Jammu, Jan 19: Initiating the exercise of pre-budget discussions here on Saturday, Minister for Finance Abdul Rahim Rather said the issue of flight of capital due to diversion of trade from the state would be addressed appropriately.    
 Interacting with the members of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI), Chamber of Indian Industry (CII), and Traders & Retailers Federation during a marathon 5-hour long meeting today, the minister said the flight of capital won’t be allowed.    
 The minister said despite “limited resources”, the government has “tried its best to extend maximum possible relief in the shape of tax concessions to various sectors of economy.”
 He said the farm sector has been made tax free to give boost to the agriculture production and productively in the State.
 He assured that the government will consider more relief to trade and industry if it felt that there was still some scope left for further concessions.
 Economic advisor to government, Jalil Ahmed Khan, Financial Commissioner Finance, Iqbal Khandey, Commissioner Commercial Taxes, Kifayat Hussain Rizvi, Additional Commissioner Commercial Taxes (Adm) Jammu, P I Khateeb, Special Secretary Finance, Zubair Ahmed and Deputy Commissioner, Commercial Taxes (HQ), Showkat Aijaz were also present in the meeting.
 Rather asked the members of Trade and Industry to take full benefit of the Permanent Grievance Redressal Committee (PGRC) to exclusively address the day-to-day problems and grievances of the business community through regular interactions.
 “The PRGC is an appropriate forum constituted by the government to provide different sectors of economy an opportunity to get their grievances redressed in a time bound manner”.
 The minister asked the business community to take up their demand about tax reforms to the Committee.

Infrastructure upgradation
 The Minister informed that full computerization of the Commercial Taxes Department will be started from April 2013 which will go a long way in providing online dealing facilities to the traders and dealers of the State.
 He said commissioning of Rs 43 crore New Toll Plaza Lakhanpur will also remove hardships of the business community in a big way.
 Rather said that up-gradation of the Jammu airport for international flights on the pattern of Srinagar airport will be started immediately to give boost to the tourism and trade activities in the Jammu province.
 While assuring that all the reasonable views and suggestions expressed during the discussions would be incorporated in the next year’s budget proposals, Rather said that the basic objective of the pre-budget discussion was to involve the people and other stake holders in the process of budget formulation.
 He said the government was committed for the cordial relations with business community, which is an important and respectable segment of the society, adding that tax enforcing authorities have in clear terms been asked not to harass them on petty issues unnecessarily.
 “They have been directed to behave politely and maintain better and cordial relation with the dealers and traders,” he said.

Confiscations
 He also called for minimizing seizure of goods at toll posts, adding that confiscations should be the last resort only in exceptional circumstances. 

Lastupdate on : Sat, 19 Jan 2013 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 19 Jan 2013 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 20 Jan 2013 00:00:00 IST