Srinagar, May 10: Reaffirming government’s commitment to boost cross-LoC trade, Minister for Finance, Abdul Rahim Rather today said the Reserve Bank of India has framed a comprehensive scheme which is under consideration of the governments of India and Pakistan. “Once the scheme gets the nod, banking facilities would be put in place (to conduct LoC trade) as per the urges and aspirations of the traders,” he said.
 He said the traders from other side of the LoC are also keen to have bank facilities for conducting the trade. “The banking transactions would replace the existing bartering system of trade, which has various inherent problems concerning the traders’ community,” he said.
 The minister said the J&K Bank is ideally suited on this side of the LoC, for promoting trade. “I hope that respecting the aspirations and expectations of traders in PaK, government of Pakistan will also take all steps to facilitate the trade,” he added.
 The minister was speaking at a joint meeting of senior Finance Department functionaries and representatives of Salamabad Chakoti Trade Union here today.
 The minister said the state government is very keen to boost to cross LoC trade, for which all the required measures are being taken.
 The minister, according to an official statement, said the state government has been interacting regularly with the centre for including more items in the existing list of tradable articles.
 Responding to the pleas of the traders, the minister said that legally and constitutionally the cross LoC trade is an intra-state trade. He assured the traders that the Finance Department within the scope of existing tax regime in the state would take a holistic view of their problems to find solution to them.
 The traders said the LoC trade is being run mostly by youth in J&K and it has picked up because of the enthusiasm of the traders despite heavy odds.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 10 May 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 10 May 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 11 May 2011 00:00:00 IST