KARACHI, Feb 14: The Sindh directorate of industries seeks a new role for promotion of industries in the province as all its functions have gradually been withdrawn with the advent of deregulation and free market economy.
Since the rule for obtaining an NOC from the directorate for setting up a new industry has been revoked, the directorate has no direct means to compile data of industries and instead it depends on the labour directorate which registers industries under the Factory Act.
The directorate situated in a Sindh Secretariat barrack, which was once bastion of unlimited powers regulating industries in the years prior to 1991, today presented a deserted look with hardly any visitor.
The 350 odd staff of the directorate all over the province has virtually no work and they seek new role. The directorate has no up-to-date statistics on industrial units, but according to a 2005-06 data, the total number of industries in the province are 2,980, with Karachi having 2,305 units, Hyderabad 312 units, Sukkur 363, Jacobabad 105 and Larkana 102.
Recently, the directorate has been assigned to carry out an industry census for 2005-2010 for the Federal Bureau of Statistics. Special proformas are presently under printing, which would be sent to the directorate of labour with a request to provide details, mainly on stocks and inventories, number of workers, production, consumption of raw material, wages and exports, if any.
Sources at the directorate said it has not been assigned any role with regard to development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which is a new concept.
No attempt has been made to utilise the services of the experts available at the directorate and instead the government is setting up new departments employing new staff, which is a big drain on national exchequer.
Prior to 1991, the directorate was responsible for procurement of equipment for all government departments.
However, the long procurement list has now been confined to only two items — typewriters and fans.
Previously, it was mandatory under the rules for all government departments to have new equipment and goods inspected by the directorate experts to ensure quality and suitability of the price. But with the passage of time, government departments and the city government authorities refused to have inspection from the directorate. The large-scale inspections have now been restricted to only gunny bags purchased by the food department and vehicles purchased by the police department as well as inspection of boilers installed in factories.
In the deregulated era, the directorate inspectors have been stopped to inspect factories to check production, consumption of raw material imported duty-free and other things. Two major functions performed by the directorate regarding verifying consumption of raw material and installation of machinery imported duty free have been taken over by the Central Board of Revenue.
A former director of industries had submitted a report to the government for a review of functions of the directorate, which suggested that while under the liberal policy, entrepreneurs should be allowed to set up industries without any NOC, but they should be bound to furnish details in respect of investment, installed capacity, raw material to be consumed, and the labour employed.
The report had further suggested that a ban should be imposed on setting up industries in residential and commercial areas and no utility connection should be provided without an NOC from the directorate.