Maharashtra government to industries: No tax rebate if 80% jobs not given to locals

Ahead of polls, state mulls district-level quota, online processes for transparency

Ahead of the Assembly polls, the government has decided to strictly implement its rule on 80% jobs for local residents (domiciled residents of the state) in industrial units. Through a fresh order, the government will stop tax rebates for units found violating the rule, state industries minister Subhash Desai said on Thursday.

Maharashtra government has offered tax sops to various industries on the condition that 80% jobs will be given to locals, said state industries minister Subhash Desai. (Twitter)

According to the statistics provided by the industries department, the state has more than 10.26 lakh units, including micro, small, medium and major industries, where more than 69.69 lakh people are employed. Maharashtra government has offered tax sops to various industries on the condition that 80% jobs will be given to locals. “Maharashtra is the first state that made a rule to reserve 80% jobs for locals in 1968. However, there are complaints that some industrial units are violating it. Taking this seriously, we have decided to stop tax rebate for industries not following the rule. Orders will issued soon,” said Desai. The decision comes at a time when the Andhra Pradesh government has passed a bill to impose 75% quota for locals in industrial units. “We are also considering bringing in a legislation, if industries are found flouting the rule,” he said.

In major industries, 84% of the total employees in supervisory jobs are locals, while in the labour category, 90% are locals. In micro, small and medium industries, 84% locals are handling supervisory jobs, while 90% employees in the labour category are locals. The industries department is mulling a district-level quota for locals. “Despite giving up ancestral land for an industry to be set up, people have not got jobs there. For such cases, we are thinking of bringing in a district quota in job reservation,” said the industries minister.

The department will also make it mandatory for the industries to upload the data about their employees online to ensure transparency, he said, adding the rule is difficult to be implemented in commercial units.