Himachal industry growth is not at cost of neighbours: Study

Shimla : If the central industrial package helped growth in Himachal it isn’t at the cost neighbouring Punjab & Haryana claims a study .

The study has been carried out by Grant Thornton to find out what the impact of the package was in the region and was there a need to extend it in the old form

Punjab and Haryana have been claiming as a result of more incentives by the Centre to attract investors to set up units in the hill state there has been a flight of industry from their states .

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Himachal wing has been citing this study saying no perceptible change indicates that Himachal’s industry grew at a far faster pace than these two states

In fact on the basis of this study C N Dhar state CII chief has demanded that the industrial package be revived on the pattern of another hill state in the region Jammu & Kashmir .

According to the study Haryana has been performing better in the manufacturing sector. Haryana’s growth in this sector in the last two decades has been higher than the national average .

It was over 19 per cent in 1990 and 21 per cent in 2000 . In 2008 it was again 21 per cent . This was much higher than the GSDP of Himachal where it was 15 per cent in 2000 and 13.64 in 2008 .

Similarly Punjab’s manufacturing sector grew by 17 per cent which was again higher than Himachal .

CII has already urged the Himachal government to take up the revival of the Central industrial package with the union government .

In this connection a delegation headed by chief minister Virbhadra Singh met prime minister Manmohan Singh and trade minister Anand Sharma among others last week.

The Central excise package for Himachal was announced in 2003 for ten years by the NDA government. But the UPA government ended it in March 2010 .