The National Board of Revenue (NBR) officials informed the Tata representatives about the government's decision of not providing tax-holiday facility to the group for more than six years for its proposed fertiliser and steel plants, and 15 years for the power plant.

The Tata officials agreed in principle to the points, meeting sources said.

The Indian industrial giant had earlier demanded 20 years' tax-holiday facility for all of their proposed industries.

Meanwhile, the finance minister said the government would not provide any special advantage to the Tata Group so that other investors do not have to engage in an uneven competition. But he said Tata as a big investor might get some extra incentives.

The government also took a firm stance on maintaining the existing policy of tax exemption for the foreign investors for three years, turning down the group's demand for tax exemption for an indefinite period.

NBR officials also informed the representatives that the government can not provide the export processing zone (EPZ) facility to Tata.

"If Tata is allowed EPZ facility, all other local and foreign investors would place the same demand to the government," an NBR official said preferring anonymity.

NBR Member (Income Tax) AS Zahir Mohammad and Tata Group Executive Director Arun Gandhi led their respective sides in the meeting.

Meanwhile, in another meeting at the Ministry of Land yesterday the government officials and the visiting Tata delegation discussed how to expedite the acquisition of land required for the Tata projects.

The government is planning to enact a special law for keeping the acquiring process of the required land for Tata beyond civil cases, sources said.

"The Tata Group is seeking speedy handover of the lands, but usually people file cases during the process of acquiring lands, making it lengthy," said an official of the Ministry of Land on the necessity of the enactment of the law.

He also said the enactment of such law is not new as the government had earlier passed a special law to acquire lands for establishing Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge, adding that the process would start after the selection of sites.

Tata Group is to continue the negotiations for the next two weeks.

SAIFUR ON NEGOTIATIONS WITH TATA
Finance and Planning Minister M Saifur Rahman said the government would not provide any special advantage to the Tata Group so that other investors do not have to contend in an uneven competition.

"We'll not give them any facility that would be arbitrary," he told the reporters at his office after a meeting with National Board of Revenue (NBR) yesterday.

Saifur, however, added that since Tata is a big investor, the government might consider providing some extra incentives for it.

When asked if the recently built up tension between Bangladesh and India would have any impact on the proposed investment of Tata in Bangladesh, Saifur told there should not be any.

"Brothers sometimes quarrel with each other, but after a while things get fixed," he commented.

Replying to another question about the status of the negotiation in the face of what appears to be a rigid stance by both sides, Saifur said, both the parties are prepared to compromise and soften their demands.

When asked about a possible timeframe for the negotiation to be completed, Saifur said it would take months because of the huge size of the proposed investment involving a lot of complex issues. Besides, Bangladesh does not even have the expertise to deal with such complex issues, he added.