A delegation of Vidarbha Industries Association led by Pravin Tapadia, Past President, Suresh Rathi, IPP of VIA, Rohit Bajaj former Vice President of VIA also accompanied by Shelendra Manawat, Girish Deodhar, Rashmi Kulkarni, Dr Anita Rao, Reeta Lanjewar were also present on this occasion.
Delegation met Hon’ble Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Eknath Shinde, today, 7th April 2024 at Hotel Pride, Nagpur and submitted a detailed memorandum with suggestions related to development of industries regarding restoring the original Vidarbha-Marathwada Energy Incentive Scheme along with further extension of Electricity Duty Exemption, which expired in March 2024, issues of MIDC and Industrial Policy 2024, which is under preparation.
Hon’ble Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Eknath Shinde, welcomed the members and said Government is concentrating on formulating special sectoral policies to enhance the growth and progress of Vidarbha. He further assured that he will incorporate the suggestions and feedback shared by the industrial fraternity and take up the issues with the concerned departments for promptly resolve the same.
While discussing with the Hon’ble Chief Minister, VIA raised issues related to MIDC and MPCB. VIA suggested the need for sectoral policies so that every unit shall be able to avail the benefits of the PSI Scheme. There is a need to have a relook at the exorbitant power costs. Some industries like Steel, Plastic, Food and Farm industries which are highly power intensive are on the verge of closure, especially those in the MSME sector. It is our humble request to kindly provide power at an affordable rate since closure of these industries will not only impact the industrial production but also will cause loss of employment and livelihood.
Rashmi Kulkarni, Chairperson of VIA LEW also submitted a proposal for a women-owned industrial park in Nagpur, to provide dedicated infrastructure and business opportunities to women entrepreneurs.
VIA stressed upon to remove the anomaly in definition of MSME for the purpose of subsidy under Package Scheme of Incentives wherein investment in plant & Machinery upto 50 cr and turnover Rs.250 crores will be considered as MSME. This definition has not yet been adopted by DIC for the purpose of the scheme and they are continuing with the old definition and FSI upto Rs.50 Crores. For special LSI & LSI units as they get the minimum benefits as compared to MSME & Mega units which discourage MSME to graduate to LSI. Surplus claim is carried forward only for one year and deficit is not carried forward. Units shall be allowed to avail the overall amount sanctioned within the tenure.
For expansion & diversification of units to be treated at par with new units for dispensation of incentives under PSI. This will encourage sustainability of the unit planning expansion and to reward continuity of growth of employment and economy in the region.
Incentives for installing solar power for captive use should be encouraged and also to consider the investment under captive power as eligible investment and to de-link the interest subsidy with power bill.
Reintroduce/extend the Industrial Policy for Women Entrepreneurs wherein the subsidy was equal to 100% of fixed capital investment for a further period of five years.
VIA also requested to consider the Full Sale Value as eligible investment in case of resale of MIDC land and also to issue guidelines for units acquired through NCLT and presently no guidelines for the same in the PSI scheme. Many other points were also discussed related to industries.
