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Power, soft drinks dearer in Rajasthan

With a thrust on ''financial discipline'' and fiscal consolidation with growth, a Rs 1.14-billion deficit budget for 2000-01 was presented in the Rajasthan Assembly today with a view to mobilise additional resources through new tax proposals amounting to Rs 1.06 billion among others.

Finance minister Pradhyumand Singh presented in the assembly the second budget of the 16-month-old Congress government led by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.

Upward sale tax revision was proposed on paan masala from 16 to 20 per cent, followed by soft drinks from 16 to 18 per cent, printed cards from four to eight per cent, silk from zero to two per cent, non-alcoholic potable drinks from 12 to 16 per cent and imported scent and perfumes from 20 to 25 per cent.

The proposed electricity duty hike ranged between two to five paise, but on agriculture the present flat rate was to continue.

Tourist visiting the desert state will now have to pay more as the luxury tax on hotels was proposed to go up from 7.5 to ten per cent. The limit for taxation was reduced from Rs 1,200 to Rs 500 per day.

A tax concession was proposed on battery-operated motor vehicles, cars and scooters manufactured for the handicapped, football, volleyball, carrom boards, chess board, crochet, iron tablets, folic acid and cattle feed, stainless steel utensil manufacturing, hand tools, solid briquettes, jaggery, steel re-rolling mills, AC pressure pipes and mini cement plants.

UNI

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