New Delhi, Feb 18: Communications Minister Arun Shourie rejected a proposal for levying a cess to set up a fund for the promotion of IT education.
''The finance ministry does not want the consolidated fund to become unconsolidated'' as a result of any such proposal, Shourie told reporters on the sidelines of a telecom summit. The cess proposal had been made by a task force of his ministry which had gone into ways and means to bridge a projected shortfall of 500,000 it professionals in India by 2009. ''The fund could be set up through contributions from ITES and it industry in form of a cess towards development of relevant skill,'' the task force on HRD in IT headed by F C Kohli had said in its recommendations. Shourie said the emphasis of the taskforce was on creation of an extra pool of professionals. Bureau Report