With the Union cabinet all set to approve the Amritsar-Delhi-Kolkata industrial corridor, the Uttarakhand government has decided to offer a complete waiver Value Added Tax (VAT) for 10 years to new industrial units where the capital investment is more than Rs 300 crore in the dedicated area.

“A total of 150 km area of Utarakhand is coming under the industrial corridor. So we have decided to give complete waiver of VAT on all those new industrial units where investment is more than Rs 300 crore for ten years,” Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna said on Thursday after a meeting of the state cabinet.

This waiver will be applicable up to 50 per cent of the total investment only. This means if a company put up a new plant with an investment of Rs 300 crore, then it will be entitled for a complete waiver in VAT up to Rs 150 crore only, said Additional Chief Secretary Rakesh Sharma.

The corridor which will cover Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal is expected to give a major push to industrialisation and job creation in the region.

Sharma said Uttarakhand is offering this waiver because other states like Punjab have already declared some incentives for the industry at the industrial corridor. Some of the new industrial estates like Sitarganj in Uttarakhand are coming under the industrial corridor where these tax sops will be available.

In case if a company sets up new unit at Sitarganj, it will be entitled for all those other incentives like waiver in stamp duty which are available for the mega projects besides the complete waiver of VAT.

Some of the companies like Ural and D S group which have already signed MoUs with the state government with investments more than Rs 300 crore would also be entitled for such incentives since they are yet to establish the industrial units, he added.

The companies will also have the benefit of various other state-of-the-art infrastructure facilities like logistic hubs in Uttarakhand.

With mushrooming growth of industry in Uttarakhand, the state government is setting up two logistic hubs at Pantnagar and Haridwar and shift freight traffic from road to the rail network, a move that would help industrialists to save time and money.

The government-owned State Infrastructure and Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand Limited has formed a joint venture with Container Corporation of India Ltd, a public sector undertaking, to develop the two logistic hubs.

An investment of Rs 150 crore is proposed in the Pantnagar logistic hub which will be built in the first phase. In the second phase, the logistic hub at Haridwar will be built where investment would be much less due to availability of rail network there. The government is also planning to set up third logistic hub at Sitarganj also.