A little over two years after it came to power, the Mamata Banerjee government finalised its industrial policy, textile policy, and medium and small and micro enterprises (MSME) policy all in one go, saying that public-private-partnership was welcome but a blindfold incentive scheme for setting up industries in the State would not be allowed.
The State government is to continue with its hands-off policy on land acquisition, but said that it would study on a case-by case basis, the requirements of the industry which faces problems on account of holding private land in excess of the land ceiling laws.
Addressing a press meet after a meeting of her cabinet, Ms. Banerjee said that the three policies have been cleared, but fiscal incentives for setting up units in West Bengal would be considered by her government only on the basis of performance by the industries.
“It is often found that industries bag the incentives on various counts, but their performance on parameters like employment generation and production are not upto the mark. We will give incentives only after assessing their performance,” she said, adding that the government was now working out five such conditions on the basis of which the assessment would be made.
“We welcome PPP projects and expect the State’s manufacturing sector to generate employment for 66 lakh people in five years,” Ms. Banerjee said. The MSME policy, approved on Thursday, envisages a doubling of the investment limit to Rs. 10 crore with emphasis on ancillarisation and vendor development.
She laid thrust on cluster development policy saying that every district would have one and industries could be located within such a cluster. She said that Textiles was a neglected segment in the State, although it had a rich tradition and good potential.
Often criticised for not being able to finalise an industrial policy, the State government had sought industry comments on a draft policy a few months back, and Ms. Banerjee had assured the gathering at the Mumbai industry summit that a policy would be readied soon.
