The Hindu : Jaswant under pressure to give more sops to textile industry

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 14, 2003

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National

Jaswant under pressure to give more sops to textile industry

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MAY 13. Pressure is building up on the Union Finance Minister, Jaswant Singh, to grant more concessions to the textile industry which has already received special attention during the passage of the Finance Bill on April 30.

At a meeting on Monday at the Prime Minister's residence, where the Deputy Prime Minister, L. K. Advani, and the BJP president, Venkaiah Naidu, were present along with the Finance Minister, the issue of providing Cenvat benefit to the powerloom owners was raised. It was impressed upon the Finance Minister that his announcement that powerloom owners who had not been filing income tax returns or maintaining accounts could now avail of Cenvat benefits by declaring their stocks up to Rs. 10,000 per powerloom without any questions being asked by the Income Tax department.

Mr. Singh was asked to make the monetary limit prospective and not retrospective, that is, existing powerloom owners should be allowed to declare stocks without any limit while the limit of Rs. 10,000 per powerloom should be applicable in the future.

Similarly, he was urged to amend his proposal to fully exempt from excise duty unprocessed fabrics up to the first clearance of Rs. 20 lakhs, provided they were woven by powerloom units having an annual turnover below Rs. 25 lakhs. Rs. 25 lakhs turnover limit was termed as "low'' by some BJP members in the Lok Sabha even as the Finance Minister announced his decision while replying to the debate on the Finance Bill. Mr. Singh is now being asked to raise this limit in order to facilitate more powerloom units to avail of the excise duty exemption.

The BJP president is also understood to have asked the Finance Minister to extend the last date for the applicability of Cenvat so that more textile units could avail of this benefit.

While all indications from within the BJP point towards a favourable consideration of these demands by the Finance Minister, sources pointed out that Mr. Singh would not be held back from implementing the revisions just because the Finance Bill has been passed by Parliament.

According to these sources, changes in indirect taxes can be implemented through administrative orders and do not necessarily require Parliamentary approval.

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