GUWAHATI, Feb 28 – Union Finance Ministry officials, during a post-Budget video conferencing with a group of select journalists from the city, stated that the Budget proposes to protect the interests of mini-refineries of Assam in wake of dismantling of the Administered Price Mechanism (APM) through 50 per cent reduction of excise duty on refinery products. Regarding any special proposal in the Budget to give fillip to tourism sector in the north-eastern region, the Finance Ministry officials said that although no specific measure was proposed for improvement of tourism sector in the NE region, the NE Development department whose allocation has been increased should be able to take care of it. They suggested that State Governments of north-eastern States should also consider to allocate more funds for tourism sector development in their respective States.
In response to another query, the ministry officials stated that reduction of excise duty on tea by 50 per cent coupled with 100 per cent imposition of import duty should go a long way in helping the tea industry to tide over the present critical phase, the worst ever faced by the industry. The Government of India officials, who answered questions from mediapersons from different centres of the country in the post-Budget video conferencing, were: Revenue Secretary, S Narayan, Secretary, Economic Affairs, CM Basudev, Expenditure Secretary, CS Rao, Chairman of CBDT, PK Sharma, Chairman of CBET, KL Verma, and Chief Adviser to Finance Minister, Rakesh Mohan.
Meanwhile, president of the Tea Association of India (TAI), DM Jain today hailed the reduction in excise duty on made tea from Rs 2 to Re 1 per kg and the upward revision of import duty on tea from 70 per cent to 100 per cent as proposed in the Union Budget presented by the Finance Minister today. He, however, noted with concern that the selling cost of tea will increase by imposition of service tax on warehousing charges as proposed in the Budget. Sri Jain termed the relief granted to tea industry as a move in the right direction though he felt it insufficient to help the industry tide over the present crisis.
The Budget, however, disappointed the trade and industry circle in the NE. The Federation of Industry and Commerce North Eastern Region (FINER) is disappointed that Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) has not been removed from the region. It says that imposition of Tax on dividend income will certainly dampen the capital market and tax burden on individuall will increase considerably. According to FINER, there was nothing for the SSI sector also and it is not an industry-friendly Budget.