The Utkal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (UCCI), which completed 50 years of its existence on January 13, presented a memorandum to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday at a meeting held here to mark its golden jubilee where Patnaik was the chief guest.
UCCI president Ramesh Mahapatra presented the list of requests which included rationalisation of VAT and input credits to the downstream industries in the aluminium and steel sectors, creation of a separate corporation under the MSME Department to create infrastructure for the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) as the IDCO is too focused on large industries, opportunity to the UCCI to draft a new IPR as the one in use now is seven years old and asking the power distribution companies to procure their materials from MSMEs under the CAPEX programme.
The memorandum also urged the CM to ensure that the 15 units, from whom the IPICOl has accepted partial payments under the OTS scheme floated earlier, are allowed to avail the full provisions of that scheme instead of pushing them into the new OTS scheme on the anvil.
An exhibition scheduled from February 22 to 26 was also announced by Mahapatra with a request to the CM to inaugurate it.
Guest of honour Agriculture Minister Debi Prasad Mishra said the State is the second in the country to have a specific Agriculture Policy, but it is better than that of Karnataka in its scope and incentive structure.
The Chief Minister mentioned policy initiatives taken by the Government to catalyse industrial growth in the State. He referred to the report of the Reserve Bank of India in 2013 mentioning the State as the most attractive location in the country for investment. He added that the 12th Plan growth figures for the State would even be better than the previous one and exhorted the UCCI to take advantage of it and contribute to the growth rate.
Hearing aids were distributed to handicapped children as part of the CSR activities of the UCCI. A vote of thanks was offered by UCCI secretary Debabrata Dash.