Uttarakhand urges Centre to extend tax sops for 7 yrs

Earlier, the state government was demanding that the 2003 tax holiday scheme for the state be extended by a period of three years.

Chief Minister BC Khanduri met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in this regard last week and asked for concessional package for the state on the lines of the North-East states. The state officials said the prime minister had agreed to consider the demand sympathetically.

For the past one year, Khanduri has been pitching for the extension of industrial package. From April 1, the government has also notified the special hill industrial scheme for a period of 10 years by doling out a series of sops.

Top officials said Khanduri had been raising the demand repeatedly because he wanted to match the central excise and other tax concessions with the hill industrial scheme. "It will be good for industry in Uttarakhand in case the tax breaks are extended by seven years since our hill scheme will also last till 2017," said an official.

Khanduri had said he would talk to his counterpart in Himachal Pradesh, Prem Kumar Dhumal, over the issue and would launch a joint campaign in this regard. But so far, no such strategy has been devised.

Following the special tax holiday scheme of January 2003, an industrial boom was witnessed in Uttarakhand where top-notch companies like Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, Nestle, Mahindra and Mahindra, Britannia and LG set up new units to take the benefits of the various tax incentives given by the Centre.