India offers fresh tariff concession to China

NEW DELHI: The government on Saturday decided to offer fresh tariff concessions to Beijing as a follow up to the recent China visit of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to step up economic co-operation.
The decision to accord tariff concessions was taken at the Cabinet meeting chaired by the Prime Minister, divestment minister Arun Shourie told reporters here.
The tariff concessions have been provided under the Bangkok Agreement that is in operation among the South Asian and Pacific countries.
India has demanded tariff concessions on 217 items while China has asked for lower duties on 182 tariff lines of export interest.
The tariff concessions are expected to be reciprocated by China. This would lead to a rise in exports of major items like speciality steel, chemicals, leather, textiles and diamonds to China.
The Cabinet cleared the Lokpal Bill and also decided to activate the Urban Reform Incentive Fund announced in the budget last year.
The corpus of Rs 500 crore in the fund would be available as outright grants to municipalities. The Cabinet also gave retrospective approval to the Indo-Afghan Preferential Trade Agreement signed earlier.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the Tala transmission project.