Coimbatore IT Park gets Budget nod
Tamil Nadu Finance Minister K Anbazhagan presented Tamil Nadu Budget Today. Few Highlights of the budget are follows. In a populist budget which could please housewives, farmers and students, Tamil Nadu Finance Minister K Anbazhagan today announced exemptions from value added tax (VAT), reduction in VAT and a number of concessions, but imposed a hefty four per cent tax on some items used by the industry.To give a boost to the flourishing IT industry in the state, Anbazhagan announced that IT Parks would be set up at Coimbatore, Madurai, Tiruchirappalli, Salem and Tirunelveli. With the objective of providing safe accommodation to women working in IT companies in Chennai, a huge working women's hostel complex would be set up with the Centre's help, he said.
The Tamil Nadu budget 2007-08 showed an uncovered overall deficit of Rs 3.75 crore, a revenue deficit of Rs 101.38 crore and a total fiscal deficit of Rs 7,800.56 crore.
Anbazhagan also announced a two per cent reduction in co-operative farm loans from seven to five per cent.
Kerosene pressure stoves, fertiliser mixture made out of chemical fertilisers, seeds for sowing purposes, pencils, ball pens, ink, pillow covers, bedsheets and towels, note books, geometry boxes, refined oil, used by households on a large-scale have been exempted from VAT.
VAT has been reduced from 12.5 per cent to four per cent on unbranded coffee powder, masala powders, unbranded ghee, plastic goods, audio cassettes, school bags and used cars.
Much to the dismay of industry, Anbazhagan imposed a four per cent tax on superior kerosene oil, molasses, industrial gases and textile machinery.
He also announced setting up of a Special Economic Zone in the backward Virudhunagar district.
He said under-graduate students studying in government arts colleges would be exempted from tuition fees, thereby extending free education to them to college level.
In a bid to strengthen infrastructure, he announced establishment of two shipyards in the private sector at a cost of Rs 3,700 crore at Ennore and Cuddalore.
In a bid to conserve available water in water deficit Tamil Nadu, the government would implement a World Bank-aided irrigated agriculture modernisation and water bodies restoration and management project, under which 63 sub-basins would be improved at a cost of Rs 2,546 crore, he said. Expressing concern over the hike in prices of essential commodities, he said pulses and cooking oils would be procured by the government and distributed to the public through ration shops in the state.
Farmers would be taken to countries like Australia and Israel to expose them to modern agricultural techniques practiced there, he said. Anbazhagan announced a six per cent hike in the dearness allowance for government employees from January 1 this year, restoration of Leave Travel Concessions and a hike in the festival advance from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000.
He said a state level high-level committee, headed by the Chief Minister and comprising representatives of political parties in the state Assembly, would be set up to monitor the implementation of all welfare schemes.
