Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 17: The Industrial Association, Ghatti (Kathua) has drawn the urgent attention of the Government of India and relevant stakeholders towards critical issues being faced by investors and industrialists under the New Central Sector Scheme (NCSS), 2021 for Industrial development of Jammu & Kashmir.
Addressing a joint press conference at Jammu today, members of the Association said the scheme was launched with the noble intention of bringing economic growth, employment, and industrial prosperity to the region. Its current implementation has posed severe challenges to genuine investors who have committed large capital and resources based on the policy assurances.
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Anil Sharma (CA) pointed out that investors have committed massive capital in setting up units-buying land, constructing buildings, purchasing machinery, and arranging manpower. Many have taken substantial loans from banks, based on the assurance of subsidy support under the NCSS. If registration is not granted and subsidies not disbursed, it will cripple these industries financially and push many into insolvency.
Sharma said the process to obtain registration involved time-consuming and costly steps, including land acquisition, CLU, NOCs from Pollution Department, EM-I from DIC, bank appraisals, sanction letters, and GST registration-resulting in delays beyond investors’ control. These delays were systemic and unavoidable, and investors should not be penalized for them.
He further said that the registration portal was closed on July 26, 2024 citing fund exhaustion but was unexpectedly reopened on August 9, 2024, further misleading investors into believing funds were available. Later on, it was released by the Department that the fund has been exhausted on July 10, 2024, if the fund was exhausted on July 10, 2024, then why portal was closed on July 26, 2024 and why it was re-opened on Aug 9, 2024.
Another member Ajay Choudhary said that there has been no live dashboard or transparent data made available regarding actual fund utilization. This opacity has led to widespread confusion and misled investors on the availability of funds. He said the scheme had a total outlay of Rs 28,400 crore, with a provision to register units up to 115% of this budget. However, contrary to this guideline, the concerned department is not issuing registrations beyond Rs 28,400 Crore, effectively stalling eligible projects. This has excluded hundreds of serious investors despite their timely applications and full compliance. The department’s rigid stance is putting genuine investors at an unfair disadvantage.
Nitish Gupta said that Industrialists from across India have heavily invested in Jammu & Kashmir, backed by large bank loans. If these projects are stalled due to lack of registration or subsidy, it will likely lead to loan defaults, burdening banks with increased NPAs. These stalled units will inevitably default on bank loans, leading to a rise in Non-Performing Assets (NPAs). This will not only hit investors but also undermine the financial sector’s stability in the region.
He referred to the security related challenges, high cost of production, frequent power crisis, high risk to MSME sector in J&K.
Parvesh Bansal and other members requested the Prime Minister Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Minister of Commerce & Industry, Piyush Goyal to urgently intervene and increase the financial outlay of the scheme, honor commitments made to investors who fulfilled eligibility within the stipulated timeline, ensure transparency in fund utilization and address power and infrastructure bottlenecks that are hampering industrial progress in the Union Territory.
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