Kolkata, Oct 31 — West Bengal's draft industrial policy, which has been cleared by the state Cabinet earlier this week, will mainly focus on two aspects: the first being the removal of unnecessary government regulations for investment proposals and the second being quick approvals for the proposals, state government sources said.
"At the same time, there will be proposals for the resurrection of the state’s incentive policy for the investors, which was done away with during the previous Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress regime, in a more structured and comprehensive manner. The draft industrial policy had been designed as per the policies adopted by industrially developed states," a state government official said.
The state cabinet cleared the draft industrial policy on October 28, and it will be announced after an administrative review meeting at the state Secretariat 'Nabanna' on November 5.
“In the past, there had been several complaints from investors and industry bodies about some unnecessary regulations that potential investors had to go through to get clearance for their project. They have also complained about unnecessary delays in getting project clearances because of bureaucratic red-tapism. So, the draft industrial policy had specifically focused on these two aspects," the official said.
Although the official refused to spell out details regarding the proposed incentive scheme, he said the focus would be on attracting investment to backward areas so that industrial projects developed there can be linked to socio-economic development in the area.
"The incentives can be in the form of waiver of electricity tariff for the initial years of project implementation and operations, state government bearing a certain percentage of interest on loan for that taken by the entrepreneur concerned and reimbursement of the company’s contribution in employees' provident fund, among others," the official said.
After taking charge as the ninth Chief Minister of West Bengal in May this year, Suvendu Adhikari announced that a comprehensive new industrial policy of the state government will be formulated and announced within the current year to facilitate big-ticket investment in the state.
Accordingly, a group of ministers was entrusted with the task of drawing up the new policy in June, and it was prepared and cleared by the state Cabinet in its meeting on October 28.
According to the Chief Minister, the new industrial policy had been prepared with the focus of creating an ideal investment ambience in the state, removing red-tapism in approvals, and ensuring massive employment generation.