In Assam, the largest amount of transport subsidy was allowed to be taken away by cement, coal and coke industries that has raised doubt over the role of the state governments, which remained a silent spectator to the virtual loot of the Central government incentives in the north-eastern states.
Neither the state, nor the commerce ministry took the trouble of physical verification of the industrial units of these fly-by-night operators of Assam, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh, who claimed the majority share of the transport subsidy by submitting fictitious data of non-existent transport companies and production o finished goods.
The department of industrial policy and promotion, which also audited the accounts of subsidy disbursement, had smelt the rat and proposed several amendments besides review of the policy, but for the reason best known to the state and the Central government, it could not be possible.
The modus operandi followed by Ferro Alloys, iron, steel, coal and coke-based industrial units of the three north-eastern states is similar to the tobacco industry which also got away with `1,500 cores of excise incentives in between 1999-2006. Now, there is not a single tobacco based industrial units in the region, which was mushrooming till excise incentive scheme continued. The experts are worried as now coke and coal-based industries are preparing to vanish as five-year term of getting transport subsidy is going to be completed for most of such units.
The experts of the NorthEastern Development Finance Corporation Ltd (NEDFi) said, “In fact, we call a lot of these industries fly-by-night operators. They are there for now, but as soon as the benefits are taken off, most will probably leave. Even now, it has not really helped employment generation or benefited the society here.
“After fraudulent claim of the Central excise came to light, the ministry of finance issued notices in 2006 for the recovery of Excise refunds claimed fraudulently by cigarette, chewing tobacco and gutkha companies with penalty of 15 per cent as interest if these companies delayed the payments, but it is yet to happen and same lot of businessmen could get away with another `1,500 crores of transport-subsidy pumped in to the region for its industrial growth. The most ironical is the fact that Comptroller of Auditor General of India, which not only found gross irregularities but also reported a fictitious claim of `170 crores to Parliament, had advised the government to suspend the scheme of the transport subsidy with immediate effect.
The frontier states of Assam, Arunachal and Meghalaya failed to present accounts of fictitious withdrawal of `170 crores in 2002. The reports have also exposed on how plant and machinery of the industrial units were shifted from one state to other to claim the subsidies in Assam and Meghalaya.