Punjab Cabinet approves thrust sector status for oxygen production units

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, May 5

Amid the oxygen crisis triggered by the spiralling COVID-19 cases, the Punjab government on Wednesday announced thrust sector status for all oxygen product units, while appointing a nodal officer to coordinate with Customs Department for quick clearance of foreign aid.

The chief minister said with the way things were going currently, the situation was likely to worsen in the coming days, with nobody knowing how many more waves of Covid would hit the country and the state.

The status, approved at a virtual Cabinet meeting chaired by the chief minister today, will apply to oxygen production units with minimum capacity of 700 cylinders per day equivalent to 5 MT, oxygen cylinder manufacturers/fabricators and oxygen concentrator manufacturing units. Oxygen refilling units will not be covered by the special status.

With this decision, the units (both old and new) will become eligible for 100 per cent exemption from Change of Land Use (CLU)/External Development Charges (EDC), Property Tax, Electricity Duty, Stamp Duty and Investment Subsidy, by way of reimbursement of GST up to 125 per cent of Fixed Capital Investment made in the land and machinery.

Notably, the status of thrust sector to oxygen production units has been conferred under clause 10.6 of Chapter-10 of Industrial & Business Development Policy, 2017 and subsequently as per clause 2.22 of Detailed Schemes and Operational Guidelines, 2018.

The Cabinet took the decision to help the state cope with the emergent situation arising out of acute shortage of oxygen in view of the increased case load due to unprecedented Covid pandemic in the state.

For the week ending May 4, the state had average positivity rate of 11.6 per cent, with case fatality rate of 2.1 per cent, from a sample size of 74 lakh.

Currently, the daily oxygen allocation to Punjab stands at 195 MT from outside the state: Inox plant at Baddi (60 MT), Air Liquide plant at Panipat (20 MT), Air Liquide plant at Roorkee (15 MT), Linde plant at Dehradun (10 MT) and Inox plant at Bokaro (90 MT).

However, only 140 MT is actually being supplied from these plants on a daily basis, with shortage of tankers hampering lifting of oxygen especially from Bokaro.

Two additional tankers made available by IOCL have not been unutilised due to technical/compatibility issues. Further, despite repeated requests, Linde & Air Liquide are not releasing their committed quota.