STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: The Chamber of Commerce and Industries (CCI) on Monday highlighted the issues and demands of Industrialist and traders before Additional Chief Secretary, Industries & Commerce, Vivek Bhardwaj.
The CCI delegation headed by its President Arun Gupta met Bhardwaj and apprised him about the burning issues of the business fraternity and also submitted a memorandum for early consideration. Several issues of industry and trade in Jammu region came for discussion under a congenial atmosphere wherein the Commissioner & Additional Chief Secretary, Industries & Commerce assured full support.
The issues which came up for discussion included demand of inclusion of separate clause of land value / stamp duty rates with respect to land which is to be registered for Industrial Units on the lines of other states as the commercial notified rates are too high, extension in validity period beyond June 30, 2022 as some industrial units could not start production well within the stipulated time period due to certain unavoidable hindrances like delay in loan sanction, non issuance of NOC from PCB, etc, therefore the units which have taken effective steps should be granted extension in validity of provisional registration for at least one year, extension of Central Package-2021 to existing industries under substantial expansion, grant of benefits of industry to hotels and lodges because tourism was declared an industry in the year 1995 but unfortunately the benefits of industries were not given to the hapless hotel industry till date, removal of negative list as this will enable the local industry to compete with outsiders, provide ownership rights to sons of the soil by formulating a scheme allowing ownership rights of lease hold industrial land to local entrepreneurs after a period of 25 years of the first/original allotment of land that too with nominal conversion fee from lease hold to free hold, restore power amnesty scheme as the one offered during the lockdown period could not be availed by the industries due to complete or partial shutdown and trader fraternity facing financial crunch, revisit the decision of hike in power tariff as JPDCL’s proposal for 70 percent hike will affect the industry badly.
The other Office bearers of CCI present in the meeting include Anil Gupta, Sr. Vice President CCI, Rajeev Gupta, Jr. Vice President CCI, Gaurav Gupta, Secretary General and Rajesh Gupta, Secretary.
Giving a patient hearing to the CCI delegation, Bhardwaj assured early redressal of the above said issues.