The Telangana budget for 2018-19 has proposed ₹1,286 crore for the Industries and Commerce Department, more than 30% increase compared to ₹985.14 crore allocated for the current fiscal.
A chunk of the proposed spend would be under the Scheme Expenditure, which includes industrial incentives that the government extends to new units, while the rest would be under Establishment Expenditure. The budget proposal is bound to bring cheer to unit holders awaiting payment of the incentives.
According to the budget documents, the Revised Estimates for 2017-18 of the department is ₹856.61 crore.
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Finance Minister Eatala Rajender said the TS i-PASS legislation was yielding good results.
“Large scale investments are pouring into the State. Permissions have been granted to 6,206 industries. Besides attracting huge investments of about ₹1.18 lakh crore, employment opportunities have been created to about 4.47 lakh people. A total of 3,703 units have commenced operations,” he said.
Seeking to highlighting the efforts to develop the pharma sector, he said a medical devices park would come up in Sangareddy district on 250 acres and arrangements were being made for the proposed pharma city in Ranga Reddy district. Land has been allotted for a mega food park at Buggapadu in Khammam district.
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The Federation of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FTAPCCI) president Srinivas Gowra appreciated the government’s effort in attracting more investments and said the projects would create more employment. Additional allocation would have helped take care of the pending incentives.
The budget is farmer-oriented as well as focused on development and welfare of the minority, SC and ST, he said in a release.