Punjab moves Supreme Court seeking tax holiday for the state

The Punjab government has moved Supreme Court praying to extend the tax holiday schemes to Punjab as the state has witnessed a mass exodus of industries to the neighbouring states to take advantage of the tax benefits which resulted in draining of the state exchequer during the last some years. The central government in 2002 had announced hill states like Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and J&K as tax holiday states to attract the industries to these industrially backward states. 

Senior officials in the Punjab Industrial Department said that the state has filed the petition in the Supreme Court. The Punjab government has been toying with the idea of moving the apex court on this issue for quite some time as it was draining the state exchequer because the central government while announcing the tax holiday scheme did not make any provisions to compensate the affected states like Punjab.