Investment Cell to provide info on tax policies, incentive schemes to entrepreneurs

New Delhi: The proposed Investment Clearance Cell in the Budget will link all central government ministries and state departments to provide information on land banks, incentive schemes and taxation policies to entrepreneurs, a top government official said.

Secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Guruprasad Mohapatra said the cell will help an entrepreneur to take a well-informed decision to set up a manufacturing facility in the country.

“The idea is to bring all central government ministries and state governments linked to it physically as well as through IT,” he told PTI.

The cell will provide all information about incentive schemes and taxation policies of states and centre so that an entrepreneur has the complete information, he said.

The secretary said it will help them in taking an informed decision about “where to go” and once they decide, then “through this cell, we will help them in getting through all the approvals and clearances”.

Information such as how far a land site, chosen by the entrepreneur, is there from the nearest airport or rail line or highway will also be provided through this cell, he added.

“So all the land bank details are going to be a part of it and this will be on a live system where you can see which site is where. So, we are working on the national land banks,” the secretary said.

He added that many states have their own single window clearance systems to promote investments but neither the central government department nor the state governments are aligned through a single agency.

“If somebody wants to set up an industry and he proposes certain investment in certain sector, the idea is that if he approaches this investment cell which the finance minister has talked about, then all the hand-holding and all the clearances that he requires are available to him and facilitated through this cell,” Mohapatra said.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech proposed to set up an Investment Clearance Cell that will provide end-to-end facilitation and support, including pre-investment advisory, information related to land banks and facilitate clearances at the centre and state level. It will work through a portal.

For startups, the secretary said the department is formulating a National Seed Fund to help budding entrepreneurs.

Most of the startups actually face problem in raising finance or funds in the ideation to the proof of concept stage.

He said that the department will work on a National Seed Fund policy and creation of the fund.

In the interactions with the department, startups have time and again demanded formulation of a national seed fund scheme.