Opposition joins hands with CPI(M) for WB's growth
Trinamool Congress and Congress joined hands with the ruling CPI(M)on the floor of the state legislature and passed a motion to pressurise the Centre to extract excise duty and income tax exemptions for setting up new industrial units in six north...
By TNN |
KOLKATA: The Trinamool Congress and Congress may be two of the biggest opposition parties of the ruling Left Front government in West Bengal.
But on Wednesday, they joined hands with the ruling CPI(M)on the floor of the state legislature and passed a motion to pressurise the Centre to extract excise duty and income tax exemptions for setting up new industrial units in six north Bengal districts.
All mainstream political parties in the state have also decided to send an all-party delegation in Delhi to fight their case. Key players who have made this seemingly impossible task possible included state commerce and industry minister Nirupam Sen, Congress MLA from Jalpaiguri Debaprasad Roy and Trinamool Congress MLA Ashis Banerjee.
In this light, Mr Sen informed the state legislature that years ago the Congress-ruled government central government had given various tax and excise duty exemptions to investors and industrialists willing to set up units in Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir. The intention was to promote industry in such states.
During the rule of the BJP-led NDA government, such benefits were extended to Uttaranchal and Himachal Pradesh. Industrialists now get benefits like excise duty exemption and tax sops once they set up units in these states. This system will continue till 2010.
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“Following the Centre’s decision, Uttaranchal received an investment proposal worth Rs 10,000 crore in recent times. Moreover, to attract foreign investment, the Centre is giving several benefits to the industrialists to set up SEZs. The Centre’s move has forced several states to compete each other to attract investors,” Mr Sen said.In this light, the minister said the Left Front government was facing competition from other states to attract investors, especially since West Bengal isn’t among the list of those states that enjoy central support for offering smilar excise duty and tax sops.
“Whenever any industrialist comes to us they ask a simple question, what facilities can our government offer once they come in West Bengal,” the minister said.
“In fact, many industrialists had come to us and wanted to set up units in West Bengal. But later, some of them changed their mind and went to either Himachal Pradesh or Uttaranchal to get the benefits those states have been providing to the industry,” the minister said.
“Since the Centre is giving benefits to the states located in the Himalayan terrain, we can also claim the same benefits for our north Bengal districts. And I don’t find any reason why north Bengal districts would be deprived of these benefits being enjoyed by other sub-Himalayan states, Mr Sen said.
Mr Sen also felt that industrial growth in North Bengal was not satisfactory which is why the region needed to get equal treatment by the Centre in terms of offering tax and excise benefits to investors and industrialists.”
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