Because the Left Democratic Entrance (LDF) authorities led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan completes six months of its second tenure, Rajeev mentioned the state is getting provides from a number of large industrial homes, and termed the latest Kitex group controversy as a “deliberate try” to point out that Kerala was not investment-friendly.
In an interview with PTI within the nationwide capital, Rajeev, additionally a former Rajya Sabha member, mentioned the federal government has been taking varied steps to enhance the general enterprise environment within the state.
“Greater than Rs 3,600 crore funding (commitments) have been provided to Kerala in six months (of the federal government taking on)… There may be additionally a giant development in establishing MSMEs within the state,” he mentioned.
Within the meeting polls held earlier this 12 months, LDF swept to energy for the second consecutive time period and took cost on Might 20.
Rajeev, who held conferences with varied Union ministers, together with Commerce and Trade Minister Piyush Goyal, this week has flagged considerations concerning the course of adopted for the states and Union Territories within the central authorities’s ease of doing annual enterprise rankings.
Within the rankings launched by the Division for Promotion of Trade and Inside Commerce (DPIIT) in September 2020, Kerala was positioned on the twenty eighth place. The checklist was topped by Andhra Pradesh, adopted by Uttar Pradesh and Telangana on the second and third positions, respectively.
Whereas emphasising that the state is focussed on ease of doing enterprise realistically, the minister mentioned there are critical apprehensions and discontent concerning the rating standards, which was “completely subjective”.
To make the purpose, he mentioned that Lakshadweep was ranked fifteenth whereas Kerala was on the twenty eighth spot and that there was no logical motive for a similar.
“The rankings have been completed on the idea of a survey. Once I mentioned the difficulty with Union Commerce and Trade Minister Piyush Goyal, he himself admitted that the subjective evaluation shouldn’t be reasonable. He himself defined the instance of Gujarat the place final 12 months it was on the second place and now it’s on the tenth place,” he mentioned.
“All this stuff are based mostly on subjective components. We’ve got requested the federal government to have a relook at it,” Rajeev famous.
Based on him, the state authorities has come out with new legislations and made varied different enhancements as suggested by the central authorities.
Kerala is among the many eight states that had been allowed to borrow extra funds as they accomplished the reforms facilitating ease of doing enterprise. “Objectively, our rating ought to be within the prime eight as solely eight states have gotten the power to take extra loans,” the minister mentioned.
Rajeev additionally mentioned that he has met round 700 buyers personally and mentioned about what they anticipate from the federal government on creating a sensible ease of doing enterprise environment. “The environment is sweet in Kerala for investments.”
On the controversy across the Kitex group, which shelved its plan for a Rs 3,500-crore undertaking in Kerala, citing alleged harassment by authorities, the minister mentioned the federal government had completed nothing in opposition to it.
“Some inspections had been completed. One was on the route of the Nationwide Human Rights Fee, the state has no function in it. Two different inspections had been completed as per the instructions of the Excessive Court docket of Kerala. The state has no function in it. One or two had been concerning complaints about COVID protocols. The inspections had been completed… They’ve some motives, which we do not know,” he identified.
Making it clear that each one the industries ought to work in accordance with the legal guidelines and guidelines, he additionally mentioned that if any legislation or rule is outdated or not sensible, the federal government is open to look into them and able to repeal such legal guidelines and guidelines after contemplating all of the points.
“The constructive factor is that no single investor from Kerala has taken a place together with them (Kitex). CII, Ficci and different industrial organisations are with the federal government of Kerala. We’re discussing with them. Some small points are there… we try to resolve all this stuff,” he mentioned.