Sarbananda Sonowal moves PM Modi for foreign investments in State

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Monday said he had telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bring some foreign companies to invest in the State.

Sonowal made this statement after interacting with representatives of industry associations and Public sector undertakings (PSUs) regarding the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on industries of Assam. The interaction programme was held at the Assam Administrative Staff College, Khanapara here, on Monday.

Sonowal said that at a time when his government was working hard on giving a fillip to the pace of economic and industrial growth in the State, an unforeseen hurdle came up in the form of COVID-19.

"But we have to face this challenge courageously and emerge winners. It is a testing time for all us. The challenge posed by the pandemic is graver than even that posed by the World Wars and the country needs to be on a constant vigil to prevent its spread," the Chief Minister said.

He informed that the government has already constituted an economic advisory committee under the chairmanship of retired IAS officer Subhas Das to suggest recommendations to the government to deal with the issues affecting the economy and also to boost economic activities in the State.

Sonowal said that industries in Assam contribute 39% to the State GDP and provide direct employment to approximately 4 lakh people and indirect employment to around 20 lakh people and this sector has been severely affected by the lockdown.

Stating that due to lockdown big and small tea gardens incurred loss to the tune of around Rs. 500 crores, the Chief Minister assured the industry leaders that continuous efforts to revive the economy were underway

Sonowal said many sectors like Tourism, Construction, Hospitality, and daily life engagements in the formal and informal sectors have been hit due to COVID-19 and its impact on the economy will be felt in the coming days.

The industry representatives apprised Sonowal of the steps being taken by them to maintain supply lines of essential items and medical equipment, assistance in creating isolation wards, utilization of corporate social responsibility funds for combating COVID-19, and provision of assistance to migrant labourers.

During the interaction meet, the following demands were placed before the Chief Minister by the tea industry.

* Waiving-off fixed demand charge of electricity by APDCL for two months (March and April).

* The Government of Assam has made arrangements to provide food grains to the tea garden managements through FCI at Open Market Sales Scheme (OMSS) rate. But this rate is too high for the tea garden management to sustain. Therefore we solicit allotment of food grains from the Food Corporation of India to the Assam Tea Sector at concessional rate for distribution to the workers.

*Fertilizer is not available. Even if it is available in some places, the price is more than 30% than the normal market price. Immediate availability of fertilizer in all tea growing districts is the need of the hour. We also appealed to the Government to provide fertilizers to big tea gardens and small tea growers at a subsidised rate. If this can be done then there is possibility of compensating crop loss due to lockdown (found to be more than 80 million kgs in our study) to some extent.

*The tea industry has also demanded supply of tea through PDS system. Promotion of tea as immunity booster through the Ministry of AYUSH.

* Immediate disbursement of pending subsidies of Tea Board and other Govt depts.

*Reduction in GST from 5% to 2.5% or 3%. Zero Budget Natural Farming funds through NABARD to Tea Estates.

*On receipt of application from the borrower, Banks should automatically increase adhoc working capital limits by at least 25% at a nominal rate of interest to ensure that tea estates can run their operations smoothly. In majority of cases, Banks are already securitised by way of mortgage and guarantees.

*There should be a one-year moratorium on all loan repayment schedules along with interest payments to prevent most companies from defaulting in loan repayment. 

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