The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : YSR promises industry-friendly regime

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 06, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

YSR promises industry-friendly regime

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, AUG. 5. Captains of Indian industry, gathered for the FICCI national executive committee meeting in Hyderabad, presented their charter of demands and expectations from the Government to the Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, at a luncheon meeting on Thursday.

Addressing Dr. Reddy's concerns with the crisis in agriculture, the FICCI president, Y.K. Modi, suggested measures to introduce contract farming by corporates, removal of restrictions on movement and storage of farm produce and abolition of the Agriculture Produce Marketing Act, incentives to food processing industry, phased replacement of input subsidy with investments in rural infrastructure and changes in labour laws to allow contract labour in all sectors.

He said that Andhra Pradesh has comparative advantage in food processing, tobacco products, non-metallic minerals, electrical machinery, paper products and publishing and printing and the Government should give priorities to these.

Industry's concern

He also raised industry's concern regarding the status of power reforms as well as the reach of education and health, which remain woefully inadequate. In reply, Dr. Reddy stated that the present Government was fiscally responsible and asked industrialists not to assume that industry would be neglected due to the stress on agriculture and irrigation. He accepted the demand of the FICCI to establish a coordination committee between the federation and the Government to finalise industrial projects.

He expressed serious concern at the `high rate of industrial sickness' in the State and promised an investment-friendly policy regime and committed his Government to building a strong infrastructure and to streamline regulations. He said that the Government would give thrust to food processing, IT and BPO, pharma and biotech, hi-tech manufacturing and small-scale industries. Dr. Reddy announced the creation of a special fund for `Small and Medium Enterprises Assistance and Restructuring'.

Power reforms

Referring to the concerns regarding power reforms and provision of free power to farmers, Dr. Reddy said that this amounted to only about Rs. 400 crores while the previous Government had given annual subsidy up to Rs. 2,500 crores to the power utilities despite effecting `astronomical' tariff hikes. This had left a deficit of Rs. 17,000 crores on his Government but he assured the gathered industrialists that this would be reduced. He said that power sector reforms were on course with the Government committing to reducing transmission and distribution losses to 16 per cent from the present 33 per cent and also metering every connection.

"We have increased budgetary expenditure on major irrigation from Rs. 1,600 crores to Rs. 4,600 crores without increasing the total expenditure of Rs. 51,000 crores," he said. He called upon them to support his Government's initiatives to revive agriculture in the State by reminding them that industrial growth depends crucially on a good domestic market which itself was dependant on the prosperity of agriculture.

The Rajya Sabha members and senior Congress leaders -- Jairam Ramesh and T. Subbarami Reddy -- were also present.

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