The Utkal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (UCCI) on Tuesday came down heavily on the Comptroller and Auditor General of India ( CAG) report published on Monday on Industrial Development Corporation of Odisha (IDCO) and termed it baseless and prejudiced and said the CAG had not made an in-depth study.
The CAG report had questioned DCO’s competency for issuing mortgage rights both in the mega and MSME sectors and stated that industries are raising huge loans from different financial loans by mortgaging IDCO land. Besides, CAG had also raised objection about the procedure of allotment of land by the IDCO to the industries.
UCCI president Ramesh Mohapatra said the IDCO has inherent power to give permission to mortgage land to the allotees as regular practice since inception and issuing NOCs to the allotees to mortgage land to raise finance from the financial institutions. As per the IDCO Act such a move is allowed. Again to make the process transparent IDCO had moved the Government and the State Cabinet has also permitted IDCO for granting such permission, Mohapatra said.
Regarding the CAG’s comment that industries have taken huge money by mortgaging IDCO land, he said as per normal practice every industry has to mortgage their land and building along with the machinery to the financial institutions to take loans to set up industries. So, the CAG’s comment that there is a nexus between the IDCO and industries is not true, he said. On the CAG’s objection about the process of allotment of land by the IDCO, the UCCI said IDCO has a transparent way of allotment of land .For small scale industries they get a recommendation from the Single Window System where the respective district Collectors are the Chairman. In case of mega and large industries IDCO gets the clearance of Single Window System through IPICOl and the proposals are passed by a committee where the Chief Secretary is the Chairman.
UCCI secretary Debabrata Dash said MSMEs are not getting adequate working capital and fixed capital loans from the banks which is a major cause of sickness of industries. The CAG report would further precipitate the situation and the financial institutions will stop extending support to the MSMEs and those of which are running will suffer. Such activism by CAG would jeopadise industrial growth and demoralise the entrepreneurs, Dash said