GUWAHATI, July 11 ? State Industry Minister, Sri Bhubaneswar Kalita has assured the representatives of industry in State that the new industrial policy of the State will be designed to simplify the rules and regulations to avoid procedural delay. During an interaction with the industry representatives, which was organised by the Federation of Industry and Commerce of North Eastern Region (FINER), the new Industry Minister of the State pledged to simplify sales tax rules in the new policy in response to requests from industrialists.
During the interaction which was also attended by Minister of State for Industry, Ananda Ram Baruah and Minister of State for Finance, Nilamani Sen Deka, a section of businessmen and manufacturers in the State made an appeal to the State Government to move the Union Railway Ministry for introduction of parcel vans in all dedicated parcel trains coming to Guwahati from outside, particularly from Kolkata and New Delhi. A highly placed source in the FINER informed that want of parcel vans in trains had been a major problem for businessmen and manufacturers in the State who have to import raw material and other goods from outside the State through the railway network.
The industry representatives told the Industry Minister Sri Kalita that setting up of Central Excise Chief Commissioner office in Shillong instead of Guwahati in sharp contrast to an earlier announcement of the Government of India was not a prudent decision considering that about 90 per cent of total industrial units in the NE region were concentrated in Assam. In this regard the State Industry Minister was requested to take up the matter with the Union Finance Ministry.
The FINER representatives during the interaction harped on their long-standing demand for improvement of power situation in the State for the interest of industrial growth. In response the new Industry Minister appreciated the problem faced by the industrial units in the State because of the perennial shortfall in power supply and promised to take up the matter with the power supply and promised to take up the matter went the power ministry in the right earnest.
Meanwhile, the unprecedented shortfall of power supply in these days have hit the State industrial units very hard. It was learnt that a few newly set up units at the industrial estate in Bamunimaidan here could not start production secure lack of power. The situation in other parts of the State is worse where industrial production has virtually came to a halt because of the failure of the ASEB to feed the units with uninterrupted power supply during the official production hours.