West Bengal Govt introduces bills to boost investment

The West Bengal government today introduced two amendment bills in the state Assembly to boost investments in the state.
The West Bengal Municipal (Fourth Amendment) Bill, 2015 was passed by the Assembly, which allows property tax rebate for 12 years for IT specific buildings.
"Tax rebate on property tax has been extended for 12 years against six years now across the state," state urban development minister Firhad Hakim said here today.
The benefit would be extended to all properties used for IT and IT-enabled services at least upto 80 per cent of the land or 50 per cent of the building without extended floor area ratio.

Hakim said the state was promoting Sector six at Bantala and Sector seven at Kalyani for IT parks.
"The Government will develop infrastructure for sector six, but the Kalyani IT park will be developed in PPP model," he said.

The Assembly also cleared the The West Bengal Ground Water Resources (management, control and regulation), 2005 amendment bill amid the opposition staging a walkout claiming that government was hurriedly tabling an important bill.
State water resources minister Soumen Mahaparta said the bill was a step forward in simplifying the existing process of granting permit to use and extract ground water for industrial use.

The bill also brings a new section, which allows establishing a West Bengal High Level Ground Water Resources Development Authority, the minister added.