With the Assembly elections impending in 2018, industrialists and entrepreneurs in Mysuru have decided to make the first move to apprise all political parties of the prevailing economic scenario and submit a wish list for inclusion in their poll manifestos.
This is in a bid to extract promises which, if implemented, could serve the industrial needs of the region where growth is perceived to be slack compared to the potential touted by the government while wooing investors.
A meeting has been convened at Hotel Southern Star in the city on Saturday but the initiative has come from MLA Vasu (Congress) who has arranged an interaction of the stakeholders with the former Union Minister, Veerappa Moily, and other leaders. Mr. Vasu, who is also the president of the Mysore Industries Association, has sought to act as an interface between the Congress and the industrialists and ensure they get to interact with the party big-wigs and present a comprehensive picture of the industrial scenario and what needed to be done.
This is not the first time that the industrial lobby has worked with political parties ahead of elections to extract some poll promises for their collective good. In addition, it is routine for industrialists to submit a detailed wish list ahead of the State budget every year. “But our views are seldom incorporated as we hardly constitute a vote bank,” Suresh Kumar Jain, General Secretary, MIA, said.
What is intriguing to the entrepreneurs is that despite policy announcements made by the government, they are seldom implemented. A case in point is the proposed notification of the industrial township authority to create a single window agency to handle all tax-related issues of industries and delinking the industrial area from the local bodies from all matters related to infrastructure development. Though officially announced in the State budget two years go, it was yet to be notified and implemented.
An immediate “crisis” plaguing the local industrialists is the property tax levied by the local gram panchayats. The rates are not only said to be arbitrary but have been increased almost 5 fold in recent times and it varies from plot to plot, explained Mr. Jain.
The issue was also raised in the past by the stakeholders with the government calling for rationalisation of tax rates on industrial land levied by the local bodies. Property tax on industrial land cannot be levied at commercial rates as land by itself does not yield revenue and this was explained to the authorities but was yet to be resolved, according to the stakeholders.
In addition, there are micro-issues related to infrastructure development of Mysuru and it includes a policy amendment to ensure that water supply to industrial area is not taxed at commercial rates – as it adds to their overhead costs. Mr. Jain said industrialists and economists may send their suggestions to mysurumia@gmail.com.
