Deadline for announcement for Bengal's new industrial policy extended till mid-Sept

Kolkata, Aug 23 (AHN) The deadline for announcement of the new industrial policy for West Bengal has been extended by one month till the mid-September this year, state Finance Minister Swapan Dasgupta, a journalist-turned-politician, said.

According to Dasgupta on Saturday, although during the previous Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government, Bengal Global Business Summits were organised every year, not a single such summit resulted in achieving any significant investment.

"After the change of government, the new state government's goal is to make West Bengal an industry-friendly state. Therefore, it was decided that the new trade policy would be decided within a month. However, it is no longer possible in August. The trade policy will be prepared by September," the state Finance Minister said, while addressing a meeting of the West Bengal Business Council at the Bangla Global Convention Centre here on Saturday afternoon.

According to him, finalising the new trade policy for the state is not an easy task.

"First there is a need to fix the new land policy. The second requirement is setting a policy for reviewing the industrial proposal coming to the state."

"The state government discussed different aspects of the industrial proposals like prospects of employment generation and scopes for ancillary industries, among others. That is why we need one more month to finalise our new trade policy. Initially, we planned to announce the new industrial policy by August 15. But it is a very complicated situation. We are trying to announce that policy between September 15 and September 17," Dasgupta said.

According to the state Finance Minister, in the new industrial policy, non-unachievable or unconceivable announcements or promises would be made.

"In the past there had been several events where a project had to be stopped in mid-day. We will be careful that this would not happen in future," Dasgupta added.

The state Finance Minister also said that the huge debt burden of more than Rs 8,00,000 crore inherited by the new Bharatiya Janata Party-led state government because of financial misadventure of the previous Trinamool Congress government, is a major concern for him and he is treating this area as a priority.