HUDA slaps hefty charges on industry

C R Rathee

GURGAON: The Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) has come out with a novel idea to arm-twist industry in the region. It has slapped hefty ‘external development charges’ (EDCs) on industrial units already set up or those coming up in state-owned industrial estates.

The rates are so hefty that even a handful of units, which had escaped the hammer of the present recessionary trend, may find it difficult, rather impossible, to pay these charges. Then HUDA administration has been shrewd enough to not directly bill the industry. Instead, it has asked the Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation (HSIDC) to pay the EDC.

The state chief minister, Om Prakash Chautala, who presided over the 33rd annual general meeting of the Gurgaon Industrial Association (GIA), is said to have been taken aback when told by GIA president, J N Mangla, and other industry representatives that at the time of allotting plots in industrial estates like Udyog Vihar, about 15 years ago, it was not disclosed as to what went into computing the rates of ‘developed industrial plots’, if they did not include EDC.

Some delegates were heard saying that after allotting plots, HUDA had simply not done any development work. Whatever little repair/maintenance of infrastructure did take place was done by HSIDC. For this, the HSIDC had been billing the allottees regularly.
A former HUDA employee told The Financial Express that HUDA claimed to be a ‘no loss, no profit’ making agency. In fact, ever since its creation, it has not even made public its properly audited report to substantiate this claim, he alleged.

Seeking the chief minister’s intervention, Mr Mangla said to expect the industry at this stage to pay Rs 402 per sq mtr as EDC indirectly amounted to asking it to close down. That the HSIDC had opted to recover the EDC on behalf of HUDA in three installments, the first payable by December 31 and the last by May 30 next, was no consolation, he added.

He said though the GIA appreciated the industry-friendly stance of the state government, it asked for a review of the imposts slapped on the entrepreneurs from time to time.

Earlier, Mr Chautala, at an Iftaar feast at Uttawar village, asked the HUDA and HSIDC top brass to sit across the table with industry representatives to sort out their problems. The GIA reiterated withdrawal of all taxes and levies on the trade and industry after the introduction of ‘value added tax’ (VAT) system from April 1 next.