Excise exemption - Himachal and Uttarakhand – no exemption for peripheral activities – notifications and circular made available – certainly not retrospective
Yesterday's DDT carried as top story, the amendments to the Himachal and Uttarakhand exemption notifications that the excise exemption will not be applicable to peripheral activities. The Board Circular issued in this regard clarifies that, It may further be noted that the above provisions are applicable to all the existing units availing the benefit of these notifications as also to new industrial units that may be set up in future.
Some pink newspapers have indicated that this means that the notifications have retrospective effect. This is certainly not the case – the notifications can have effect only from 18.01.2008. The Notifications and the Board Circular are now available and we made them public yesterday.
But were these notifications postponed till the elections in Himachal? Is there a politics to the economics or economics to the politics?
While announcing sops to the city of Bombay , the then Finance minister Manmohan Singh said in his budget speech, “voting congress is not only good politics, but good economics”. Is he out to prove this in the case of Himachal and Uttarakhand , both BJP ruled states? – That voting the BJP is not good economics?
NOTIFICATION NO. ., 3/2008 and , and CIRCULAR NO. 863/1/2008- CX . all Dated: January 18, 2008