Times of India: Ahmedabad: Monday,
April 11, 2016.
About a
thousand small and medium enterprises based out of Sanand GIDC on Sunday
threatened to return their plots if their demand of change in allotment date of
plots is not accepted by the state government. The Sanand Industries
Association (SIA), GIDC, claimed that more than 1,000 such units are facing
penalty for non-utilisation of plots allotted to them.
Penalty along
with the interest works out to be a staggering Rs1,000 crore. The protestors,
however, say that GIDC is trying to benefit from its own fault. It did not
provide required infrastructure until 2015, thus handicapping units from going
into production, but it is now trying to penalize them for not using the land
within three years from 2011, the time of plot allotment. The association had
planned protests in February, but has now filed a petition in the Gujarat high
court in this regard. The next hearing is on April 18.
The
association has termed the levy of penalty and interest as unfair, and
contended that these units could not go into production due to lack of
infrastructure facilities in Sanand GIDC till 2015.
"In
2012, in an affidavit, a senior government official had claimed that all the
infrastructure is ready in Sannad. In 2013, GIDC, in reply to our RTI query
accepted that there was no infrastructure such as water and power. GIDC's
failure to create infrastructure in time has led to non-utilisation of plots.
It is not our fault," said Tapan Patel, president, SIA. Patel said,
"If needed, we will return our plots and take back the money. The vice
chairman and managing director of GIDC can change the allotment date, but they
are not doing so." These plots were allotted in 2011. The units, according
to norms, were required to start production within three years from the date of
allotment.
For each
unit, penalty works out to be Rs 25.42 lakh plus annual interest of 14%. The
penalty is being levied since the time of allotment. As a result of the logjam,
investment to the tune of Rs 4,000 crore has been stuck, according to rough
estimates. The small units have demanded that the date of allotment should be
changed to March 31, 2015. "The government promised us on more than one
occasion to change the allotment date, but nothing has moved since then. We are
being asked to pay penalty, while penalty and interest were waived off in cases
of some big companies, who had set up units in Sanand," said Ashok Patel,
vice president, SIA.
.JPG)
.JPG)
