Following its textile and leather policy, Bihar is now on its toes to attract investors from other states.
Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, Industries Minister of Bihar, is organising meetings in various states. In recent one week, he has held meetings in Delhi and Punjab.
A good number of textile players participated in these meetings.
The Minister held a meeting with leading exporters like Shahi Exports, Richa Global, Texport Industries, Pearl Global and Poppys Knitwear, amongst others, in Delhi.
Narendra Goenka, Chairman, AEPC, applauded Bihar’s textile and leather policy and urged that the benefit of subsidy, given under the policy, is provided immediately. The Minister assured that all industries set up in Bihar are paid subsidy without any delay.Harish Ahuja, CMD, Shahi Exports and Virender Uppal, CMD, Richa Global asked questions about the availability of land as well as rates of industrial land.
Principal Secretary (Industries) Sandeep Poundrik briefed them, “Recently, we purchased land in 54 industrial areas. The price has been reduced from 20 per cent to 80 per cent. Besides, the availability of land for the industry is also sufficient. We have a land bank of 2,900 acres so that there will neither be any delay in land allotment nor will there be any shortage of land.”
To name a few,the meeting held in Ludhiana saw the likes of Nahar Group, Vardhman Group, ST Cottex, Arisudana Group, Youngman, Sportking, Garg Acrylics, Longowalia spinning and others.
Delhi’s another meeting saw the presence of Sunil Bansal, ED, Liberty Group; Rakesh Grover, MD, Grover Sons Apparel; Inder Dev Gupta, MD, Kumar Mangalam Birla Group and few more leading players.
Syed Shahnawaz Hussain said, “The industrialists of textile hub Ludhiana have shown keen interest in the textile and leather policy of Bihar.”
A few of the incentives which Bihar has offered to the industry include exemption from land conversion charges and exemption from stamp duty/registration fee. Besides, the state is offering skill development subsidy to eligible units @ 20,000 per employee per annum. If capital investment up to Rs 10 crore happens, 15 per cent incentive will be given to set up plant and machinery.
The Minister told the industrialists, “You all should plan a Bihar tour for 2 to 3 days and your perception about Bihar will change completely. When you witness the changed Bihar, all the hesitation to invest and set up industries in the state will be gone from your mind.”
Sanjeev Garg, CMD, Garg Acrylics, Ludhiana, says “The Minister claimed of better law and order conditions in Bihar. He also said that investments worth Rs. 30,000 crore happened in Bihar in the last financial year. Bihar’s policies and incentives seem to be lucrative, and they can be given a second thought.”
Bihar officials claim that during the lockdown they did a survey on ‘what type of workers were coming back to the home state’, and 63 per cent of them were involved in textile sector working in different states of the country. No doubt many of them went back to work, but this indicates that Bihar has enough potential for workforce in this sector.
The slogan given by the state is “Ek baar tau aayo Bihar.”
