Shekhar Bajaj opposes tax holiday in 2 states

Indore, Sep 25: Prominent industrialist Shekhar Bajaj has opposed the tax relaxations offered by the centre in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand describing it as political and ridiculous.

Talking to mediapersons on the sidelines of a dealers meet here yesterday, Mr Bajaj, who is chairman and managing director of Bajaj Electricals Limited, said this was unfair to other states, which should oppose this provision as it had been affecting their industrial growth and prospects. If industries, which hardly get 3 to 5 percent profit, were offered tax concessions at any particular place, they would prefer to go there, he added.

Mr Bajaj said tax holiday was being offered on the ground of backwardness but Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh were also backward states and work culture was also better in these states as compared to HP and Uttarakhand.

BEL, a Rs 1113 crores company, has business units of engineering and projects, appliances, fans, luminaires and lighting and is growing at 32 percent per annum.

Regarding proposal of banning of bulbs and promote compact fluorescent lamp to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, Mr Bajaj said ban was no solution, it should be rather discouraged by reducing prices of CFL. He said all companies had been increasing production of CFLs as the market had been growing by 40 percent annually. However CFL also has a negative aspect as it had mercury and proper disposal was required after its use.

Besides CFL, BEL has plan to increase the capacity of high masts from 30000 MT to 50000 MT per year in next 12 months. Company has also launched home UPS in Gorakhpur and Pune and will soon launch this product in other cities including Indore.

UNI