Govt. to set up manufacturing hubs in South-East Asia under 'Act East' policy

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday proposed thatr the government set up manufacturing hubs in four South-East Asia countries as part of its 'Act East' policy.

"The 'Act East' policy of the government endeavours to cultivate extensive economic and strategic relations in South-East Asia. In order to catalyse investments from the Indian private sector in this region, a project development company will set-up the manufacturing hubs in Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam through separate special purpose vehicles," Jaitley said in his 2015-16 budget speech in Parliament.

In his speech, Jaitley also proposed to reduce corporate tax from 30 percent to 25 percent in next four years. He said that taxation is an instrument of socio economic engineering and none filing of returns or filing of returns with adequate returns will attract rigorous imprisonment.