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New Delhi seeks Chinese investment in infra sector
Aviation Notes
Railways’ earnings up 10.4 pc in Apr-Sept
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New Delhi seeks Chinese investment in infra sector
New Delhi, October 8 “We would like China to play a role in infrastructure development in India,” informed sources said, emphasising that the Indian infrastructure sector would require at least $1 trillion worth of investment in 2012-2017. The sources said China’s top honchos have shown interest in undertaking infrastructure projects in India. India needs huge foreign investments in critical infrastructure sectors like rail, road, port and communication. The two countries have also held preliminary discussions on cooperation in railway construction, which is one of India’s most urgent infrastructure needs. Another area in which India needs foreign assistance is its massive National Highways Development Programme under which it proposes to construct 7,000 km of national highways every year over the next few years. The proposal for Chinese investments in the Indian infrastructure sector is also understood to have figured during the first India-China strategic economic dialogue held in Beijing on September 26-27. In 2010, China emerged as India’s biggest trading partner with a trade volume of $61.7 billion, which is nearly 20 times of what it was almost 10 years ago. In the first eight months of 2011, the volume of trade between the two countries grew by 17 per cent. The two countries hope to achieve the two-way trade target of $100 billion much before the 2015 deadline. New Delhi, is, however, concerned that the trade balance is heavily tilted in favour of China. It has impressed upon Beijing the need to address the issue of trade imbalance on a priority basis. “The Chinese do appreciate our concern in the matter…we have asked them to provide greater market access to India is sectors like pharmaceuticals and IT-enabled services to correct the situation. The Chinese seem to be looking positively at our proposal,” the sources said. Nur Bekri, Chairman of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China, will visit India from November 3-6, accompanied by a high-level business delegation, to explore the possibility of further enhancing trade and economic ties between the two countries.
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Aviation Notes
Worldwide, an international airport is considered as a mini township, wholly equipped to cater to the needs of passengers in adverse eventualities.
True to this concept, the GMR’s Delhi International Airport Limited has raised an excellent facility in the form of Eaton Smart Transit Hotel inside Terminal-III of the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) to help passengers in transit to recreate themselves. Claimed to be first in the sub-continent and one of the few in the East, the 93-room hotel has been split into two sections - international wing with 57 rooms and domestic with 36 rooms. “The rooms are cosy and facilities enormous,” said a leader of the group from the US, adding: “Aqua Pods”, a unique wash and change facility, and also freshen-up are mighty satisfying”. Also, both sections of the hotel have gymnasium, spa and free availability of Internet. Many regular flyers are said to have suggested that the authorities should raise a putting hole for golf-addicts. They said: “The area for the hole is available and it will be an ideal avenue to keep guests in transit suitably occupied” Decades ago, when the terminal-II came up at the IGIA, Air India’s subsidiary, Centaur, was the hub of passengers, particularly those preferring national carrier. |
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Investor Guidance
Q: I am an avid reader of your columns for quite some time and have found them really very practical and useful.
My son is 17 years old and will be major on 12th February 2012. He already has a PPF account for the past 15 years and is due to mature on 01.04.2012. The amount in the account is around Rs 5 lakh. He has some mutual fund investments of about Rs 1 lakh - basically children gift funds gifted by his grandparents and granduncles all of whom are senior citizens. My questions are: 1. Will he be a major in this financial year or the next one? 2. Should the amount in the PPF account be transferred for investment in equity market say in a mutual fund? 3. Can he still continue to receive gifts from his grandparents and parents towards building a corpus fund? 4. He has joined an engineering course where the total expenses can easily be borne by me. I avail of the Sec 80C benefit for his college fees. Should he still take an education loan to get additional benefit in income tax deductions? — Vinit C. D. A: Sec. 80D as well as Sec. 80DDB defines a senior citizen as an individual who is 65 years of age or more at any time during the previous year. The recent Finance Act 2011, has reduced this age from 65 years to 60 years only for computing the tax payable. It has not lowered the ages in the case of the above-mentioned sections. Similarly, for the purpose of Professional Tax, the age has not been reduced. Hope that the authors of the legislation will carry out the correction when the Bill gets passed by Parliament. Unfortunately, there is no such section(s) that specifies that a minor will be considered a major for the entire financial year if he/she were to be 18 years of age anytime during the financial year. We are sure that this is an act of omission and the authorities would correct it in due course. In the mean time, you will do well by assuming that he becomes a major on 13th February 2012. The income earned by him after he attains majority will not be clubbed in your hands. The gifts received from grandparents are not taxable in his hands. Please note that the total contribution to your own PPF account and the PPF account of your minor son should not exceed Rs 70,000 irrespective of who contributes to the PPF account of your minor son. The PPF account should be extended for 5 years from 1.4.2012 and extended after the maturity of the extended period and so on. The decision to transfer some of the PPF amount to MFs depends on your appetite for risk. The decision to take education loan should not be based on tax deduction per se but instead on the necessity to do so. In other words, if the family has the funds to finance the education, then there is no need to take the loan. If not, then a loan would be required - the tax benefit thereon is just the byproduct. The author may be contacted at wonderlandconsultants@yahoo.com |
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Railways’ earnings up 10.4 pc in Apr-Sept
New Delhi, October 8 There has been a similar over 10 per cent jump in the earnings from transporting freight. The total goods earnings have gone up from Rs 29,448.55 crore during April-September 2010 to Rs 32,439.00 crore during the same period this year, seeing an increase of 10.15 per cent. The total passenger earnings during first six months of the current financial year were Rs 14,017.69 crore as compared to Rs 12,688.79 crore during the same period last year, registering an increase of 10.47%. The revenue earnings from other coaching amounted to Rs 1,377.76 crore during April-September 2011 as against Rs 1,234.56 crore during the same period last year, an increase of 11.60 per cent, the railways said. The total number of passengers booked during April-September 2011 was 4,120.75 million compared to 3,906.95 million during the same period last year, showing an increase of 5.47 per cent.
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Even as it opposes the Chinese involvement in infrastructure projects in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), New Delhi is said to be keen to obtain Chinese investments in the fast-growing infrastructure sector in India.
