Govt to study actual situation of 'sick industries'

The government is all set to dispatch a team to different parts of country to get real picture of 25 industries that have sought ´sick industry´ facility from the government.
It has already outsourced the task of conducting due-diligence audit of another 12 industries that have sought the facility after conducting field studies.
The Industrial Promotion Division (IPD) under the Ministry of Industry (MoI) has formed a team that will conduct field study to ascertain actual situation of the 25 factories.
“We will conduct due-diligence audit of all the 25 firms after we get their real picture through field studies,” an official at IPD told Republica on Friday.
According to Yam Kumari Khatiwada, chief of IPD, 37 factories have applied for the sick industry facility.
The government has asked MoI to study actual situation of factories that have applied for the facility and recommend their names to the cabinet.
“The firms will get relief package once they get ´sick industry´ status from the cabinet,” said Khatiwada, adding, “The due-diligence audit of the factories will help us identify the kind of support they factories need.”
The team formed by the IPD has been asked to study reasons behind poor performance of the factories that have applied for the facility.
“The government will provide necessary support only to factories that were affected due to external factors such as political instability and energy crisis, among others," the official said. “We won´t be providing any support to factory that failed due to inefficiency of the management.”
Earlier, the ministry had recommended two firms for ´sick industry´ facility to the cabinet. However, the cabinet had returned the names and asked the ministry to recommend facilities required by the troubled factories.
The government had announced relief package for sick industries through its Immediate Relief Program-2011/12.