Service Tax - exemption for exports - are the Commerce and Finance Minister not on talking terms? What happened to Kamal Nath's policy?
When the Commerce Minister announced in the Foreign Trade Policy that Service Tax will be exempted for exports, all in the enlightened media of India screamed headlines "kamal exempts Service Tax". We were the only ones to say that he was not the person to do it and we have a Finance Minister. It is more than three months since KamalNath announced his policy, but the FM is silent.
The Hindu today reported that Nath has written to the Prime Minister thrice. The report also says that the DGFT R S Gujral has asked the industry to lobby with the Finance Ministry for its early notification. Strange!, the industry has to lobby with the Finance Ministry to implement what a cabinet minister has announced. The Commerce Minister should at least now realise that the FM, Chidambaram had never ventured to reduce railway fare!