Addressing a press conference held in Guwahati on Friday Bajrang Lohia, Vice President, Finer said that any dilution in benefits to industrial units under the old industrial policy will be detrimental to the cause of industries in the North East and that the benefits must be retained for industrialisation and investment in the Region.
"Over the past few weeks, FINER has submitted representations before Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, DoNER minister Dr Jitendra Singh and Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju in New Delhi and discussed issues related to NEIIPP and GST. The team requested for a focussed industrial policy for North East and sought greater clarity on how the Central excise duty refund, currently eligible for Industries set up pursuant to NEIIPP, would continue under the GST regime," Lohia said.
Under the NEIIPP 2007, the units that have come in the North East were promised 100 per cent refund of excise duty paid (i.e. net of Cenvat Credit).
With the announcement of GST, apparently the refunds would be restricted to 58% by the Central government. The fate of the balance 42 % of the refunds accruing is unknown.
Speaking on the occasion, Amit Kumar Jain, Past Vice Chairman, FINER, said that the draft of the new industrial policy was ready but with the GST being rolled out next month, the policy might get a little delayed.
It transpired during the meetings FINER had with Central ministers and bureaucrats that the new industrial policy being prepared will be for three years while the benefits to industrial units in the Region will be for five years.
"The earlier policy had benefitted many industries in the remote areas of the Region and investments by big companies have taken place," Jain said.
While the Goods and Service Tax (GST) is slated for a July 1, 2017 implementation, some crucial issues regarding industries, and with especial reference to Assam and North East, are still unclear.
The issue of how the central excise duty refund, currently eligible for Industries set up pursuant to the NEIPP policy would continue under the GST regime is still not clear as there was no mechanism for it.
In regard to GST, FINER had requested the Centre that there should not be any dilution in refunds and that the promised incentives are not altered under the new regime.
FINER delegation comprising President Pabitra Buragohain and Vice President Bajrang Lohia had on June 20 held discussions with Assam Finance Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma and Industry Minister Shri Chandra Mohan Patowary on and handed over separate representations on Excise refund, other high impact issues under the GST regime.
Both ministers were positive and advised that they would request Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal to immediately write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi impressing upon these issues.
It may be mentioned that FINER had submitted a detailed memorandum incorporating the suggestions for a New Industrial Policy for the North East to NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant on March 15, 2017.
Ever since, FINER has been taking up crucial issues relating to the NEIIPP in a bid to push for restoration of the NEIIPP Policy have a new policy framework in place.
(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
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