Haryana- 14th Finance Commission Meeting INFUSE 1000 CRORES TO DEVELOP CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURES FOR CLUSTER DEVELOPMENT IN THE STATE URGES PHD CHAMBER

By 1 2 1 News Reporter

Chandigarh 23^rd July:-- Urging the 14^th Finance Commission to infuse a corpus of Rs.1000 crores to develop critical infrastructures including technology, management and social capital for cluster development in the State,Pranav Gupta, managing committee member, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry said, "An intensive cluster development programme, which aims to develop social capital, technology and management, is the need of the hour. Only such programmes can give the much needed boost to the industry in Haryana. "

Gupta was representing PHD Chamber during the meeting of theFourteenth Finance Commission with the representatives of trade and industry from Haryana. The Finance Commission headed by Y V Reddy visited the state capital. The Commission is to make recommendations on various aspects of Centre- State Financial relations. The Commission shall make recommendations regarding the sharing of Union taxes, principles governing Grants-in-aid to States and transfer of resources to local bodies etc.

Appreciating the initiatives taken by industries department Haryana to boost the manufacturing sector, Gupta said, "Haryana has the advantage of being one state which has the largest number of natural industrial clusters. Common Facility Centres including design centres, raw material banks, tool rooms, dry ports, quality making centres, heat treatment centres etc. should be created for each such cluster.

These Common Facility Centres, thus developed, would provide a level playing field to the participating units, said Gupta, "But such approach needs creation of innovative manufacturing eco-systems for manufacturing excellence by infusing innovation in its manufacturing sector."

For example, said Gupta, the pharma cluster which consists of around 65 units in Karnal was badly suffering because of tax incentives given to units in Baddi. Providing testing facilities to Pharma units will enable them to adhere to good laboratory practices and also improve their order books. It is estimated that their profit margins will improve by at least 12%.

Ambala Scientific Instruments Cluster, for that matter, if provided with a design studio, tool room facility, testing labs, etc. would bring an improvement of 40% in competitiveness. Likewise, there are around 30 clusters, the competitiveness of which can be grossly impacted and manufacturing can be put on the growth trajectory.

Indicating that rail and road connectivity can make or mar growth prospects of any state, Gupta said, "The proposed Mass Rapid Transit Systems and the Regional Rapid Transit systems need to be taken on priority for faster transit leading to time and cost effectiveness. The work on the proposed Delhi-Sonipat-Panipat corridor, Delhi-Gurgaon-Alwar corridor and the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Alwar corridors needs to be expedited."

The industries department was represented by Rajan Gupta, Financial Commissioner, and Principal Secretary, Excise and Taxation, Haryana, Tarun Bajaj, MD, HSIIDC, and Vikas Gupta, Director, Industries among others. Representatives from CII, Assocham, industry representatives from Karnal and Panipat also were present on the occasion.