Haryana cabinet approves amendments in Industrial Licensing Policy

The council of ministers on Tuesday approved amendments in the Industrial Licensing Policy of October 2015 providing a certain relief on levy of external development charges and facilitating more efficient utilisation of land in transport and communication sectors.

An official spokesperson said the amendments were introduced in response to long-pending industry demands, including representations from stakeholders such as NAREDCO, and are aimed at bringing clarity, consistency, and parity with decisions taken in other sectoral policies such as the textile policy.

The spokesperson said a key decision related to the rationalisation of External Development Charges (EDC) in agriculture zones. It has been approved that in cases where an industrial licence has been granted in agriculture zones beyond 500 metres of the urbanisable limit, and where completion or part completion certificate has already been issued, no EDC shall be payable if such land subsequently gets included within the urbanisable zone or within 500 metres.

However, for the remaining non completed portion of such licensed land, EDC will be applicable as per prevailing norms for industrial colonies in urbanisable zones. Further, in cases where a developer seeks specific infrastructure facilities for the already completed or part-completed area, only the actual cost of such infrastructure, as provided by the concerned government agencies, shall be charged.

Amendments to enable more efficient utilisation of land in transport and communication sectors were also approved. The existing industrial licensing policy has been aligned with the Change of Land Use (CLU) policy dated 19.03.2021 by allowing industrial units in transport and communication sectors, thereby, ensuring parity between licensing and CLU mechanisms. Under the revised provisions, permission for setting up industrial colonies as well as CLU permissions will now be allowed in transport and communication zones of published Final Development Plans, upto 25 % of the total net planned area of such zones to enable enhanced land utilisation through compact development.

This change also extends the applicability of such provisions to hyper potential and high potential towns, which were previously not covered, thus expanding industrial opportunities in rapidly growing urban centres.