Govt issues guidelines for financial aid to food parks

BHUBANESWAR:  IN a major push to industries in the food sector, Odisha Government has framed operational guidelines for sanction and disbursement of financial assistance up to `15 crore to agencies planning to set up Mega Food Park or Sea Food Park in the State.As per the notification issued by MSME Department, financial assistance up to 20 per cent of the project cost (excluding land cost) will be provided to the Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) or implementing agencies planning to set up Mega Food Park or Sea Food Park in the State. The maximum limiunder the scheme will be `15 crore.

To avail the benefits the project implementers are required to be approved under the Mega Food Park Scheme of the Centre and the overall limit of such assistance from all resources should not exceed 75 per cent. The State Government has also formed three technical committees to examine the applications received for the finacial assistance.

The sub-technical committee headed by Director of Industries will scrutinise the applications and the detailed project report after which the Technical Committee, headed by MSME Secretary, will examine the recommendations for sanctioning the financial grant.Later, the Inter-departmental Approval Committee (IDAC) headed by Chief Secretary will process the recommendation and approve the assistance.

Financial aid will be released in four installments during which the two committees will closely monitor implementation works. For operationalisation of projects, Government has set a 30-month timeline from the date of financial approval.

The financial aid will be released directly to the financing bank of the project implementing agency against its term loan account and in the event of failure of the agency in refunding the financial aid along with interest within the period, they will be liable to pay the amount of the financial assistance along with a penal interest of 18 per cent per annum.