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Govt may rein in real estate sector
Now, file tax returns in demat form
e-governance to make ministry paperless
Manikchand dropped as Filmfare awards sponsor
Himachal Annual Plan fixed at Rs 1,600 crore
Working from home with Web chat
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UCO Bank to up retail lending
HDFC Bank grows
Policy on FDI in retail soon: Nath
Railways to up freight business
Graphic: Telephone
Connections
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Govt may rein in real estate sector
New Delhi, February 9 “The present distortionary tax governing the real estate industry in India encourages the industry to remain outside the organised sector. This, in turn, has led to a situation where the real estate sector has become a major breeding ground for tax evasion and criminal activities,” sources said. Sources said that rationalising the present tax regime would result in large revenue and economic benefits besides expanding the tax base significantly. “This sector must form part of the tax base for any value added tax (Vat),” the sources said. Presently, a multiple taxation regime, both at the Central and the state level, govern the real estate sector. Sources said that presently most inputs used in the real estate industry are liable to Cenvat, which is not matched by corresponding benefit for input credit. This is because the output is exempt from Cenvat or service tax. “This is a major anomaly which many in the real estate sector have taken undue advantage of. It has also resulted in a flourishing invoice trading industry encouraging fraudulent claims of input credit,” sources said. The new tax regime, which is likely to be part of the budget (2005-006) announcements, would seek to remove these distortions as they are regressive and adversely affects revenue buoyancy. In the absence of any input credit, “there is no incentive to the purchaser to obtain an invoice. Consequently, the audit trail of such transactions is lost and producers of inputs are also encouraged to suppress such transactions.” Besides, under the existing system, there is the problem of “sales tax” on works contract without any corresponding credit for sales tax already paid on inputs. On top of this, there is the imposition of stamp duty. Sources said that there are three major taxes imposed on the real estate sector, which are “distortionary and regressive”. These are: Cenvat on raw materials, sales tax on the works contract and stamp duty. “They all constitute incentives to transact using ‘black money’ and explains to a large extent why people are induced to use substantial amount of black money in the real estate sector,” the sources
said.
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Now, file tax returns in demat form
New Delhi, February 9 The Phase II of TIN involves an estimated expenditure of Rs 101.25 crore spread over a period of three years. Of this, Rs 68.75 crore would be payable by the government and Rs 32.5 crore would be realised from deductors. The setting up of this network would pave the way for dematerialisation of tax deducted at source (TDS) and tax collected at source (TCS) certificates and will enable paperless filing of returns by the deductees on the Internet. The new system is also aimed at eliminating TDS frauds as it would enable cross-verification of TDS and TCS deducted by the deductors vis-a-vis credit claimed by corresponding deductees, an official spokesperson said. It will also enable e-filing of TDS returns and will “eliminate requirement to enclose copies of challans”. This would result in a significant reduction in cost of compliance, besides widening and deepening the tax base through computerisation of Annual Information Returns (AIRs). The decision to set up a TIN was announced in the Budget speech of 2003. It was decided that TIN will be set up in two phases and the National Security Depository Limited (NSDL) would host it. Phase I of TIN, which became operational from January last year, facilitates for electronic filing of TDS returns. So far, about 4.35 lakh e-TDS returns have been filed with TIN. Information of over one crore challans has come to TIN on online tax accounting system from 11905 branches of 32 designated banks collecting direct taxes, the official spokesperson said. In Phase II, collation of deductee-wise data in TDS/TCS returns of eventual dematerialisation of certificates, computerisation of AIRs of high value transactions and integration of information relating to processing of returns of income are to be taken up. Necessary legal changes have been made in the Income Tax Act with effect from April 1, 2005.
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e-governance to make ministry paperless
New Delhi, February 9 A consortium of TCS and CMC, public sector IT firm which was acquired by the Tatas, will implement e-governance initiative DCA-21 over the next seven years on a build, operate, own and transfer (BOOT) basis. The project is estimated to cost Rs 341 crore. For the first three years, the ministry will not charge any fee for getting access to information on companies, Company Affairs Minister Prem Chand Gupta said. “This project will not only provide easy and secure on-line access to the Ministry of Company Affairs services related to registration, but also improve the quality of services to various stakeholders concerned with the corporate sector in the country,” Mr Gupta said. The DCA 21 projects will be implemented in a BOOT
framework. TCS, as the BOOT operator, will be responsible for designing and implementing the project unit rollout at all sites; owning, operating and maintaining the system for a period of six years after successful rollout of all the sites.
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Himachal Annual Plan fixed at Rs 1,600 crore
New Delhi, February 9 Mr Singh requested the Planning Commission to provide an annual grant of Rs 50 crore for intensifying the afforestation programme in the state to cover 30,000 hectares of area every year. The Chief Minister said the state government would introduce the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act. It would also constitute a public service tariff board for various services such as transport, education, health, water supply, irrigation in the coming state budget. Mr Singh also said “wide ranging expenditure compression measures” have already been initiated and sought the Centre’s assistance in getting a structural adjustment loan from the World Bank or any other multi-lateral funding agency. He said the state government would not raise any money through non-SLR borrowings during 2005-06. “The state government is seriously concerned about the rising debt and would undertake suitable corrections to the extent possible,” the Chief Minister said. Mr Singh said the state has suffered a revenue loss of over Rs 2,000 crore due to a ban on green commercial felling imposed in 1984 and decided to forgo the biggest traditional source of non-tax revenue. The worth of standing forest in the state is more than Rs 1,00,000 crore, he said. According to the working plan prescription, the annual revenue would be in excess of Rs 250 crore and the state government has initiated revision of working plan in most of the divisions.
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Manikchand dropped as Filmfare awards sponsor
Mumbai, February 9 The step has been taken in view of the Interpol issuing red corner notices to Rasiklal Manikchand
Dhariwal, owner of the Manikchand brand gutka, for his alleged underworld links, the Times Group said here The Times Group said it has been hosting Filmfare Awards since last 50 years and it has been sponsored by Dhariwal Industries Ltd since 1999 under the title ‘Manikchand Filmfare Awards.’ “This year also we would have continued with this association but for the circumstances causing deep concern to us,” the group said. “The group said: “Filmfare is a magazine of great repute and so are the Filmfare awards. We believe that this association of Filmfare Awards with Manikchand as its sponsors would tarnish the clean image of Filmfare and the Times Group,” the Group announced. “We have been receiving several telephone calls and enquiries from viewers, business associates, well wishers and the film fraternity expressing their strong reservation on the continuance of the Manikchand Group as the sponsor of the Filmfare Awards,” the announcement said. — PTI
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Working from home with Web chat
Mumbai, February 9 EagleACD, a company based in Wilmington, Delaware, promoted by a non-resident Indian has come up with the Internet-based technology that would allow US-based employees of call centres to work from their own homes. Promoted by Kent Charugundla, a telecommunications engineer of Indian origin, the company recently unveiled a new Web chat program, which “enables low-cost, live agent support via the Internet.” According to the company, the Web chat e-commerce feature is priced at a low 3 cents per minute charge. “The application enables agents to work from any location that is connected to the Internet,” says Harold Maddella, vice-president, EagleACD. “The call centre agent may be at his or home in Mumbai, Romania or anywhere but be able to deliver quality service,” Mr Maddella said. “Even home-based businesses can operate as virtual offices with other home based employees,” the company promises in its Website. In Mumbai to participate at Nasscom 2005, Mr Maddella said his company’s software would help reduce the cost of call centre operations even further. According to participants at Nasscom here, such technologies are gaining popularity in the US as companies try to keep call centre jobs at home. ‘Home-shoring’, as the practice is called is rapidly becoming an alternative to off-shoring. According to IDC, a US-based research body on information technology, there are approximately 1,00,000 home-based phone representatives in the United States. Most of them operate from small-town America where costs are lower than the big cities and are able to work at lower rates, IDC said in its recent report.
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UCO Bank to up retail lending
Chandigarh, February 9 In a press note issued here, Mr Sridar informed that total business of the bank crossed Rs 67, 400 crore as against target of Rs 75,000 crore for the year ending March 31, 2005. The net NPA ratio came down to 2.98 per cent as December 31, 2004 and the same is expected to be around 2.5 per cent by the end of this fiscal. The market share of the bank increased to 2.37 per cent as compared to 2.12 per cent as in December 2003. The Capital Adequacy Ratio improved to 12.63 per cent as compared to 11.88 per cent on March 31, 2004. Reviewing the performance of the Chandigarh Region, he impressed upon the managers to increase the credit flow to mid-market segment by four times during the year.
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HDFC Bank grows
Chandigarh, February 9 Mr Shah said to cater to the huge banked audience, they would be opening 25-30 more branches by next year. In addition, at least 30-35 offsite ATMs would be set up in this region. The bank recently opened its first branch in Kashmir valley. “Though we are late entrants in the credit card business, we have already issued twelve lakh credit cards and about 2.2 million debit cards across 200 cities in the country,” said Mr Shah.
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Policy on FDI in retail soon: Nath
New Delhi, February 9 “We are examining various parameters... We should be able to come with a policy within next two months,” Mr Nath told newspersons on the sidelines of a summit organised by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce here. “We have had discussions with the retail sector... We want incremental FDI to come in the sector. We do not want FDI which would displace the existing investment,” Mr Nath said adding that the interests of the domestic industry would be protected. On FDI in the real estate sector, Mr Nath said the policy should be based on increasing investment in construction as opposed to parking money in land holdings.
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Railways to up freight business
New Delhi, February 9 Other segments of freight business include introduction of high-axle load operation on selected routes, warehousing facilities near rail terminals through public and private participation, web-based claims management system, extension of Freight Operations Information System (FoisS) to cover terminal, rake and crew management modules and development of Roll-On and Roll-Off (Roro) door-to-door service.
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BIS raids 7 units in region
New Delhi, February 9 A press note issued by the BIS stated that in Punjab, the BIS conducted raids on four units, using a fake ISI mark. They include a Kapurthala-based factory, supplying cattle feed to dairies under brand names Swad, Sifty and Sargam, a Fatehgarh-based water bottling plant selling packaged water under the brand names Adipsa and Sip ‘n’ Sip and a Jalandhar-based manufacturing unit, manufacturing spurious ISI-marked copper-alloy gate valves under Marg
brandname. In Kurukshetra, factories were found manufacturing ISI standardised feed without acquiring ISI specifications under brand names Kranti, Sona, Laxmi, Tulsi, Star and Deepak. Two more raids were conducted in Faridabad.
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Siemens to invest $ 500 m in India
Mumbai, February 9 “We have R&D centres in Germany and the US.
Now we want to build one in India because we want to tap its excellent
engineering pool. It would be a fast-growing corporate centre,” he
told reporters here on the sidelines of Nasscom 2005, a three-day
global conference on information technology and business process
outsourcing. — UNI
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HMT staff hold protest
Srinagar, February 9 The employees raising slogans against the central and state governments, alleged that they were not being paid wages for the past seven months despite assurances in this regard. A spokesman of the HMT employees union told reporters that the revival plan of the company was pending before the centre for the pas two years, resulting in hardships to them.
— UNI
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