|
|
Eradi for tax exemption NEW DELHI, Mar 26: The Eradi Committee, which has studied the taxation aspects of life insurance sector, has asked the Government not to tax.....more Congress
not for VISAKHAPATNAM, Mar 26: Newly appointed AICC secretary Subbirami Reddy today said his party was not in favour of privatising ....more BSNL
makes "poor-man’s NEW DELHI, Mar 26: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) will start limited mobility telephony in Haryana’s Gurgaon .....more
Rs
286.05 cr deficit BANGALORE, Mar 26: Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna today presented a Rs 286.05 crore overall deficit budget and announced efforts to ....more |
 |
CARE steps up NEW DELHI, Mar 26: Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE) along with FICCI is expected to step up its funding in....more
CNG
deadline extended NEW DELHI, Mar 26: Supreme Court today gave a conditional order extending the CNG deadline till September 30, 2001 only for those operators......more Trade
unions threaten NEW DELHI, Mar 26: The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of textile workers today asked Government to .......more CAG
criticise exceeding MUMBAI, Mar 26: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has pointed out that......more |
 |
|
Eradi
for tax exemption for health NEW DELHI, Mar 26: The Eradi Committee, which has studied the taxation aspects of life insurance sector, has asked the Government not to tax surplus income of health insurance policy holders of life insurance companies since general insurance policy holders enjoyed tax exemption. "There were strong arguments for not assessing tax of policy holders share of surplus in health insurance business as similar policies issued by General Insurance Companies were exempted," Committee Chairman, V U Eradi, told PTI here. At present, the surplus income of the health insurance policy holders are taxed at 12.5 per cent. The committee is of the view that exemption of taxes for these health insurance policy holders would ensure a level-playing field and increase the health insurance cover for many more people, he said. At present, annuities and pensions of policy holders are fully taxed, though there is a case for exempting them from tax as annuities and pensions represent a return on to the policy holder of the premia paid by him, he said. Government should tax only that portion of the benefit that represented income on savings, he added. Eradi had earlier asked the Government to reduce the tax on income of life insurance policy holders to between five and six per cent from the present 12.5 per cent for widening the insurance net in the country, while recommending 38.5 per cent corporate tax on the shareholders’ profits. (PTI) |
|
Congress not for privatising profit making PSUs: Reddy VISAKHAPATNAM, Mar 26: Newly appointed AICC secretary Subbirami Reddy today said his party was not in favour of privatising profit-making Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) like BALCO. Addressing a press conference here, Mr Reddy said the Congress would oppose any move to privatise the public sector Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP), which was now on the road to recovery though it had accumulated huge debts. Efforts should be made to convert the debt into equity, he added. He said the AICC would initiate reorganising party committees at various levels after the nation-wide stir demanding the resignation of the Vajpayee Government ends on April 15. Framing of charges against Vincent George, Personal Secretary to AICC president Sonia Gandhi, after the tehelka.Com expose, has revealed the vindictive attitude of the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre, he alleged. He said a rally against the Vajpayee Government would be organised in Visakhapatnam on April ten. (UNI) |
|
BSNL makes "poor-man’s cellphone" a reality NEW DELHI, Mar 26: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) will start limited mobility telephony in Haryana’s Gurgaon city tomorrow with a monthly rental of Rs 400, free incoming calls and Rs 1.20 for a three minute out going call. Pulse rate for local, Domestic Long Distance (STD) and International Long Distance (ISD) calls has been kept as applicable to an ordinary telephone, a senior official from Gurgaon telecom told PTI. The Department is offering wireless fixed and wireless mobile connections using Wireless in Local Loop (WLL) technology with a refundable deposit of Rs 10,000 in case of fixed connection. The deposit at Rs 10,000 would, however, be adjustable in case of wireless mobile (limited mobility) connection. The subscribers would be required to pay one year rental as security deposit for the fixed wll connection while for mobile connection the security deposit has been kept in three slabs of Rs 2,000 for local calls only, Rs 3,000 for local and std and Rs 5,000 for local, STD and ISD facilities. The officials said that initially the department would be offering 2,000 fixed and mobile connections and the capacity would be raised subsequently according to response in the market. Department of Telecommunications (DOT) had announced its policy to allow basic telecom operators to provide limited mobility in January this year. (PTI) |
|
Rs 286.05 cr deficit budget for Karnataka BANGALORE, Mar 26: Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna today presented a Rs 286.05 crore overall deficit budget and announced efforts to mobilise Rs 284 crore additional resources. Krishna, who also holds finance portfolio, presenting the state’s budget in the Assembly proposed additional resource mobilisation efforts to raise Rs 125 crore from commercial taxes, Rs 10 crore from excise, Rs 54 crore from motor vehicles and Rs 95 crore from stamps and registration. Following increase, from two to 10 per cent, in taxes on about 19 items, consumer products like cake, biscuits, audio, video cassettes, ice creams, panmasala and instant coffee would cost more. The Chief Minister imposed new levies ranging from two to eight per cent on eight commodities including IT sector, which was hitherto out of the tax net. Krishna said with these estimates, an overall deficit of Rs 43.74 crore is expected for the year and hoped to cover the deficit through expenditure control and buoyancy of taxes. (PTI) |
|
CARE steps up investment, to build 10,000 houses NEW DELHI, Mar 26: Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE) along with FICCI is expected to step up its funding in India to 90 million dollar this fiscal considering the frequent calamities, and plans to construct 10,000 earthquake-resistant houses in Gujarat, as part of its ongoing relief measures. "Our spending has touched 90 million dollar (about Rs 420 crore) in various projects covering 7.2 million indians," CARE India Director, Tom Alcedo, told PTI, adding the NGO had invested about 83 million dollar last fiscal. Referring to the CARE initiative with FICCI in quake-hit Gujarat, Alcedo said, "we have been able to raise one-third of the targeted 15 million dollar for rehabilitation." We extended seven million dollar relief support during the initial days after the occurence of the earthquake, he said. Alcedo, who co-chairs the FICCI-CARE Gujarat Rehabilitation Project (FCGRP), said, "we aim to construct at least 10,000 earthquake-resistant houses, mainly in the worst effected Bhachau, Anjar and Rapar Talukas in Kutch district." Relief work was going on in full swing in 28 villages, he said, adding "we have already begun re-building homes of over 2000 families and also identifying villages to be adopted for reconstruction works." Alcedo said over nine lakh houses were either damaged or had collapsed killing over 20,000 people and injuring over two lakh people. The notable contributors to FCGRP included bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (1 million US dollar), Pepsico Foundation (500,000 US dollar), K K Modi Group, Tata Group, Proctor & Gamble, Enron and Morgan Stanley. (PTI) |
|
CNG deadline extended till September 30 NEW DELHI, Mar 26: Supreme Court today gave a conditional order extending the CNG deadline till September 30, 2001 only for those operators who have placed firm orders to buy CNG buses against their old vehicles. The bench comprising Chief Justice A S Anand, B N Kirpal and V N Khare said if a bus operator had 20 vehicles and placed orders for 10 vehicles then he would be allowed to ply only 10 vehicles out of 20 from April 1, 2001. The buses, which would be plying against the firm orders placed for CNG buses, should not be more than eight years old. However, the bench said there would be no blanket extension and after September 30 no bus, except on CNG, would be allowed to ply. The bench said the courts order will be implemented by the Transport Department of the Delhi Government with the help of traffic police. It said Delhi Government’s Principal Transport Secretary Ashok Pradhan will issue a permit to a bus only after satisfying himself that the bus owner had placed a firm order to buy a CNG bus or a CNG kit. The court directed the environment protection authority to examine the issue of allowing buses to ply on diesel having a sulphur content of 0.001 per cent and asked the authority, headed by Bhure Lal, to give the report within a month. (PTI) |
|
Trade unions threaten
agitation over NEW DELHI, Mar 26: The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of textile workers today asked Government to convene a meeting with the trade unions before April 16 to discuss the revival of NTC and BIC mills and threatened to launch a countrywide agitation if the Government failed to respond. In separate letters to the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee and Textile Minister, Kashiram Rana, they said, "in case the Government fails to convene an official meeting of the trade unions to discuss the issue before the second phase of Parliament scheduled to start on April 16, the trade unions will be compelled to draw a countrywide agitation". The letters signed by the secretaries of four trade unions including INTUC, HMS, AITUC and CITU said that of the 119 mills of the National Textile Corporation, 76 could be made fully working after revival. The 76 mills comprise 25 already working mills and 51 partially working mills which can be made fully working after revival. The letter pointed out that the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) had earlier directed Government to waive the loans of the four subsidiaries of West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat in which case, the subsidiaries could be revived. However, now the BIFR has issued show-cause notices of winding up the five subsidiaries for which, the final hearing will be done towards the end of this month, it said. Criticising the Government for ignoring their pleas, the trade unions said, "since your Government came to power in 1999, no official meeting has been called with the trade unions to discuss the issue of NTC and BIC mills". (PTI) |
|
CAG criticise exceeding
budget by MUMBAI, Mar 26: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has pointed out that the Maharashtra Government during 1998-99 exceeded the budget provision in 62 grants and ten appropriations by Rs 1064.06 crore and Rs 54.04 crore respectively. The excess expenditure required regularisation by the state Legislature under Article 205 of the Constitution. The report of the CAG of India for Maharashtra for the year ended March 31, 1999 points out that the supplementary provision of Rs 5546.83 crore obtained during 1999-98 constituted 13.23 per cent of the original provision of Rs 41921.91 crore. In 70 cases, supplementary provisions totalling Rs 718.45 crore proved necessary. Supplementary grants and appropriations, the report said, totalling Rs 3180.05 crore were obtained in 74 cases when the additional requirement of the fund was Rs 2016.62 crore, the savings in each case being in excess of Rs ten lakh. The CAG report states that supplementary grants aggregating Rs 1505.25 crore in 36 cases proved insufficient by more than Rs ten lakh in each case leaving an aggregate uncovered excess expenditure of Rs 924.52 crore. The CAG report points out that persistent savings in excess of Rs ten lakh in case and also 20 per cent or more of the provisions occurred in 36 cases during 1996-97 and 1998-99. "Injudicious reappropriation of funds resulted in excess expenditure in 79 cases and savings in 26 cases," the voluminous CAG report for Maharashtra said in its sub-heading appropriation audit and control over expenditure. The report further stated that savings of Rs one crore and above in each case aggregating Rs 367.92 crore in 41 grants and appropriations were not surrendered before the close of the financial year by the concerned departments. In 69 cases, though there was a total savings of Rs 428.82 crore, no amount was surrendered. On the other hand, as against savings of Rs 398.7 crore available for surrender in 42 cases, an amount of Rs 539.65 crore was actually surrendered. Expenditure totalling Rs 881.46 crore was incurred during the year on "new service/new instrument of service" without obtaining the requisite approval of legislature, the report adds.(UNI) |
|
