Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said that concessions such as capital gains tax exemption and liberalised labour and environmental laws would be given to those who set up units in the defined National Industrial Manufacturing Zones (NIMZ).
Expressing concern over the declining growth in manufacturing, Mr. Sharma said the State governments had to provide land banks for setting up such manufacturing zones for boosting industrial growth and creating employment opportunities. Mr. Sharma was addressing a meeting of State Chief Secretaries and Principal Secretaries (Industry) on the issue of manufacturing here on Thursday.
Stating that his Ministry had strong reservations on the new Land Acquisition Bill, Mr. Sharma said public purpose would have to be clearly defined and public purpose had to improve before the new Bill took the shape of a law.
Under the National Manufacturing Policy (NMP), the government has proposed to set up National Investment and Manufacturing Zones (NIMZs). NIMZs are conceptualised as integrated industrial townships of at least 50 sq. km (5,000 hectares) with state-of-the-art infrastructure. The NMP aims to increase the share of the sector to at least 25 per cent by 2020 from the present 16 per cent. It also aims at creating 100 million jobs by 2020.
The government has notified nine NIMZs — one each in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh; two in Rajasthan and three in Maharashtra. The decline in manufacturing sector growth pulled down the overall industrial expansion to just 0.1 per cent in July, as per the data released on Wednesday.
Cabinet Secretary Ajith Seth said the government was contemplating announcing several policy measures to arrest the slowdown and boost investments. “Several policy measures are on the anvil to prop up investment climate,” he told the meeting.
Observing that the Indian economy had strong fundamentals, Mr. Seth told reporters that the government was committed to see that there was a growth momentum. “We are in the inter-dependent world where we cannot be immune to whatever is happening in the global economy. So things are difficult, and challenging in many countries in the world,” he added.
Keywords: National Industrial Manufacturing Zones, national manufacturing policy, special incentives, Anand Sharma
