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| Major Events Vol. 3 Issue No. 19 | February 1 -15, 2007 |
Call to designate NE as tax-free zone The Federation of Industry and Commerce of North Eastern Region (FINER) submitted a presentation on the review of the North East Industrial Policy, 1997, before the Union Minister for DoNER, Mani Shankar Aiyar, and the NE MPs’ Forum at a meeting held at Hotel Brahmaputra Ashok. Since the NEIP of 1997 would expire on March 31 next, FINER stressed extension and modification of the same at the earliest since the delay was costing dearly and investors who were willing to invest in the North East are either going to Uttaranchal or Himachal Pradesh. FINER also requested the minister to be the goodwill ambassador of NE to attract investments to the region. Stating that NE should be designated as a tax-free zone, a few suggestions were put forward. Chief among them was exemption of Central excise or refund (optional for entrepreneurs), Income tax exemption, exemption of service tax, minimum alternate tax (MAT), fringe benefit tax (FBT), dividend tax, etc., exemption of local taxes and levies by State Government (direction from Centre). While talking on transport subsidy, FINER vice-president RS Joshi said that in order to make the scheme more effective, industries utilising raw materials from within the region but marketing their finished products outside the region, should be eligible for transport subsidy on finished goods @100 per cent of the railway freight from its location to Siliguri. Secondly, industries based on raw material from outside the region but marketing their finished @100 per cent of the railway freight from Siliguri to its location, industries utilising raw material from within the region but based on inter-State marketing within the region should be eligible for subsidy on finished goods @75 per cent of road freight from its location to its destination, and transport subsidy to be extended to petroleum (other than fuel) goods-based industry in the private sector. Lastly, it was suggested that subsidy should be available on steel raw materials lifted from stockyards of main producers (SAIL/TISCO) at Guwahati | Headlines | Editorial | Coverstory | | Travel Column | News Briefs | | OT Main Page | |
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