AP Cabinet approves new food processing policy

Hyderabad, Aug 21 (UNI) With a view to encourage food processing units, the Andhra Pradesh Cabinet today gave its nod for a new Food Processing Policy, providing concessions to the units on power tariff, sales tax and interest subsidy, with retrospective effect from April one, 2005.

Based on the Centre's Food Processing policy, the state government came out with the new policy to promote food processing units in a big way in the agro-based State, Information Minister A Ramanarayana Reddy said in a post-Cabinet briefing here.

The salient features of the new policy were reimbursement of cost of electricity at the rate of Re one per unit for five years from April 2005, reimbursement of 25 per cent of Sales Tax paid to the government for five years, interest subsidy at the rate of three per cent over and above the Prime Lending Rate (PLR), cent per cent reimbursement of stamp duty on land purchase and reimbursement of 25 per cent of land cost purchased in industrial estates developed by the State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation, he said.

Those units, which had gone in for commercial production on or after November 14, 2003, were also eligible for reimbursement of cost of power from April 2005, he added.

UNI