Himachal Pradesh could be an ideal destination for all major industries including pharmaceuticals for their expansion projects as the State offers various incentives to industries in addition to a special package of incentives announced by the Central Government, according to Virbhadra Singh, chief minister of Himachal Pradesh.

While speaking at an interactive investment meet organized by the Himachal Pradesh government in collaboration with Ministry of Commerce and Industry (GOI) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), at Hyderabad on Monday, Singh said, the State offers immense opportunities for medicinal and aromatic plants based industries due to its rich diversity of flora. Over 1600 species of flora of high commercial value are available in the State.

"The State has identified green field areas for cultivation of natural herbs and medicinal plants where we would welcome established companies to set up propagation and contract farming infrastructure and value addition facilities," he added.

The State is developing a biotechnology park near Shimla and is emphasizing on ecologically sustainable projects such as in biotechnology, Singh informed. Singh denied that pharma companies have shifted units to the State only to avail of excise duty and other tax exemptions. The State has attracted investments only for new units and expansion projects and no company has relocated the existing units, he clarified.

Central Government in order to develop backward States such as Himachal Pradesh has offered special incentives to woo prospective entrepreneurs to invest. The incentives included income tax holiday, excise duty concessions for new units, investment subsidy on plant and machinery and central plant subsidy.

It may be noted that Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy has recently written a letter to Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, requesting him to either stop the fiscal incentives being offered to States such as Himachal Pradesh and other States or to offer same incentives to the backward districts in each of the three regions Telangana, Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra in Andhra Pradesh.