New Delhi, Apr 24 (KNN) Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal recently approached the Centre to permit continuation of the existing North East Industrial Investment Promotion Policy (NEIIPP) that expired in March this year.

Commenting upon the significance of the policy, the CM said that the NEIIPP has led to the significant growth of industrial investment in the State up to Rs 5000 crores; he said this during a governing council meeting at the NITI Aayog.

Talking to KNN, R.S Joshi, Chairman of Federation of Industry and Commerce of the North Eastern Region (FINER) explained the need for the NEIIPP for MSMEs, he said that the policy has been instrumental to strengthen the industrial sector of the state.

“The contribution of the Industry to the GDP of the state went up, this was an outcome of the successful NEIIP policy” he added.

Stating its importance for the MSME sector, Joshi further said that of the total industry in state, 60-70 per cent are the MSMEs. The various incentives and subsidies that the government offered under the NEIIPP helped the micro and small enterprises flourish.

Commenting upon the undue suspension of the policy in 2014, he said that the abrupt halt in the policy had already brought in lot of damage to the sector. Though we were able to achieve good figures, but these figures would have been much higher had there not been the uncalled suspension of the policy.

“The state of Assam cannot compete with other states as of now, the government must ensure a proper ‘level-playing field’ for us, this can be facilitated by the continuation of the existing NEIIP policy” he further added. (KNN/ DA)