Budget 2012: Badal seeks tax exemption for road safety projects

CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today sought income tax exemption for industry, corporate houses, NGO's and media investing in the road safety programmes approved by the government in the forthcoming Union budget for 2012-13 financial year.

The Chief Minister in his letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urged him to give directions to the Finance Ministry to include road safety investments for income tax exemption.

He sought the exemption on the lines of concessions extended under provision of section 82 of the proposed Direct Tax Code for incentives to companies spending on promotion of family planning and prevention of HIV-AIDS.

Badal in his letter said: "India has reported the highest number of road fatalities among all countries in the world. In 2010, there were about 1.33 lakh deaths and 5 lakh injuries on Indian roads. These numbers translate to economic loss to the tune of Rs 1,00,000 crore every year".

Improved road design and a focus on pedestrian safety, safer vehicles, motorcycle helmets, seat belts, action on drink driving, driver training and licensing and tackling speed, better road engineering, regular road audits, making road safety part of school curriculum can help reduce fatal road accidents," he said.

Badal, in a letter today, lauded the role of International Road Federation (IRF) for promoting road safety world wide and supporting the United Nation's Decade of Action plan for Road Safety across the world that aims to reduce road fatalities by 50 per cent by the year 2020.

He urged the Prime Minister to also direct the planning commission to include the UN programme in the 12th Five year plan for urgent implementation besides putting in place a strong monitoring mechanism to check road deaths.