Panaji: Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar , on Thursday, promised to breath fresh life into the existing industrial policy by unveiling new incentives and schemes for local industries by the end of Dussehra. Parrikar chaired a meeting with industry stakeholders on Wednesday night to finalize the draft scheme document, which includes an umbrella scheme with incentives for companies that set up units in Goa.Currently, industries seeking to set up in Goa cannot avail of any schemes or incentives notified under the Goa Industrial Policy 2003 as they lapsed in 2016. Similarly, incentives promised in the Goa Investment Policy of 2014 have not been notified, sources said.The proposed incentives, include a scheme where the state government will reimburse a portion of the payment or royalty made by an entrepreneur to the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for technology transfer.In a move to encourage industrial units to employ Goans, Parrikar has also proposed to reimburse up to 50% of the salaries paid to locals. "We have a fantastic scheme where the government will pay you maybe 35-45% and maybe even 50% of the salaries of Goan employees in case of women entrepreneur. It depends on your efforts and initiative, but government will not be lacking," Parrikar said."The startup policy has just been cleared. Now, for the industries, the basic schemes have to fall in place. My attempt is to ensure that by Dussehra we can announce the umbrella schemes. I will try to meet the Dussehra deadline, but, if it takes some time, we will take another week maybe," Parrikar said, while speaking at a public function organized by Goa State Industries Association (GSIA), directorate of industries, trade and commerce, and DRDO.The CM went on to assure industry representatives present at the function that implementation of schemes would not face bureaucratic hurdles as the scrutiny process was complete. Interaction with industry representatives began in July, but the consultation process came to a stop due to the by-election and only picked up speed over the last 15 days. "Informal consultations have been done and the policy has been finalized. Now we have to formally move it before the government," Parrikar said.In its current form, the umbrella scheme will cover the various incentives proposed by the industry and the entire incentive document is likely to take a month to notify and implement.Sources said that since industry schemes lapsed in 2016, over 200 applications for benefits from industrial units and entrepreneurs have been languishing with the directorate of industries, trade and commerce."The schemes are being revamped and will be implemented for a period of five years instead of the earlier way of extending individual schemes. A lot of paper work has also been done away with," an industry representative, who was part of the consultative process said.While promising quick sanction of funds and incentives to applicants, Parrikar also assured those present that there would be no scope for cheating.

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