Ongole : Many projects hang fire as Industries dept officials sit on files for years

Ongole : The delay in clearing the pending files by the officials at the Industries department is costing the entrepreneurs of micro, small and medium enterprises a large amount when they are having almost zero business particularly during the Covid pandemic situation.

Depending on the category of the entrepreneur, a male from the general category or a female from BC-SC-ST category, the government is offering investment subsidies from 15 to 45 per cent, subsidy on electricity charges from Rs 1 to Rs 1.5 per unit, reimbursement of interest on the loan, and waiver of 100 per cent stamp duty and land conversion charges.

To be eligible for these benefits, the entrepreneurs must submit the Date of Commencement of Production certificate to the Industries department through online application. The subsidy claims must be submitted by the entrepreneurs along with the DCP, within six months of the start of operations to receive the 100 per cent subsidy. Delay in the submission results in the cut on subsidy by 50 per cent.

The government cleared the maximum of the pending requests for subsidies and incentives in May and June, 2020 by accepting the self-declarations as DCP certificates. It announced that the DCPs must be authorised by the Industries department officials from later on advised the entrepreneurs to apply for them online with all related documents.

In many districts, the entrepreneurs applied online and the industries officials verified, scrutinised and approved many of them. But in a few districts like Prakasam, the officials provisionally rejected all claims that were flagged for the need of missing documents, instead of alerting the owners for submitting them. This made the entrepreneurs lose their chance of receiving the subsidy.

A granite industry owner at the APIIC Growth Centre in Gundlapalli said that there are about 10,000 MSME units in the district, of which nearly 1,500 units are granite cutting and processing units.

He said that they lost most of the business due to the Covid pandemic for the last one-and-half-years and not being able to pay the EMIs. He said that they wished to utilise the subsidy and incentives amount from the government. It will give relief from the economic burden, but the hopes are vanished due to the rejection of applications.

He alleged that only a few of the owners who can grease the palms of the officials are passed.

A member of the MSME association explained that in the DIPC meeting held on last December 7, the then Collector ordered the officials to clear another pending file in two days for approval.

But the officials neglected the order and did not bother to get the approval from the Collector until he himself asked for it before being transferred to another district and signed it on May 30. Again the officials neglected to send sanction letters to the entrepreneurs, until the last date for application was ended by July 2021.

He said that about 5,000 files out of the total 14,000 files still pending in the State are from the Prakasam district, and alleged that the negligent and corrupt officials in the DIC are not clearing the pending files even after receiving memos repeatedly.

He said that after the disbursement of subsidies and incentives on August 27, the government is expected to release them only after three years as per the Industrial Development Policy 2020-23. But till then the MSME entrepreneurs cannot withstand the burden.

On the other hand, the District Industries Centre general manager G Chandrasekhar said that about 636 industries from the Prakasam district were about to receive subsidies and incentives from the government on August 27.

He added that there are around 2,800 applications pending with them as the staff is busy in the Covid duties and assured to resolve them soon.