AP dilly-dallying over industrial policy

Amaravati: Abnormal delay in introducing the Industrial Policy by the State Government has led to chaos and confusion among the aspiring industrialists. It has an indirect impact on the prospective industrialists, who wish to come and invest in the State. Since the State government has been postponing the announcement of the policy, there was every chance for the industries to migrate to other States. This would have an indirect impact on the development of State, generation of employment and revenue to the government.

In fact, the Industries Department, the Economic Development Board and the Minister for Industries Mekapati Goutham Reddy personally contacted more than 10,000 industrialists across the globe in the last one year through various platforms like sending emails, writing letters, having direct dialogue and other modes of communications. Whenever the industrialists approach the department, the officials had been telling them to wait till the new industrial policy to be announced. Here the question is, how long the investors should wait and who would wait?

It is worth mentioning here that Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is crystal clear on the proposed New Industrial Policy and showing his commitment in encouraging industries. He has been instructing the Industrial Department to come up with a policy with practically implementable incentives. As a mark of showing commitment in developing industries, the Chief Minister cleared the dues pertaining to industrial incentives since 2014, more than Rs 1000 crore to the MSMEs recently. That created hope in the MSME sector, despite suffering from the COVID19.

It seems that the same spirit and enthusiasm in the officials is not visible now when compared to the time of YSRCP assumed power in 2019. There are many reasons for the delay of the project, including the communication gap between the officials concerned in the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) and the Industries Department. It is worth mentioning that the government has claimed that it would introduce the new policy by September 2019. The Industrial Policy introduced by the then Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu expired in March 2020. Now, after three months there is no policy for the State. Amidst these developments, the Union Government announced certain incentives to the MSMEs for their expansion during the COVID19. The State has been losing the opportunity to tap that central financial assistance too.

On the other hand, the State government has planned many development projects like Industrial Zones, District-specific and Assembly Constituency-specific local manufacturing units and others. But, without having a sound industrial policy, how could the government execute all these initiatives? That remains a million-dollar question. Interestingly, the department is compelled to hold back the already approved Information Technology policy since the Industrial Policy is yet to be introduced.

Meanwhile, Minister Goutham Reddy informed that the policy has got the approval of the Chief Minister and will be introduced shortly.