The Sunday Guardian: Chandigarh: Sunday, March 08, 2015.
The industry
in Punjab is reeling under heavy debt and taxes, awaiting a bailout package
from Punjab government to survive. As many as 6,550 industrial units have been
declared sick and 18,770 units have shut down or migrated out of Punjab since
2007.
Jagdeepak
Singh, an RTI activist who obtained the information on closed units from the
state's Industry Department, revealed that since 2007, in Amritsar district
8053 small, medium and large industrial units were closed and only four new
medium and big industrial units came up. In Gurdaspur district comprising
Pathankot and Batala 1,864 industrial units were closed and only seven medium
and large sector units were set up. About 350 big industrial units which took
bank loans worth Rs 500 cr, but due to the non-payment of the capital amount,
the interest grew to Rs 5,250 cr, raising the total debt to Rs 5,750 cr.
The Union
Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises published data that revealed
6,550 industrial units in Punjab owe Rs 797.77 cr to banks and 5,746 units out
of them are running in heavy losses. Only 343 small industrial units can be
revived and the ministry has taken up the case to revive 85 units.
In Jalandhar
district, 1,850 industrial units were shut down between 2007 and 2013 and 18
new industrial units were set up. In Hoshiarpur district, 1,240 units were
closed and only three new projects came up.
In Ludhiana,
2,819 industrial units were shut down and just 11 new units came up, most of
them expansion units by existing factories. In Mohali 348 units closed down and
18 new projects were set up. In Mandi Gobindgarh 111 industrial units were
closed and only five new units were set up. In Faridkot, 332 industrial units
were closed and no new project came up.
In Bathinda,
five units were shut down and seven new were set up. In Muktsar, 768 industries
closed and only one new project came up. In Bathinda district the number of
cotton mills has come down from 422 to 116 in last about a decade.
A senior
officer of Punjab Finance Corporation (PFC), the nodal agency for extending
loans to industrial units in the stat, said that 1700 industrial units have
defaulted in loan repayment and the PFC is yet to recover Rs 2500 cr. The
official said that the PFC had waived off Rs 590 cr under various bailout
schemes during the last decade. S.S. Bains managing director of the PFC said
that amount of actual recovery was only Rs 200 cr and remaining part is only
interest due to non-payment of loan. He said that PFC was not able to locate
addresses of about 800 units which are defaulters.
The Punjab
Industry Department is preparing a bailout package for sick industries.
Raminder Singh, director, Industry said that his department had prepared
memorandum of one-time-relief scheme and it would be presented in the next
Cabinet meeting. Last time, the Punjab government had launched a one-time
bailout scheme for sick industry in 2009.
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