The new draft of the industrial policy brought out by the government endeavours to take measures to retain Puducherry as the “Hardware Capital of India”, while laying renewed emphasis on manufacturing and Information Technology and Information Technology Enabled Services. A Steering Committee with representation from the line departments and stakeholders will be constituted to ensure implementation of the incentives and concessions as provided in the said policy. The new policy proposes that both fiscal incentives and other institutional support will be available only for thrust area industries. However, there will be an exclusive package for the focus sectors within the thrust area for those industries which can be cost-competitive, generate good employment opportunities and are clean and green.
The thrust industries are electronics biotechnology, food-processing, agro-processing including marine products, leather products and footwear industries, light engineering industries, including auto components, and textile industries including garments. These have been identified as New Thrust Area industries (NTA)
An information technology special economic zone in Puducherry has been proposed in the policy. With a thriving hardware industry, forward linkages will be established with software industry including ITES, call centres, BPO and back office centres.
NTA Industries, which had started production on or after April 2003, would be eligible for subsidy on the investments made on plant and machinery at 20% thereon, subject to a maximum of Rs 20 lakh for large and medium enterprises and 35%, subject to a maximum of Rs 30 lakh for small and micro enterprises, during the period of operation of the scheme.
To promote industrial growth in Karaikal, a 5% additional capital investment subsidy has been proposed for the region. The government has amalgamated and modified all the existing schemes into one scheme - “Motivation of Entrepreneurs to Start Industries & Fiscal Assistance to Industries.”
Employment of Locals:
To encourage local employment, an employment incentive subsidy of 20 per cent of the wage salary (maximum of Rs 5 lakh), will be given to these units, providing direct employment to at least 10 persons and at least 60 per cent of employment to local people.
For projects in environment and waste management, the government will reimburse the VAT charged on electricity consumption charges for five years. Self-certification by industry will be encouraged. All the monitoring data will be posted on the PPCC website.
Setting up of special investment regions for promoting industries and strengthening of industrial infrastructure has been proposed. Clearances and approvals by various department with a time limit have been fixed.
A committee under the Secretary (Industries) would review the status of the clearances. Further, a scheme to forward common applications for industrial clearances has also been conceived under the draft policy.