Economy / Northeast

MOREH, March 22 – Though, the Centre has given the go ahead for promotion of Indo-Myanmar bilateral trade and agreed in principle for construction of a Food and Civil Supply godown at Moreh, India’s gateway to the south east Asian countries, the cash strapped Manipur government is unable to translate it into action.

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs had sanctioned Rs 58 lakh to construct a 1250 metric ton capacity Food and Civil Supply godown at Moreh of which 50 per cent is in the form of subsidy while the rest is in the form of a loan. However, the Centre released only Rs 35 lakh after...

Dimapur, March 21: A two-member European Commission team is visiting Nagaland to explore the possibility of extending the partnership between the European Union and India to various sectors of the Northeast.

Francois Massoulie, first secretary at the European Commission office in New Delhi, told The Telegraph during his stay here that there was immense scope to broaden the areas of bilateral co-operation. However, he was cautious not to promise anything to the Northeast.

“I am not going to raise the expectations of the people at this point of time. But perhaps we could think about media...

Shillong, March 20: The customs and central excise department appears to be in no mood to entertain requests by trade lobbies in Dhaka and Sylhet to reconsider its decision to suspend operations along the export routes in the Northeast.

As many as 13 land customs stations in Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura were closed down following the abduction of customs inspector Dipak Mahanta and six traders by militants of the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) and the People’s Liberation Front of Meghalaya.

Representatives of the Northeast Customs and Central Excise Federation said land customs...

GUWAHATI, March 12 _ The Income Tax Department has announced the one-by six scheme to widen the tax base in the north-eastern region. This was revealed by Jagrup Singh, Commissioner of Income Tax, decrying a press meet here recently.

Addressing the media, Singh said that the collections of the Department under the Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, Guwahati, last year were Rs 258 crore, and this year the target has been fixed at Rs 371 crore. The number of assessees in this charge as on January 31, 2003 is 449810. According to one-by-six Scheme, any citizen fulfilling any one of the following...

NEW DELHI, March 12 – India is pushing for opening of a second border trading point through Champai-Rih sector, even as the Government is in the process of setting up a joint trade committee chaired by the respective Ministers of Commerce to promote bilateral trade between India and Myanmar. Minister of State for External Affairs Vinod Khanna informed this in the Lok Sabha today.

Expressing India’s keen interest to widen the list of items being traded between the two countries, the minister conceded that existence of only one border trading point is a constraint. Under the Boarder Trade...

GUWAHATI, March 9—The Indo-Myanmarese border trade across the Moreh point has suffered a setback due to closure of ‘Burma Economic Bank’. All the banking transactions have come to a grinding halt due to closure of the bank and as a result of which traders are facing severe problem. The bank has been closed down last week by the Military junta due to poor financial position.

It is learnt that a huge chunk of money of the Indian traders are yet to be paid by the Manmarese due to poor financial position. Talking to this Correspondent, the vice-president of the Indo-Myanmar Traders Union WN Singh...

NEW DELHI, March 8 — The Department of Development of North Eastern Region (DONER) has agreed to take up the issue of withdrawal of excise duty exemption with retrospective effect on petroleum products of the State’s four refineries with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and Union Finance Ministry, State Industries Minister, Bhuba-neswar Kalita said here today. The minister was given this assurance by minister-in-charge of DONER, Dr CP Thakur when he called on him. Sri Kalita joined the chorus of protest over the budgetary proposals envisaging withdrawal of the exemptions with retrospective...

GUWAHATI, March 6 — In what should sound as a very welcome development to prospective investors, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) has evinced keen interest to finance viable and feasible projects in the State and the North-east. “The North-east has the scope to develop and do well in different fields, and especially in the power sector, its potential is immense and we will definitely welcome any proposal for consideration, IFC Country Manager Hafeezuddin Ahmad who is based at Dhaka, told The Assam Tribune here today.

“We have, in fact, received quite a few proposals so far out of...

NEW DELHI, March 1— Government will grant a ten year tax holiday for industries in Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttranchal and the North-eastern States to boost their economic development, reports PTI. Union Budget proposes to insert a new section 80-IC for this to allow a deduction for ten years from the profits of new undertakings or enterprises or existing undertakings or enterprises on their substantial expansion in these States. Substantial expansion for this purpose has been defined as an increase in investment in plant and machinery by at least 50 per cent of the book value of the plant...

NEW DELHI, Feb 28 — Union Finance Minister Jaswant Singh today repeated what Mamata Banerjee did to the North-east in her 2000 Railway Budget, unveiling a lacklustre Union Budget as far as the region is concerned. Benefits of excise duty exemptions on products manufactured by Assam’s four refineries were withdrawn with retrospective effect along with cigarettes and pan masala. Of the four refineries in NE, only the Numaligarh Refinery Ltd will get a 100 per cent Excise duty exemption while the three other refineries including BRPL, Guwahati Refinery and Digboi Refinery facing partial...