Luxury tax waiver for Pravasi Bharatiya Divas

New Delhi, Oct 10 (UNI) The Dellhi government today announced waiver of the 12.5 per cent luxury tax on hotel tariff for the delegates of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) being held here during January 7-9, 2007.

The decision was communicated at an inter-ministerial meeting held under the auspices of the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs to review the preparations for the PBD.

OIA Minister Vayalar Ravi, who chaired the meeting, said the Delhi government decision would make the stay of the delegates economical and boost the attendance.

The Delhi government is also a co-organiser of this event along with the OIA Ministry and CII.

Mr Ravi also advised that a communication should be sent to all the Associations of Indians living abroad, which will, in turn, disseminate this information to their members.

There are about 1,000 Associations of Indians living in different countries and their involvement will greatly facilitate the wide publicity of PBD-2007, Mr Ravi observed.

The meeting was attended by OIA Secretary Nirmal Singh and representative of ministries of Information and Broadcasting, Commerce, HRD, Home Affairs, External Affairs, Science&Technology and Civil Aviation and the representatives of Delhi Government, CII, Delhi Police and Press Information Bureau.

The fifth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas-2007 on the theme "Rooting for the Roots-Meeting India's Social Development Challenges", to be held in Vigyan Bhawan and Talkatora Stadium, New Delhi.

It will focus on social sectors, including education, healthcare, women, youth and investment. Another new feature of PBD will be the sessions on geographical regions, which have large concentrations of overseas Indians. In addition, the PBD will carry on tradition of having state-specific sessions.

The Chief Ministers of the States concerned will lead their State delegations at different meetings.

PBD -2007 will feature for the first time a Conference of Parliamentarians of People of Indian Origin (PIOs) and about 2000 delegates are expected to attend PBD.

Another major addition to the PBD programme, this time, is a daily report-back session to capture the main outcomes and issues raised during the day. This is in line with PBDs resolving issues relating to overseas Indians.

UNI SH VD HT1825