New Delhi, Nov 29 Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Sukhu called on Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal here and sought a special industrial package that expired in March 2010.
He said in order to ensure balanced regional development “it is the need of the hour that a special industrial package on the lines of Jammu and Kashmir and northeastern states should be provided to the state,” a statement said on Friday.
He also urged to restart the transport subsidy scheme for hilly areas like Himachal Pradesh keeping in view high logistic costs due to rugged terrain.
He said this would go a long way in promoting industrial production and boosting exports.
The Chief Minister also requested to provide funds for industrial infrastructure development projects, quality testing labs and certification labs for export promotion, etc.
He also requested for releasing pending amount of capital subsidy under Industrial Development Scheme and sanctioning pending cases under it at the earliest.
The Union Minister assured that the issues raised would be examined and that all possible support to the state would be extended.
In Himachal Pradesh, the special industrial package had lured investments in the pharmaceutical, food processing, textile, packaging and light engineering sectors.
The industrial policy and other concessions during the package for Himachal Pradesh were announced on January 7, 2003, for a period of 10 years, as Himachal along with Uttarakhand had lagged in industrial development.
The objective was to provide the required incentives and enabling environment for industrial development, improve the availability of capital and increase market access to provide fillip to private investment.
Himachal had attracted 300 per cent more investment as compared to the pre-incentive package level. On average, total investment generated in Himachal is above Rs 12,500 crore and the number of units set up has grown by 28 per cent while growth in employment generation is more than 33 per cent.
Tourism as well as horticulture and hydropower generation are major contributors to Himachal Pradesh's economic development.
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