North Eastern industries call for stable policy to bolster investors confidence

Guwahati, May 5 (KNN) In an interactive session on North Eastern Industrial Development Scheme (NEIDS), the Assam government expressed their views and concerns to the Centre demanding that the scheme should be stable to bolster investors’ confidence in the system.

The Federation of Industry and Commerce of North Eastern Region (FINER) held a discussion in this regard earlier this week.

During the session, the additional chief secretary, industry and commerce, Ravi Capoor, told the joint secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Vandana Kumar, that NEIDS should be stable and "goalposts cannot change at short intervals.”

Commenting over the policy stability, he said that the policy should be sound and stable so that investors’ have confidence in the system and do not have apprehensions regarding policy shifts at short intervals.

The meeting was addressed by a senior team of the department of industrial policy and promotion, ministry of industries and commerce led by Kumar.

Further, Capoor stated that the Centre should take action against companies who are misusing the industrial policy.

In a bid to make the state a destination of investments , state industrial policy would be formulated and announced very soon by the state government which will go much beyond the expectations and provide lucrative incentives to industry, said Capoor.

Kumar in his address stated that though policy has been formulated with the intent of promoting investments in the regions, it also focuses on the generation of employment in manufacturing and the services sectors.

According to Kumar, the scope of incentives to the service sector has been widened to embrace many more possible ventures.

Appreciating the efforts of the State and DIPP in bringing out NEIDS, Abhijit Barooah, Director of FINER said that the policy does not cover benefits to the existing units.

In this direction, he requested the DIPP officials to look again at this policy so that existing units bring in more investments.

At this juncture, when region including Assam is prospering and showing signs of stability and yearning for investments and employment generation the policy has been launched in the region said, Finer President Pabitra Buragohain

Besides Capoor, the session was attended by senior officials of the department. Participants included many Finer members comprising industry captains from mega, large and MSME sectors.