 |
|
ADVERTISEMENT
|
Pharma policy formulated
Indo Asian Fusegear plant in Hardwar
Navis Capital takes Nirula’s
Companies Bill in winter session
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Vadinar bags stake in Essar Oil
AVIATION NOTES
INVESTOR GUIDANCE
|
|
Pharma policy formulated
New Delhi, July 1 The policy also seeks to strengthen the drug regulatory system and the patent office, while laying emphasis on developing human resources in pharmaceutical sciences by opening more institutions on the pattern of the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Mohali. Announcing the policy at a meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee attached to his Ministry here today, Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers and Steel Ram Vilas Paswan, said: “In addition to the existing 74 drugs and their formulations, 354 drugs with specified strength as mentioned in the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM), 2003, have also been included in the draft Pharmaceutical Policy for price control.” Maximum Retail Price (MRP) would be inclusive of all taxes as in the case of all other packaged commodities, he said, adding some exemptions have been provided for certain drugs from the price control-new drugs developed in India through product patent, process patent and new drug delivery systems would be exempted from price control for five years. Price monitoring cells in the state drug controller offices with funding from the Government of India would be set up under the policy. The draft policy along with Cabinet Note has been circulated to all departments for their comments. On receipt of their comments it would be put up before the Cabinet. Meanwhile, the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members attached to the Parliamentary Consultative Committee demanded the revival of the public sector pharmaceutical companies like IDPL, HAL, HOCL and BCPL.
|
|
Indo Asian Fusegear plant in Hardwar
Hardwar, July 1 When asked whether the units in Punjab and Haryana would be expanded, he said the company does not have such plans in the short term. The Hardwar unit would have a production capacity of 30 million units per year and would have production capacity of goods worth Rs 90 crore. Inaugurating the unit in Sidcul industrial area here, Uttaranchal Chief Minister N.D. Tiwari said tax incentives being given by the state were attracting big players to Uttaranchal. IAFL already has two manufacturing units at Parwanoo and Noida and one each at Jalandhar and Sonepat.
|
|
New Delhi, July 1 Navis is the majority stakeholder in Nirula's while an Indian, Mr Samir Kuckreja, would also have minority stake in the venture, a company spokesperson said. Navis Capital Partners is an eight-year-old private equity fund based in Malaysia. It currently manages $500 million in capital commitments and has interests in various sectors, including hospitality, food processing, car rental, outdoor media and others in eight countries across Asia. Established in 1934, Nirula's today is a diversified group having a chain of business hotels, casual dining restaurants, ice-cream parlours and food-processing plants in India. The chain with over 60 outlets operating in five states successfully caters to over 50,000 guests everyday. Mr Kuckreja, who is believed to be a relative of Nirula's former owners Lalit and Deepak Nirula, has been appointed Managing Director by the new management. Navis said the company has plans to further grow its restaurants, ice-cream parlours and cake shops nationally under the Nirula's brand name. — PTI
|
|
Companies Bill in winter session
New Delhi, July 1 Company Affairs Minister P.C. Gupta said, "We intend to introduce the companies Bill in the winter session and the limited Liability Partnership Bill would come up in the next session".
— PTI |
|
Vadinar bags stake in Essar Oil
Mumbai, July 1 The principal activities of Essar Oil Ltd are to explore, produce and refine oil and gas and the group has operations in India and West Asia, while Vadinar Oil is a foreign incorporated entity forming part of the promoter group companies of Essar Oil. Meanwhile, Essar Shipping Ltd said today one of its promoter group company has acquired 29.21 per cent equity share capital of the company through purchase of 3.76 |
|
Mismanagement galore at IGIA
by K.R. Wadhwaney The incidents of mishandled baggage, unauthorised persons gaining access to sensitive areas and bird hits have become frequent occurrences at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA). The increase in incidents is, sadly, on account of lax control of the authorities concerned. Budget airlines are ever ready to launch special schemes to woo passengers. But, in reality, many of them care little for passengers and their baggage. Quite a few, desperately trying to gain a wee bit of space in the Indian skies and passenger load, have neither staff nor wherewithals to handle demanding situations associated with flying. They show no concern when suitcases are torn or mishandled although flights operate from point to point. Most of the ills arise because many of them have no reputation to lose. The urchins roaming around tarmac and other sensitive areas prove utter negligence of security agencies. This is because too many passholders loiter about in terminal buildings. Recently, a student managed to sneak into ‘parking bay’ area before he was spotted. The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which is the ‘mai-baap’ of security, has ordered for any inquiry. What is this inquiry when the CISF officials are themselves to blame? The fact of the matter is that the airport, during peak time, wears more a look of ‘public thoroughfare’ than international airport. CISF officials concede that security at the IGIA and other airports need to be upgraded. There are several weak zones around cargo complex and secondary runway areas. The security will improve considerably when only one agency is entrusted with the responsibility of security and safety. Even before the monsoon has set in this part of the country, incidents of bird hits have increased. According to reports, about half-a-dozen of them have taken place. Air-India aircraft encountered a bird-hit after landing. The plane had to be grounded. This was bad. The worse was when stray bulls were noticed near terminal 1A. It seemed ‘the Dakota Age’ had re-visited IGIA.
|
|
|
Senior citizens’ savings not exempt from TDS
by A.N. Shanbhag Q: i) My mother recently opened a Senior Citizen Savings Scheme (SCSS) 2004 account with a deposit of Rs 3 lakh with nationalised bank on April 19 2006. In this scheme, interest is paid at the end of each quarter. My mother was told by bank that she would not get interest from April 19. They told her that the interest is given only if the deposit is made on or before 5th of the month just like in PPF account. Is this correct? My mother will lose interest on Rs 3 lakh for 12 days which is quite substantial for her. ii) Whether there is any government. notification for TDS on SCSS 2004 accounts and whether Form-15G can be given by the account holder who is 60 years or 65 years, to the authority for not deducting TDS. — Rika Baliwala A: 1. The bank is in error, and a bad one at that. As per the rules —- Where a deposit is made by cheque or demand draft, the date of deposit shall be the date of encashment of the cheque or demand draft. The interest is payable from the date of encashment. The interest is payable quarterly, on March 31, June 30, September 30 and December 31. Understandably, the interest for the 1st and the last quarter will be for a broken period. 2. Government of India, Ministry of Finance, Department of Economic Affairs, New Delhi vide letter F.No.2-8/2004-NS-II dated March 28, 2006 have since clarified that the interest payment under Senior Citizens Savings Scheme (SCSS)-2004 is not exempt from deduction of tax at source. Banks are, therefore, required to deduct income tax at source while disbursing interest payment under the Scheme. Those investors that are above 65 years of age can submit Form-15H and those that are under 65 can submit Form-15G. PF account Q: If a person takes VRS from a company - can he keep his PF with the company i.e. not withdrawing and only getting interest on the last balance as per prevailing interest rate of PF and withdrawing the total amount at a later date? If yes, for how it can be kept (any limit)? Interest such credited will be taxable. If yes, at what rate? Can the company deduct tax before crediting to the a/c? Will it be considered as a “PF Fund A/c”? — Sanghmitra A : In the case of ONGC Ltd. v Income-tax Officer (TDS), Dehradun ITAT Delhi Bench ‘A’ observed, “Accumulated balance due to employees’ as provided in rule 2(f) of Part A of the Fourth Schedule, to the Income Tax Act 1961, would mean the balance due or claimable by an employee on the day he ceased to be the employee of the employer maintaining the provident fund and therefore, such balances would imply amounts credited to the accounts of employees during their employment. It was only these balances that were exempt from tax u/s 10(12). The assessee, a recognised provident fund, had made the impugned credits to persons who were no longer employees of ONGC. The cessation was not due to their ill-health, the discontinuation of the employer’s business or for any other cause beyond their control. The amounts credited in the accounts of former employees would not be exempt from tax. Import duty on gold Q: Can an NRI bring gold to India from the US and how much? — Narendra A: The RBI has granted general permission to NRIs to bring up to 10 kg of gold. The NRI will have to pay import duty of Rs 250 per 10 gm. However, the import duty for gold bars serially numbered and weight expressed in metric units and for gold coins is Rs 100 per 10 gm. This special rate is not applicable to popular tola bars (116 gm) known as biscuits. MF schemes Q: I have mutual funds of Rs 20,000 face value acquired very recently. Since I am working abroad, I feel there is no need to worry about the tax part. I don’t have any PAN number nor am I filing any returns since 6 years. However, TDS from my NRO account which I opened for home loan purpose is regularly deducted. Please advise me whether I have to file any returns? — Gandhar A: 1. Equity-based MF schemes are unique in enjoying the following 4 tax concessions which no other avenue is blessed with — 1. Dividend is tax-free. 2. There is no dividend distribution tax. 3. The long-term capital gains is exempt. 4. The short-term capital gains enjoys the concessional flat rate of tax @10.2%. In the case of ELSS, there is an additional benefit of deduction u/s 80C. Realise that there is a market risk associated with this avenue, but in our opinion, under the current scenario, this is the best one for long-term. 2. There is no legal obligation to file tax returns unless the income chargeable to tax, inclusive of capital gains exceeds the minimum tax threshold of Rs 1,00,000. However, income from some sources suffers TDS in India. For instance, TDS is required to be applied on interest from NRO and also income by way of capital gains without any threshold. Therefore, it is prudent to file the returns not only for claiming the refund, if any, but also to ensure continuity after the individual returns to India. Moreover, there are certain financial transactions, such as trading in shares, buying a house, etc., which require you to have a PAN. NRNR deposits Q: During my stay abroad for last 20 years I have taken several fix NRNR deposits in banks, which are joint with my daughter in-laws and my grandsons. Now, I have come back from the UK permanently. Some of these deposits will be matured in this financial year. In addition, rest in next financial year. I am earning very low rate of interest on these. I need your guidance on the following. (1) I am a senior citizen. I want to invest this money in domestic fix deposits so that I can earn maximum interest. Can I convert these NRNR deposits into domestic term deposits without penalty? (2) Can I gift these deposits to my other joint holders i.e. my daughter in-laws and my adult grandsons. (3) If I gift these deposits to my daughter in-laws what will be my tax liability. — Vardhan A: 1. Have you gone to the bank to find out the current status of your NRNR deposits? AP (DIR) Circular 28 dt 4.3.02 has discontinued Non-Resident (Non-Repatriable) Rupee Account (NRNR) and Non-Resident (Special) Rupee Account (NRSR) from 1.4.02. ADs shall not accept any fresh deposits or renew these accounts after their maturity. The maturity proceeds of NRNR shall be credited to any NRE or even NRO account of the depositor. By default, it will be credited to his NRE account. If these deposits are still in vogue, you will be liable for a penalty for premature encashment. You will have to ascertain whether it is advantageous for you to opt for premature encashment in spite of penalty. 2. Yes, you can give a gift. 3. The income arising from the gifted corpus will be clubbed in your hands in the case of gifts to your daughters-in-law. The authors may be contacted at wonderlandconsultants@yahoo.com
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
