Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha on Saturday announced a Rs1,350 crore economic relief package for the business and tourism sector in Jammu and Kashmir that was ailing due to the long stretched Covid-19 lockdown and restrictions following scrapping of the Article 370 in August last year.
Sinha told media persons in Srinagar that the package includes a discount of 50 per cent on electricity and water bills on the fixed demand charges for industrial and commercial consumers for one year.
Sinha said: “I have met almost 35 delegations from various sectors after which a committee headed by my advisor KK Sharma was set up to look into the problems of the business and industrial sectors. The committee submitted its report on time and on the recommendations of the committee, the package has been announced. This is for the first time here in so many years that a committee has submitted the report in the given time frame which was 12 days.”
Sinha said that the stamp duty has been exempted till March 2021 for all borrowers. The package is apart from the Rs 1,400 crore announced for Jammu & Kashmir under the Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan by the Prime Minister Narendera Modi.
A separate package will be announced for transporters, taxi-drivers, autorickshaw drivers, houseboat and shikara owners who have faced problems.
A new industrial policy will be announced soon to revive the industrial sector, which has suffered huge losses, he said. “We have decided to give 5 per cent interest subvention to every borrower from the business community, without any conditions, for six months in the current financial year.