FTCCI seeks Rs. 3K cr pending incentives

Hyderabad: The Federation of Telangana Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FTCCI) urges the State government to release pending incentives of more than Rs 3,000 crore to the industries. Every year, the government has been allocating sufficient amounts in the Budget, but not releasing the same to the enterprises since 2015, says Anil Agarwal, President of the industry body.

Speaking to media, he said: “Telangana government had allocated Rs 2,503 crore towards industrial promotion policy in the last year Budget, and Rs 2,937 crore during this year Budget. However, the funds were not yet released to the industries. There is a lot of unrest among the Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and we are receiving their representations regularly.”

As many as 53,422 MSMEs are eagerly waiting for the incentives from long time. These enterprises have been facing numerous problems right from the outbreak of pandemic Covid-19. Though we couldn’t control the impact of macro-economic factors, the government can support the MSMEs to create a competitive environment to the industry by providing incentives timely,” Agarwal said.

Apart from seeking the State government to clear the pending incentives of the past eight years, he also asked to address various other issues being faced by the industry. He requested the government to revert back to old system of trade license fee and scrap the new trade license fee method adopted from 2020 in the State.

FTCCI President informed that the trade license fee collected in Telangana is the highest among all the States in the country. While Karnataka government had exempted the trade license fee for industries, other State governments like Maharashtra are collecting a nominal fee. Earlier, Telangana government also used to levy a fixed amount up to a maximum of Rs 7,000 depending on the size of the units.

Under the new method, The State government is levying trade license fee at Rs 4-7 per sq ft builtup area of the industrial unit. Business establishments are charged Rs 3-5 per sq ft depending on road width 30 ft, 40ft or more than 40ft road. This has become a huge burden on the MSME traders. They are forced to pay the fees in lakhs with huge penalties.