Chandigarh, Nov 3 (IANS) The Punjab government will announce an Industrial Promotion Policy in the beginning of 2013 to attract investment of Rs.100,000 crore in the next four years, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said Saturday.
Addressing the 'Invest North' convention, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry in Gurgaon Saturday, Badal announced that hotels, real estate and health sectors would soon be given industrial status to facilitate investment.
Talking about Punjab's growth model, Badal said that being a landlocked state, surrounded by tax-haven hill states (Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttrakhand), Punjab was focussing on improving its infrastructure, road and air connectivity and making state power surplus to attract investments.
He said that he was regularly interacting with 17 industrial giants, who were advising the state government to recast its industrial promotion policy.
Badal said that he has already constituted a core group of industrial giants, who are giving final touches to the Industrial Promotion Policy, keeping in view the requirements of industrial sector in mind.
On the recommendations of this core group, suitable legislations were being amended and by January 2013, the new Industrial Promotion Policy, equipped with suitable legislative backup, would be in operation in Punjab, he said.
A proposed Medi-City at Mullanpur near Chandigarh, Edu-City in Mohali and entertainment city at Sahnewal (near Ludhiana) are all set to become new hubs of future investment in Punjab, said Badal.
To boost revenue collection, the Punjab government has also decided that Value Added Tax (VAT) assesses in the state would now be star-rated by the excise and taxation department and will be given priority services, Badal said.
A government spokesman said Saturday that under a new policy, it has been decided to give preferential refund to compliant VAT assesses.
"VAT assesses would be star rated into A, B and C categories. A category assesses would get refund and other services on priority," Badal told a gathering of industrialists and businessmen in Ludhiana city, 110 km from here, Friday.
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