Srinagar, Jan 17: Federation of Chamber Industries Kashmir (FCIK) has demanded has urged the J&K government to impress upon the Jammu and Kashmir Horticulture Planning and Marketing Corporation to cancel the tender inviting bids for the construction of 40 MT integrated pack house at Doabagh Sopore.
“It seems that the government is giving birth to one more loss-making PSU. On the one hand government is planning to disinvest the PSUs and establishing of new one seems to be a disaster and repetition of the government mistakes which is unwarranted”, FCIK said in a statement to Ziraat Times.
FCIK President Shahid Kamili said that the “establishment of pack house by government at Sopore will deal a severe blow to the existing pack houses established by local entrepreneurs.”
“There is no need to establish additional facility when private entrepreneurs have already established around 150 state-of-art corrugated cardboard manufacturing facilities worth Rs 750 crores at various places catering to the needs of the valley’s horticulture produce successfully”, he added.
“The existing installed capacity of packaging products is more than the demand of the horticulture crop from the Valley and the additional facility by the government would also be a loss making unit. It seems that government has not learned from its various loss making PSUs. This facility would not only prove white-elephant for the state exchequer but will also destabilise facilities put up by the local entrepreneurs. The non-functioning of the Government PSUs have proved that the PPP models have failed. Government should instead help the existing units to give fillip to private sector”, he further added.
Commenting on the development, FCIK Secretary General, Ovees Qadir Jamie said that the “packing industry is already saturated and ruthless competition has pushed the existing units to the wall”.
“The existing units should be further augmented with Government hand-holding and supportive measures”, he said, adding that “the existing units provide employment to around 2500 youth directly and 10000 indirectly who will also stare at expulsion if government facility comes up.”
Mr Jamie also advocated that government should monitor the tax evasion of the horticulture packaging products coming from outside J&K which have affected local horticulture Packaging industry badly.
FCIK has urged the government to impress upon the Jammu and Kashmir Horticulture Planning and Marketing Corporation to cancel the tender inviting bids for the construction of 40 MT integrated pack house at Doabagh Sopore and ‘also sign MoUs with existing units so that government provides them the marketing support to their business venture.’
“Government should take local industry leaders on board before making such decisions as the local unit holders are aware about the current industry status and how it can be promoted”, FCIK further added.
