Committee suggest incentives to revamp EOU scheme: Seeking a complete revamp of the 30-year old Export Oriented Unit (EOU) scheme, a government appointed committee has called for major tax incentives including exemption from customs duty, central excise and service tax to arrest the declining trend in setting up of EOUs. The government had set up a committee under the chairmanship of Development Commissioner, Noida SEZ, to suggest revamp the scheme in sync with the changing business environment and to merge with the special economic zones. “The committee has suggested fiscal measures, policy initiatives, procedural simplifications and steps to reduce transaction cost to arrest the declining trend in setting up of EOUs and their exports.'' The EOU scheme includes export oriented units, electronics hardware technology parks and software technology parks.

India-Canada Trade to Touch 15 Billion CAD by 2015: Equal Employment Practices Commission (EEPC) India with an objective of to achieve substantial rise in trade for engineering goods and services organized a seminar on doing Business with Canada. Speaking on the seminar Shri Arvind Mehta Joint Secretary Department of Commerce said, “Considering the fact, that China is having an extensive presence in Canada this event could be piggy backing on various other measures taken by the Government of India during 2011”. Shri Mehta also mentioned the low cost and innovativeness of the Indian manufacturers will be of great help to Canada which is now looking towards countries beyond NAFTA for trade expansion. Mrs. Preeti Saran, the Consul General of India also attended the event. While delivering her keynote address she was hopeful that these events could lead to double digit growth in trade between the two countries. Mr. Mario-Ste-Marie, Acting High Commissioner, High Commission of Canada in New Delhi was also present. EEPC INDIA with the support of Indian High Commission at Ottawa and Canadian High Commission in New Delhi are organizing the next edition of the “India Show” at Toronto, Canada. “India Show” Toronto, Canada is being organized at most opportune time with Year 2011 being declared as the “Year of India in Canada” by Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and his Canadian counterpart Mr. Stephen Harper, during the latter’s visit to India in November 2009. Indo Canadian bilateral trade stands at CAD 5 billion at present and is expected to increase to CAD 15 billion in the next 5 years. Ms. Preeti Saran in her address informed that Canadian businessmen are keen in partnering with Indian counterparts for trade, business and joint venture opportunities. She further added that Toronto on its own holds a crucial status in Canada’s overall economy. Shri Arvind Mehta indicated that North America and Europe have been the traditional focus markets for India’s engineering exports, contributing 31.07% share. He also stated that the signing of Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between India and Canada will help to strengthen the economic and commercial ties between the two countries. The engineering exports which are to the tune of USD 60 billion in 2009-10 contribute a fifth of India’s total exports. However, it is significant that although USA accounts for 10.72% of India’s total engineering exports, Canada contributes only 0.56%. In fact, the total exports of engineering goods and services to Canada were to the tune of 373 Million dollars which is 0.28% of total imports of Canadian engineering basket.