The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : State to be made a shopping destination

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 16, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

State to be made a shopping destination

Staff Reporter

Attempt is to couple tourism and shopping, says Finance Minister

Thiruvananthapuram: The Government would invest money to make Kerala into a shopping destination in the next four to five years, Minister for Finance T. M. Thomas Isaac said on Wednesday.

Addressing the members of the Chamber of Commerce here, the Minister said the attempt would be to couple tourism and shopping and launch shopping festival. "As a small beginning, the shopping festival would be launched during October-January to coincide with the Deepavali, Christmas, New Year, peak tourism season and Sabarimala season.

Dr. Isaac said the Government would invest money for the shopping festival and will convert it into the lines of Dubai Shopping Festival in the next four to five years. "We have the potential and even metros cannot beat us."

New approach

The Finance Minister said he was trying to adopt a new approach in tax collection and was trying to create greater civic consciousness among the Keralites. The citizens would be actively involved in the new approach and tax compliance would be made part of civic culture, he said.

Pointing out that entry tax is a protection to domestic trade, Dr. Isaac said the trade is against the entry tax due to the harassment in checkposts. The checkposts are being modernised and the first integrated checkpost would come up in Walayar. It would have all modern facilities, 12 lanes and a green channel. Land acquisition and the tendering process are on.

The Finance Minister said 70 per cent of consumption in Kerala comes from outside and checkposts would have to remain as certain commodities are high tax evasion prone. Tax evasion can be reduced through computerisation. A power point presentation made by the chamber to the Minister demanded reduced tax rate for eco-friendly automobiles among other things. Dr. Isaac said he would look into the demands.

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