Business delegtaion meets PM

Guwahatu, Aug 26 (UNI) A business delegation called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the Raj Bhawan here yesterday and apprised him regarding the challenges and potentials before the community of Northeast.

The Federation of Industries for North Eastern Region (FINER) team placed a demand before Dr Singh that BHEL, a PSU having order booking over Rs.50,000 crore, should set up a manufacturing unit in the Northeast, which would be an economically viable proposition for BHEL, particularly because of the attractive incentives available under NEIIPP 2007.

The prime minister was positive about the suggestion, a FINER release informed today.

The delegation also pointed out to the Union Finance ministry's department of Revenue notifications that had arbitrarily changed the mode of calculation of Central Excise refund from their earlier norms which resulted in curtailment of excise duty refundable to eligible units.

The Prime Minister was informed that all the governments in NE are very concerned and have very strongly taken up the issue with the Central Government. The issue was also very strongly taken up at the North Eastern Council (NEC) Plenary Session in Agartala recently.

The FINER requested Dr Singh for the withdrawal of the Central Excise Refund Duty notifications, so that the spirit of the NEIP 1997, NEIIPP, 2007 was restored.

They also apprised the Prime Minister that the industrial units were facing problems with regards to treatment given by the Income Tax Department to various types of incentives such as Transport Subsidy, Excise Duty Refund, Interest Subsidy, Insurance Subsidy, etc. received by these units under the Industrial Policy announcement of the Central / State Government.

Most of the industries are hard hit due to non receipt of these subsidies/incentives and production units have come to virtual halt due to lack of working capital and quite a few of them are on the stage of being declared NPAs, the FINER team informed.

FINER chairman RS Joshi, who led the delegation, also brought to the notice of the Prime Minister that banks in NE need to play a proactive role for the development of the region. The FINER also desired that the capital structure of NEDFI needs to be substantially enhanced and advocated a focused "North East Banking Policy" on the lines of NEIIPP 2007.

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