The Nocci, premier industry body of north Odisha, on Friday expressed concern over the factory licence fee hike while terming the hike as ‘exorbitant and disproportionate’.
The Nocci has sought intervention of the Chief Secretary for a rollback of the hike.
At a time when the State Government is offering financial incentives to promote industries, such a steep rise in licence fee is self- contradictory, alleged the industry body.
“The fee revision has been notified surreptiously without following usual transparency norms which include taking of opinions and objections from stakeholders concerned,” said Nocci president Devasis Mohanty.
He said Nocci member industries came to know about the hike only from the Factory Inspector Office’s notice board while submitting their renewal applications for this year. The annual factory licence fees were increased by five to 10 times by the labour and ESI Department on September 23, 2015.
“While the Government is trying to encourage setting up of new industries, especially in the MSME sector, the factory license fee hike is counterproductive and a retrograde step,” said Nocci convenor Amit Behera.
He said the minimum annual fee has been hiked 10 times to Rs 6,000 as against earlier Rs 600. Several slabs for fee calculation have been removed. “It has increased the burden on MSME sector. The revised fee structure has made Odisha the most expensive State for factory licence in the country,” he said.
Another member of the association, however, said, “We have learnt that the hike proposal has been kept in abeyance for the current year.”