Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 9: Federation of Industries Jammu (FoIJ) has out rightly rejected the notification issued by Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India, wherein, scheme of budgetary support under Goods and Service Tax (GST) regime to the units located in the J&K has been announced.
In an emergency meeting held here today, under the chairmanship of Rattan Dogra, entrepreneurs were unanimous of the opinion that all the protection/ incentives available prior to the implementation of GST regime have been abruptly, simultaneously withdrawn resulting in dilution of fiscal incentives available to the entire population of MSME units established mostly in Jammu region. They said units which were covered under notification No. 01-2010 factored this incentive for a period of ten years from the date of production / substantial expansion. Now, this notification abruptly reduces both the quantum and time period and is a clear cut case of ‘promissory estoppel’ by the Government of India.
The fiscal incentives available to entrepreneurs in J&K State were entirely different from those available to industries in Himachal Pradesh and Uttrakhand. The notification No. 01-2010 dated 06-02-2010 was alive in J&K and all those units which would have been established upto the year 2020 and those existing units which undertook substantial expansion were entitled to fiscal incentives for additional 10 years from their corresponding date of production. By equating with the States of Himachal Pradesh and Uttrakhand, all eligible units in J&K have been divested of their bonafide rights and claims. The notifications as appears to be first step towards forced closure of existing units mostly in MSME sector providing large scale employment to local population.
This notification completely excludes new industries, existing industries from expanding and all existing small industries working under exemption.
Federation firmly believes that this step shall ultimately result in affecting the economic viability of the entire population of existing industries besides discouraging establishing of new units. Federation has been repeatedly assured both by Central and State Governments that industrial units in J&K shall continue to be provided all the fiscal incentives available to the units prior to GST regime. The notification as issued by Ministry of Commerce & Industry is not in consonance with the assurances provided to the local units time and again.
It appears that the State Government has not been able to forcefully project the gravity of the situation with the Central Govt. agencies and it appears industry has a very low priority in the eyes of State Govt.
The meeting was attended by Lalit Mahajan, Ajit Bawa, Romesh Badyal, Vijay Aggarwal, Ajay Langer, Viraaj Malhotra, Vivek Singhal, Bansi Lal Gupta, Pardeep Vaid, Ashok Jain, Sandeep Ohri and a large number of prominent entrepreneurs.
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