In a bid to renew the demand for extending the concessional industrial package for the state, Uttarakhand Chief Minister B C Khanduri today met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and sought further extension of tax breaks till 2013.
“For attracting more investments the extension of the industrial package is necessary,” Khanduri told the prime minister in New Delhi, where the two leaders held talks, an official statement said.
Khanduri also demanded that Kumaon University should also be given the status of a central university. This is his second meeting with the prime pinister this year on the issue.
Earlier in May, Khanduri met the prime minister and sought concessional package on the lines of north-eastern states. Officials here said the prime minister had agreed to consider the demand on sympathetic grounds.
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 has 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 industries in Uttarakhand in case the tax breaks are extended by another seven years since our hill scheme will also last till 2017,” said an official.
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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 in January 2003, Uttarakhand witnessed an industrial boom as leading companies like Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, Nestle, Mahindra and Mahindra, Britannia, LG set up their units in the hill state to take the benefits of the various tax incentives given by the Centre.