Speaking at the meeting of the Northern Zonal Council here, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda demanded that the benefit of relief from the levy of excise duty and income tax being given for setting up units in the hilly states of Himachal, Uttaranchal and Jammu and Kashmir be extended to hilly tracts of Haryana and the Mewat region.

Mr Hooda said Haryana was the first state in the country to implement VAT. However, in total contradiction of the aims and objective of the system, the Union government exempted new industrial units being set up in the hilly states, he added.

''This has created unequal competition and had resulted in a closure or shifting of some industrial units to attractive areas, which is tantamount to a subsidy and goes against the very spirit of VAT,'' he observed.

The Chief Minister said Haryana had no objection to the provision of air link through a zonal airline between the major towns and cities of the Northern Zone. ''We have sent a proposal to the Central government for the construction of an airport at Bahadurgarh which needs to be expedited,'' he added.

He also called for setting up an Empowered Committee to formulate a common tax structure in respect of tourist vehicles on the pattern of implementation of VAT.