PANJIM: Santa delivered the gift for the industries in Goa, an evening before. In a major relief to all industries in Goa, the state government, late on December 22 evening, notified the amendment made in Goa Industrial Development Corporation Allotment Regulation 2014, by which, the allotment, transfer and subleasing of land in the industrial estates will be easier and less expensive. Earlier, even if one use to sublet a small portion of the allotted land, the owner had to pay charges on the entire plot of land and not on the portion of land sub-leased. The notification number is GOA-IDC/IE/BR/1568 and the highlight of this latest amendment is linking of sub-lease fees payable to GIDC to actual area to be sub-leased and not to the entire area of plot which was was being done earlier.
“It is a big news on ease of doing business. Processes have been simplified and it is a great relief to all industries. It is Parsekar’s government Christmas gift for all of us,” former President of GCCI and senior Vice President of MAIT, Mr Nitin Kunkolieker told Herald.
The President of Verna Industrial Association, Mr Domodar Kochkar who was also following this issue diligently said, “ I feel this is the first issue that our Chief Minister has successfully solved after our presentation on our recent annual general meeting. We thank him for this gift on Christmas Eve. In fact this was a very long time pending issue and there were some lacunas in the guidelines which were hindrance in doing business. Issues like sublease fees, transfers of properties after death of the proprietor or owner etc made the ease of doing business really tough.”
He added that also now in this amendment 20 per cent of earmarked area is reserved for first time entrepreneurs. This will boost new emerging Goan entrepreneurs. “Few other issues affecting the ease of doing business in Goa are addressed in this notification. But still lots needs to be done to make these more industry friendly and to get some accountability in GIDC affairs,” added Mr Kochkar.
The Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industries (GCCI) has also welcomed the latest amendments to the Goa IDC Regulations pertaining to allotments, transfers of plots and sub-leasing of premises. “This was a long pending demand of the industry and was actively being pursued by both Goa Chamber, GSIA and Verna Industries Association,” said the Director General of GCCI Mr RS Kamat.
When the new regulations were first enacted in September 2012 and then revised in August 2014, the main aim was to prevent misuse of plots and constructed premises for speculative gains. Prior to these regulations, unscrupulous elements used top corner plots and sell them for huge profits. Similarly, many people used to buy plots and construct premises which they would then sub-lease for non-manufacturing activities.
Through these regulations, transfer of vacant plots was completely banned and sub-leasing of premises was made unaffordable by levying heavy charges. This has resulted in speculative cornering of plots and has also discouraged people from buying plots just for sub-leasing.
However, over the last two years industry felt that the heavy sub-leasing fees was proving detrimental to their interests.
On one side the units which were adversely affected by the overall slowdown in the economy could not earn some revenue by sub-leasing their surplus space. Similarly many industries which wanted to start their units found it un-economical to operate in sub-leased premises – this was particularly hurting new units because no plots were also available in the industrial estates.
Hence the industry associations recommended relaxation of the sub-leasing charges. Representatives of GSIA and GCCI had met on several occasions and vide a joint representation in December 2015 had suggested some changes in the GIDC’s plot allotment, transfer, sub-lease regulations – one of the main issue being change in sub-leasing charges levied by GIDC. These suggestions were also accepted by GIDC Board in its 347th Meeting held on March 4, 2016. Since then, unfortunately, there was no further movement on this issue.
“The issue, however, was being regularly pursued by Mr. Sudin Naik, President of GSIA, Mr Narayan Bandekar, President of GCCI and Mr Damodar Kochkar, President of Verna Industries Association which finally resulted in the latest amendment being notified. Mr Nitin Kunkolienker, Member of IPB, was also following up the issue, which finally received the green signal from GIDC Chairman Mr Gaonkar and Managing Director Mr Umeshchandra Joshi though the changes in sub-leasing fees would mean that GIDC will receive less fees,” added Mr Kamat.
