Mumbai: The Maharashtra government is keen on reviving the ₹3.5 lakh crore oil refinery project at Nanar in the Konkan region, which the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena had opposed. The Shinde-Fadnavis government does not want the project to go out of the state, and is looking to set it up at Nanar itself. The issue was discussed in the cabinet sub-committee for industries on Thursday.
Officials present at the meeting revealed to Hindustan Times that deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis insisted that the state government set up the oil refinery project in the Konkan region, and as far as possible at Nanar, which, he opined, was the best place for the project.
After losing the ₹1.54 lakh crore Foxconn-Vedanta semiconductor project to Gujarat, the Shinde-Fadnavis government is firm about pushing for the oil refinery project. The refinery was proposed to be built with investment from Saudi Aramco, the state-owned company of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
“This project is much bigger than the Vedanta-Foxconn project and thus it is in the interest of the government to make every attempt to bring it to Maharashtra,” said a senior official from the state industries department.
The refinery project had earlier been scrapped by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis following opposition from the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, the then ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The two parties had sealed an alliance deal for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in March 2019, and moving the project away from Nanar was one of the Shiv Sena’s pre-conditions to forging the alliance. Konkan locals had been strongly opposing the refinery project, and the Shiv Sena had come out in their support in order to secure its traditional voter base in the coastal region.
The Thackeray government then pushed for another site for the oil refinery project, 20 km away from Nanar. Thackeray had written to prime minister Narendra Modi, informing him that the state government would make 13,000 acres of land available in Barsu-Solegaon for the refinery and another 2,144 acres for the crude oil terminus at nearby Sakri Nate village.
The cabinet sub-committee in its Thursday meeting also approved the setting up of a ₹20,000-crore paper production project by Sinar Mas at Raigad. It has approved a 300-acre parcel of land at Raigad for the project, which the company plans to set up in two phases. “The Indonesia-based firm has planned to invest ₹10,000 crore each in two phases. We are willing to provide more land to the firm, which it will require while implementing the second phase of the project,” said an official from the industries department.
The sub-committee also extended the industrial promotion grant scheme for the next two years for industries that could not claim a refund against incentives owing to the Covid 19-induced lockdown. The decision was taken to encourage industries and attract more investment in the state, officials said.
The sub-committee further decided not to make any changes in the annual average subsidy and incentives limit of 12.5 percent to four industries that had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the state for investment. The industries are Fiat India Automobiles Ltd at Pune, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd at Nashik, Jindal Polyfilm Ltd at Nashik and JSW Dolvi at Raigad, who are expected to make an investment of about ₹4,000 crore in all.
“The state had promised them around 12.5 percent subsidy and incentives in a year against their total investment but that promise was made when there was no goods and services tax (GST), and we used to get revenue in the form of value added tax (VAT). Given the changed conditions, it would be difficult to keep the promise but the state government decided to continue with the promise anyway,” said a senior industries official.
The cabinet sub-committee on industries was meeting after 19 months. The previous Uddhav Thackeray government had not held the sub-committee meeting in the last 15 months. Its last meeting was held on April 7, 2021.
