In a written missive to chief secretaries, the Centre has urged them to ramp up their internal working process at the earliest, to ensure faster implementation of the national manufacturing policy at the ground level.
The idea is to expedite acquisition of land for the proposed National Industrial and Manufacturing Zones (NIMZs) and rationalise regulations for manufacturing.
In his letter to states, DIPP secretary PK Chaudhary says: “The policy seeks to address these (increasing the share of manufacturing and creating 100 million jobs) through specific instruments. But, these instruments can be effective only with the active collaboration of the states… The partnership between states is central to the policy. As such I trust, that you will get the policy document examined quickly and initiate steps to implement the proposals as appropriate in the context of your state.”
The Centre wants the states to soon come up with sizeable land banks, consisting of ?government-owned land, existing defunct industrial areas/ sick units, including PSUs? for NIMZs.
It has clarified that NIMZs will be different from special economic zones (SEZs) in terms of size, level of infrastructure planning and governance structures related to regulatory procedures and exit-policies. The Centre has also highlighted that only some policies are specific to the zones whereas “majority of them would be applicable to manufacturing industry generally across the country.”
The NIMZs have been conceived as townships with state-of-the-art infrastructure and self-regulation through a special-purpose vehicle (SPV).
“As such, states would need to put in place a necessary mechanism for rationalising the regulations that impact the manufacturing industry, while at the same time ensuring that the purpose of these regulations is well-served through alternative mechanism.
Some states have already rationalised the state-level business regulations, while others would have to do the needful,” Chaudhary’s letter said.
It added that the policy has a package of technology development and fiscal incentives for SME financing, which also states need to avail and transfer to SMEs.
Fiscal incentives have been provided for skill development activities in the private sector as well, which will have to be converted to the private sector through states, said the letter.
