Despite Union Finance Ministry having turned down the State’s demand for excise duty exemption, the Union Commerce Ministry has once again recommended the case of Himachal Pradesh with full justification, said Union Trade and Commerce Minister Anand Sharma.
“The capital subsidy scheme that stood expired on January 7, 2013 has been extended to March 31, 2017 and a more liberal freight subsidy scheme had been introduced in place of the earlier transport central subsidy scheme,” said Sharma. Sharma was in State capital and held a high level meeting with the State Government.
The Union Minister later announced approval of a number of projects and declared that a regional centre of prestigious Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) would be set up in the city. “This institute would help in capacity building, especially for small and medium enterprise (SME),” added Sharma. He added that the state would have to provide five acres of land for setting up the regional centre.
Sharma announced Rs 30 crore as the block grant for the first year followed by annual grants of Rs 10 crore. The state had proposed five new projects that involve an investment of about Rs 165 crore, said Sharma while adding that the Detailed Project Reports (DPR) would be submitted by December 15. The project proposed by the state includes Rs 100 crore integrated townships project at Pandoya (Una district), Dabhota (Solan district) and Kandrori (Kangra district).
The state has also sought Rs 15 crore for a central effluent treatment plant at Tahliwal of Una, Rs 20 crore for road infrastructure at Gondpur area and Rs 15 crore each for improving transmission in Tahliwal and Poanta Sahib industrial areas. Sharma also announced in principal approval for six other projects worth Rs 94.5 crore, which included a warehouse project (Rs 26.89 crore) for Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh, a pharma testing lab (Rs 8.09 crore) for Baddi cluster, container parking facility (Rs 11.13 crore) for Baddi Barotiwala area, for electrical infrastructure development (Rs 12.34 crore) in Kala Amb, setting up an effluent treatment plant (Rs 20 crore) at Kala Amb and improving power supply (Rs 16.05) at places, where export oriented units were located.
The Minister also informed that a regional center of tea board at Palampur would be set up and that pilot project for growing coffee would be tried out in Bilaspur, Sundernagar and Palampur areas of the state. In response to a query about increasing duty on imported apples, so as to protect the domestic apple growers, the Minister said that the bound duty under GATT had already been increased to maximum level and could not be increased any further.
Regarding trade in apples from SAFTA countries, he said it was too miniscule to impact the prices in India.