Hyderabad: Telangana minister for industries and commerce K Taraka Rama Rao on (KTR) on Tuesday strongly criticised the Central government for its “failure” to provide any financial package to develop of the industrial sector in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis.
KTR was replying to a question in the state legislative assembly after being asked about the negative effects COVID-19 had on Telangana’s industrial sector. He said that during the pandemic, the Centre had announced a relief package of Rs 20 lakh crore for the industrial sector.
However, KTR said that these package were only loans and not incentives, and that Telangana received nothing from the said package. He added that not only Telangana but none of the states in the country got any benefits from the package.
KTR said in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandmeic, the state government had introduced several initiatives for the development of various industries such as bulk drugs, life sciences, agriculture and pesticides industries. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, the state was able to attract foreign investments in the industrial sector, he added.
Further, he said that Rs 5389 crores were sanctioned for 1,43,290 units in Telangana but these need to be repaid. KTR concluded by saying that a total of 102 and 1990 units in the last two financial years respectively have started production since the projects were approved last year in April.