Union Budget 2013: Service tax relief for vocational courses

BHUBANESWAR: Service tax exemption for vocational education courses received applause from Odisha, with the relief set to promote skill development programmes in the state.
At a time when the Odisha government is encouraging vocational education with an ambitious target of imparting employable skills to 10 lakh youth in various trades as per the market demand in the next five years, Union finance minister P Chidambaram's proposal to put vocational courses offered by institutes affiliated to the State Council of Vocational Training in the negative list will only add to the efforts, educationists and industry insiders said.
"Overall it is a good budget, which encourages entrepreneurship. Keeping vocational courses off the purview of service tax will encourage more such institutions to come up," said Saroj Sahu, the secretary of Odisha Private Engineering Schools Association.
Union Budget 2013 > Budget news 2013 > Economic Survey