estates.
J&K Govt. has withdrawn purchase/preference provided to the local/micro/small manufacturers through industrial policies of 1995,2004,2016 and 2021 for the procurement by the various Governments/Agencies. The withdrawal of purchase preference has left hundreds of local/micro/small manufacturers jobless who are engaged in manufacturing of the material consumed by various Govt. departments such as PDD, PHE, Education, Social Welfare, Forest, Flood Control etc. These units were established to cater to the requirement of such departments. It is pertinent to mention here that the purchase preference is still available in most of the industries developed states where as it is being denied to the entrepreneurs of industrially underdeveloped J&K UT.
Govt. has announced turnover incentives for the existing industries but a budget of a meager amount i.e. 50 crores only has been provisioned against the actual claims of more than 200 crores. It will not be out of context to mention that one year has passed and claims for the year 2021-22 have been filed but up till date not even a single penny has been released on this account.
Govt. is making all efforts to invite new investors who are provisioning employment to the lesser number of youth in proportionate to the high cost of incentives whereas existing industry is providing a higher number of employment with the very meager cost of incentives that too are not available on time.
AOI requests the Hon’ble Lt. Governor that Property Tax may not be levied on the industries established on private land adjoining to the industrial estates.
J&K Govt's withdrawal of purchase preference leaves hundreds of local/micro/small manufacturers jobless
We request Hon’ble Lt. Governor, Chief Secretary, Financial Commissioner, Finance/Industries and Commerce to look into the matter sympathetically and judicially and issue instructions to the concerned authorities to formulate a policy which suits existing industry viz.a.viz purchase preference as otherwise already stressed local/micro/small industry will have to close their shutters rendering thousands of workers jobless.
The members who attended the meeting included S/Sh. Rajesh Jain (President), S.B. Abrol (Vice President), Balram Gupta (Sr. Vice President, Virendra Jain (General Secretary), Vijay Kumar Sharma (Secretary), Lavinder Singh Puri (Treasurer), R.P. Sethi, T.S. Reen, Annil Suri, A.S. Sachdeva, and others.
#JammuAndKashmir #IndustrialSector #ExistingIndustries #Investment #LocalManufacturers #MicroSmallUnits #Incentives #PropertyTax #PolicyChanges #JobLoss #Survival #FactFindingCommittee