Finance Bill cleared; Govt. announces measures to revive economy
Interest subsidy on housing loans for middle and lower income groups, tax holiday for food processing industries and reforms in tax structure are some of the highlights of the Finance Minister's announcements, in reply to the debate on the Finance Bill in the Lok Sabha on Monday. The Bill was adopted by the House.
Announcing a slew of measures to boost the economy recovering from the financial crisis, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee focused on the infrastructure sector to create more employment and generate domestic demand.
He said, the economy is on a recovery path and it will clock around 9 per cent growth by the end of 2010.
Announcing a stimulus for the housing sector, Mr. Mukherjee declared one per cent tax subsidy on loans up to ten lakh rupees for middle and low income groups, provided their cost does not exceed 20 lakh rupees. To create demand in the sector, he also announced a tax holiday in housing for profits derived from projects approved between April 2007 and March 2008.
Giving a further boost to infrastructure, the Finance Minister extended exemption of service tax on the repairs and maintenance of roads. Further tax holiday was also given to the food processing industry.
He also extended the end date for the Industrial Park Scheme by two years, up to 31st of March 2011. The scheme encourages developers to create infrastructure facilities for manufacturing units and also provides a 10-year tax holiday.
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