The proposal was cleared at a high powered committee meeting of Udyog Bandhu, a state government agency for industrial promotion on Saturday. "The trade tax exemption will be allowed to units going in for expansion and diversification would be allowed exemption from the back date and on expanded capacity," the secretary of industrial development of the UP government, Rohit Nandan, said.

Nandan, who was here to preside over a district level meeting of the Udyog Bandhu, said the issue was hanging fire since 1995 as there was lack of clarity and interpretation on the subject. The decision forms part of a series of measures announced by the state chief minister Kalyan Singh on June 5 this year to boost all-round industrial development in thestate, Nandan said.

The meeting, convened at the initiative of the principal secretary of industrial development, AP Verma, and local industrialists, also arrived at decisions like a separate feeder line for industries at Ghaziabad, sub stations for Sikandrabad in Bullandshahr, Pilkhuwa, Dasna and Loni Road industrial estates and maintenance of industrial areas developed by the UP State Industial Development Corporation, he said.