Gangtok: The Sikkim Government will urge the Centre to defer extension of the Central Direct Tax laws to the State for a few more years, official sources said today (June 5, 2004).

The demand is part of the memorandum to be submitted by Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi, press advisor to the Chief Minister B B Gooroong said.

''The memorandum will virtually be a catalogue of all our pending demands including deferment of the implementation of the Central Direct Tax laws in the State for a few more years, a special census for the Limboo and Tamang communities who were accorded tribal status early last year and an increase in the number of Assembly seats from 32 to 40,'' he said.

Describing the extension of the Central Direct Tax laws to Sikkim as an "emotive issue", Gooroong said that the State Government is of the view that the tiny hill State which merged with the Indian Union through a referendum only 29 years ago deserves exemption from IT for at least a few more years.

Implementation of the Central Direct Tax laws has been one of the major issues in the State in recent years. So much so that it caused the fall of the Nar Bahadur Bhandari-led Sikkim Sangram Parishad Government in 1994.