Bill for Income tax exemptions introduced in LS

NEW DELHI: A bill to grant income tax exemptions in certain areas and to reduce interest chargeable and payable to assessees was introduced in Lok Sabha today.
The Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2003, also aims to provide income tax exemption on interest paid by the ship-breaking industry outside India for purchasing a ship from outside India for the purpose of ship breaking.
The bill was necessitated in the wake of demands for providing 100 per cent income tax deduction of the profits derived from export of wood based handicraft items keeping in view unique problems faced by exporters of such articles.
"Certain trade associations made certain representations for giving income-tax benefit to all hand made based articles or things", says the Statement of Objects and Reasons of the bill.
Introducing the Bill, Minister of State for Finance Shripad Yesso Naik, said the legislation was also required to give income-tax exemption to interest payable to the Nordic Investment Bank, a multilateral financial institution constituted by Governments of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, on a loan advanced by it to a project approved by the Central Government.
The bill also aims to reduce interest chargeable from the assessees and interest payable to the assessees under the Income Tax Act, 1961, the Wealth Tax Act, 1957 and the Expenditure Tax Act, 1987 in view of the reduction in the interest rates prevailing in the market.