PANAJI
In a major relief to industries, the State government has recently reduced the sub-lease charges for industrial plots by a huge margin. This was a long-standing demand of the industrial sector because sub-lease charges were very high making it tough for industries to get land in Goa.
Till recently, the sub-lease charges payable to Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) were considered on total area of an industrial plot. Now, the government has made these charges only for a particular area, which has been given on sub-lease.
Consider this example. Suppose an industrialist has a 1,000 square meter plot in Verna Industrial Estate and wants to give 100 square meters of his built-up area on sub-lease. In normal circumstances, the person sub-leasing would have to shell out to GIDC Rs 1,32,000 as sub-lease charges at the rate of Rs 2,200 per square metre as applicable in Verna.
Now, within the ambit of the amended rules, the person will pay charges only on the area of the structure he wants to take on sub-lease. Which means, as per the new rules, he will pay Rs 17,600 as sub-lease charges, which is affordable for those desiring to set up small scale units. In this case, sub-lease charges have come down by 87%.
Giving further boost to new entrepreneurs, the State government has also made a rule to reserve 20 per cent of the area in industrial estates for first-time entrepreneurs.
Till now, the State government used to give more priority to those businessmen, who already have existing units in Goa. This would make it tough for new businessmen to enter the State. Now, this problem also has been taken care of.
Sources also revealed that the government has made the process of plot-transfer in industrial estates easier too.
Meanwhile, the government has also sought to reduce open space in industrial estates by 10 per cent from the existing 15 per cent. These are part of draft regulations, which were published in the official gazette last week.
The government has given the public 30 days to send in their objections to this change to the chief town planner.
The move is going to release a lot of industrial land, which will make it easier for fresh industrial applicants to get land in Goa.
