Program to revive sick industries in jeopardy

The government´s ambitious plan to extend relief package to sick industries, as per the announcement made through the Immediate Relief Program 2011/12, is unlikely to see the light of the day because of red tape and dilly-dallying by concerned bodies.
The Ministry of Industry (MoI) was asked to identify and verify sick industries around a year ago. So far, 31 industries have applied to acquire the status of ´sick´ and relief package from the government. But the industry ministry has not even carried out field study of all industries to verify their status.
"We have completed field study of only eight firms out of 31 that applied for relief package," Surya Kant Jha, under secretary at the MoI, said. According to Jha, a technical committee that was formed in the ministry to conduct the study and cross-verify the information submitted by firms is preparing the report of these eight firms.
The MoI was instructed to identify sick industries following submission of a report by the Sick-Industries Rehabilitation High Level Task Force (SITHLTF), which had recommended revival of sick industries, back in 2011.
The task force´s report has identified a slew of relief measures for sick industries like tax waiver, extension of loan repayment date, loan restructuring and interest amount waiver, among others.
"More than a year has elapsed but we are yet to know whether our request for the relief package would be approved," an entrepreneur who has applied for the package said on condition of anonymity.
Like this entrepreneur, industrialists who have applied for the relief package are also in confusion. There are also those who have totally lost hope and deem the government will not walk the talk like in the past one decade when dozens of reports and recommendations to revive sick-industries were made.
The government had first incorporated a specific program to revive sick-industries in the budget for the fiscal year 1994/95.