AJK Gov mulls new zone in Mirpur

Mirpur: Azad Jammu Kashmir Government is contemplating to kick off a broad-based phase plan to establish a new mega industrial zone over an area of 26,000 kanals of land in Mirpur in the near future in order to give an impetus to the stagnant process of industrialisation in Azad Jammu Kashmir, official sources said.

The new industrial zone, the sources told APP here on Thursday, is proposed to be established at Moori on Mirpur-Jatlan road for which the required state-owned and private land was being acquired by the government to implement the plan.

The sources continued that the AJK government was giving due attention to promote the business and industrial activities in Azad Jammu Kashmir where a conducive atmosphere was already available. The state government intended to give due facilities to the existing and intending entrepreneurs at par with the neighbouring Punjab and NWFP provinces as well as in other parts of the country to ensure the speedy uplift of the industrial sector in the liberated territory in letter and spirit.

The sources said that the government also intended to give relief to those industrialists who have to face huge overhead freight charges of transportation of the raw material from various parts of Pakistan to their industrial units operating in AJK.

The industrialisation of AJK may prove to be helpful to overcome the unemployment, particularly among the educated youth besides to alleviate poverty in the area. The sources revealed that the government is also seriously contemplating to give 12 to 14 years tax holidays to the new industrial units to be established in Azad Jammu Kashmir. The amendments in existing five-year tax exemption law for the new comers in the AJK Industrial estates is also proposed to be made by the state legislature.

At the same time, the AJK government has taken serious notice of the increased trend of the misuse of existing five-year tax holidays by certain vested interest industrial concerns operating in the Industrial estates in Mirpur and Bhimbher districts in AJK through closing down their industrial units after enjoying the tax holidays for five years on one pretext or the other or through renaming their already-based industrial units with the ulterior motives to enjoy the tax holidays for another five-year period through using the same machinery and the same premises for their productions.