Budget announcement on corporatization of Industrial Estates in J&K gathering dust

*No focus on setting up Business Incubators in capital cities
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 14: Making mockery of the announcements made in the Budget, the PDP-BJP Coalition Government has failed to initiate any step towards corporatization of Industrial Estates and setting up of Business Incubators for sunrise industries in the capital cities of Jammu and Srinagar during the past nearly one year. Moreover, there is absolutely on focus on the part of Finance Department to bring several Corporations out of losses by providing them sufficient financial support.
While presenting Budget for the financial year 2016-17 in the Legislative Assembly at Srinagar on May 30, 2016, the Finance Minister Dr Haseeb Drabu had announced that the Industrial Estates in the State will be reorganized to function as a corporate entity within the aegis of SIDCO/SICOP in order to make each one of them as a profit centre.
He had also announced that Industrial Estates will become Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) of the Corporations or operating companies be it SIDCO or SICOP. “In essence, the Industrial Estates will effectively be corporatized and each estate will have an Estates Manager, who will be the Chief Executive Officer of the Industrial Estate and all the unit holders within the estate will form management committee. Each Industrial Estate will then have an income and expenditure statement and a balance sheet which will be audited annually”, the Finance Minister had stated amidst thumping of desks by the MLAs of the ruling PDP-BJP Coalition Government.
The Finance Minister had even gone to the extent of mentioning that one third of the income of the Industrial Estates by way of rents and other earnings shall be mandatorily deployed for the upkeep, maintenance and up-gradation of the assets and infrastructure of the estates.
Though nearly one year has lapsed since this Budget announcement yet not even a single step has been initiated to translate the same into reality, official sources told EXCELSIOR, adding “the intensity of the non-serious approach towards the Budget announcement can be gauged from the fact that the Finance Minister has even failed to give any road-map in this regard to the Industries and Commerce Department till date”.
“Actually, no discussion was held between Finance and Industries and Commerce Departments before the Finance Minister made announcement regarding corporatization of Industrial Estates and this is the main reason behind no progress on the decision”, sources said, adding “generally, there should have been hectic parleys between the Finance and the concerned departments before incorporation of any decision in the Budget speech but this aspect was completely ignored vis-à-vis corporatization of Industrial Estates”.
Similar is the fate of the announcement made in the Budget for 2016-17 financial year with regard to setting up of Business Incubators for sunrise industries in the capital cities of Srinagar and Jammu, sources informed.
The Finance Minister had stated that Business Incubators will provide finances, branding and marketing support to the entrepreneurs in order to provide necessary support to the new breed of young entrepreneurs to grow instead of giving them subsidies. To begin with, he had proposed a start-up fund of Rs 5 crore.
“There is absolutely no progress on this announcement also”, sources said, adding “it seems that Budget announcements are made only to befool the masses otherwise there is no point in allowing the key decisions to gather dust in the official files for one year”.  Had there been any seriousness in honoring the announcements, follow-up action would have been taken during the past nearly one year.
According to the sources, even no attention is being paid towards bringing several Corporations out of the financial losses. “If the Government doesn’t want to improve the financial health of these Corporations there is no point is allowing them to function as the same puts burden on the State exchequer”, they added.
“If the Government cannot honor announcements made in the Budget what else can be expected from it”, sources remarked.

Follow our WhatsApp channel