The government is not considering any proposal to extend the benefit of the five-year tax holiday, applicable to new industrial units in backward areas, to small units in talukas and tehsils, finance minister P Chidambaram informed the Lok Sabha yesterday.
Responding to supplementaries during question hour, Chidambaram said that the government was trying to arrive at a consensus on the districts identified by a study group constituted by the finance ministry for identification of industrially backward districts for the purpose of granting 100 per cent tax holiday under Section 80-1A of the Income-Tax Act. If we go down to the taluka and tehsil levels, we can never arrive at a consensus, he observed.
The minister said that the government was also not averse to further extension of scheme beyond 1999.
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Export credit: The finance minister also told the House that banks had been advised to ensure that exporters credit needs were met in full and promptly. He said that exporters can avail of rupee packing credit at 13 per cent up to 180 days and at 15 per cent for period beyond 190 days and up to 270 days.
Bad loans: About Rs 28,677.67 crore loan sanctioned by nationalised banks is overdue. Minister of state for finance M P Veerendra Kumar said in a written reply to the House that maximum overdue at Rs 8,153.12 crore was from the large and medium industries as per the Reserve Bank of Indias (RBI) latest data of September, 1994. While small-scale industries accounted for Rs 5,419.85 crore, agriculture sector owed Rs 5,321.22 crore and other priority sector Rs 3,977.66 crore, he said.
Borrowings: Non-food credit of scheduled commercial banks recorded a subdued growth of 5.9 per cent at Rs 14,395 crore during April-January 1996-97 from a high of 15.9 per cent at Rs 31,615 crore in the comparable period last year.
Capital markets: Resource mobilisation from primary markets came down to Rs 13,181.1 crore during April-February this year from Rs 27,632.1 crore in 1994-95 and Rs 20,803.7 crore in the last fiscal, the minister of state for finance said, adding that the market capitalisation at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) declined by Rs 68,215 crore between April-January this year.
Coal privatisation: Minister of state for coal Kanti Singh categorically ruled out any move to privatise the Mahanadi coalfileds. The minister said that foreign investment was being invited only in respect of new units. This included an assistance of $1 million from the World Bank. The total revenue generated by the Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) during the last three years went up from Rs 700 crore in 1993-94 to Rs 1,081 crore in 1995-96, the minister informed the House. She said the actual production of coal in MCL in 1995-96 was 32.71 million tonnes. The tentative targets of coal production of the company in 1996-97, 1997-98 and 2001-02, the terminal year of the ninth plan, were 37 million tonnes, 39.50 million tonnes and 47.20 million tonnes, respectively. She said that MCL was at present having seven on-going projects with a total capacity of 22.60 million tonnes per year. Advance action schemes had been sanctioned for six more projects of MCL with a total capacity of 20.35 million tonnes per year.
Judiciary: Law minister Ramakant Khalap said that nine state governments had supported constitution of the all-India judicial services while seven had given conditional support with another seven states not supporting the proposal of the Centre.
Pesticides: The government is contemplating a legislation to ban manufacture of spurious pesticides. Under the new legislation being initiated by the agriculture ministry, manufacturers of spurious pesticides would have to pay compensation to the farmers for damage, if any, caused to their crops, agriculture minister Chaturanan Mishra told the Rajya Sabha. The Union agriculture minister said that the environment-friendly pest control measures being promoted by the government fall under the ambit of integrated pest management (IPM) which in the present form commenced from 1994-95.