The Hindu : Front Page : Private sector to have a major role: Isaac

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Sunday, Mar 11, 2007
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Private sector to have a major role: Isaac

Special Correspondent

T.M. Thomas Isaac makes a special mention about private sector.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Minister for Finance T.M. Thomas Isaac has said that the private sector will be involved in a substantial way in the Left Democratic Front Government's approach to development in the State.

At a meet-the-press programme here on Saturday, Dr. Isaac said many technocrat friends had asked him why there was no special mention about private sector in the State budget presented by him in the Assembly on Friday. The significance the Government attached to private sector in the State's development agenda went without saying, he said.

The Smart City project in Kochi was going to come up in the Government-private joint-venture sector. The Vizhinjam container transhipment project was due to go for a fresh tender shortly [involving the private sector]. And the company the Government proposed to float for IT infrastructure development too would have private sector participation in a big way, he said, delineating the Government's approach.

Dr. Isaac said the policy, however, was that promoting the private sector should not be used as a cover for defrauding the State of its public resources. There should be strong social control. The Government did not wish to allow private sector involvement to happen in a way that would lead to exploitation. The idea of contract farming was an example of such objectionable kind of private-sector involvement, he said.

The Minister said he felt gratified by the fact that despite the strong resource mobilisation efforts in his budget, there had been very little protest about the taxation proposals. In fact, even leaders of traders' organisations were aggrieved only about his "oversight" in leaving out of the budget a specific tax proposal.

They wanted the budget to include a proposal for placing a levy on the supermarket chains spreading in the country, so that the small traders would get some protection from the Government. "How can I do that before such companies come to Kerala?"

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