Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: Gujarat’s government on Thursday announced a new policy that would regularise unauthorised constructions in the industrial estates that fall under Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC), as per a report by the Press Trust of India (PTI). The new policy is expected to cover around 70,000 industrial units across 220 GIDC estates.
Balwantsinh Rajput, Industries Minister of Gujarat said that any unauthorised construction done by the owners of MSME units on their allotted plots inside GIDCs can be legalised by paying a specific fee. It is important to note that the relief under the policy does not cover “hazardous and obnoxious” industrial units, he added.
The announcement came after the bill was passed by the Gujarat Assembly to regularise unauthorised constructions in urban areas by collecting impact fee from the owners. However, industrial estates were kept outside the bill’s purview.
Citing reason behind the policy, the minister told reporters in Gandhinagar, “Due to rapid industrial development, unauthorised constructions came up in these estates over a period of time. If we remove such constructions, it will adversely affect industrial output, employment and investment. Thus, we have brought in this policy.”
“The policy does not have any provision to regularise floors built on existing structure without permission and unauthorised construction done outside the allotted plot in the estate,” he added.
The government will charge a fee in the range of Rs 3,000 to Rs 18,000 for regularising unauthorised residential-type construction between 50 square meters to 300 square metres inside the estate. Further, an additional fee of Rs 150 would be charged for every square meter of construction above 300 square meters.
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The rates are double for regularising non-residential constructions and the policy will not offer any relief to the factory owners if there is a “change of use”, said the state government’s release.