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| Monday, December 25, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Economic matters part of foreign policy: Jaswant
Don’t panic, keep quality: Dosanjh
SEBI seeks RBI help A peep into government spendings Textile industry alleges
step-motherly treatment |
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New economy stocks are worst sufferers
Q: I am a pensioner and getting Rs 2400 p.m. pension. During assessment year 2000-2001, I received gross amount of Pension Rs 46080 including D.A. + 2200 as interest from Bank A/cs. My commuted pension is Rs 1600 p.m. In the Form 2C, it is mentioned that commuted value to be included. Please guide me my tax liability as I am a telephone subscriber and how to calculate tax.
FICCI demands tax
holiday for e-commerce IT as self-employment
Booze turns boon for them
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Economic matters part of foreign policy: Jaswant
new delhi, dec 24 (PTI) —
External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh today said economic matters formed an important component of the foreign policy in the changed world order and that human rights and social issues were the new challenges for his ministry. Due to overflow of globalisation, social clauses have been attached to international business and this has to be dealt with by the Ministry of External Affairs, he told a seminar ‘Vision 2010 and the Indian diaspora’ here. “Colonialism was born as a result of quest for markets. Similarly, in the present world order, the Ministry of External Affairs has to involve the economy aspect in the foreign policy,” he said. Stating that the “other security concerns” like energy, food and water also constituted a foreign policy challenge, he stressed that issues related to social infrastructure needed to be addressed. “We have been so consumed with politics that attention is not paid to other issues which constitute a new agenda for foreign policy in the present day world,” he said. Stating that water was “going to be a critical issue” in foreign affairs in future, he said it already was such a matter in Indo-Pak, Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bangladesh relations. Mr Singh regretted that about 33 per cent of India’s population was still below the poverty line “which indicates that our functioning is only two-thirds of efficiency”. He said any country’s foreign policy in the future would not be successful unless the national resources were addressed. “We are a self-sufficient country but nutritional levels are low,” he pointed out, adding “India has a population of one billion. Nobody will feed India if India does not feed itself.” Envisioning the future of India in the next decade, he said territorial integrity must be secured. “We must have India which is far more secure in territorial sense and we must be mindful of cultural and civilisational integrity,” he said. He said India could not miss the digital revolution and added that creativity of Indians was showing the results. L.M. Singhvi, MP and former High Commissioner to Britain, said during the last decade, the world has been “very insecure”, with 100 armed conflicts taking place at 70 locations. He regretted that India was living in “rough neighbourhood” which could have been friendly.
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Don’t panic, keep quality: Dosanjh CHANDIGARH, Dec 24 — In the scenario of deep distress prevailing among the Punjab peasantry due to the impending WTO regulations, Punjabi puttar abroad Ujjal Dosanjh, premier of British Columbia, has sought to allay their fears and disagrees with the perception of the ruling Akali Dal politicians. While talking to The Tribune he said the hardworking Punjabi farmer need not be fearful of the opening up of the economy. He has an advice for the farmers—"Do not panic, maintain quality and
standards. That is the key". Dosanjh, who did not quite subscribe to the despairing statements of Punjab CM (who has termed the WTO as "death warrant"), opines that free trade will help nations to progress but workers themselves should come up to ensure that standards are maintained. Regarding India as a potential investment destination, he said the country has tremendous scope and was especially more positive about Punjab. The visit has made him particularly hopeful about increased trade between Canada and India, he said. " The industrialists here are quite enthusiastic about exploring more opportunities and also increasing trade links with Canada. ", he said. The two counties can take advantage of the synergy impact especially in tourism, agro and food processing , he suggested. A strong and vibrant small- scale sector is the backbone of both Indian and Canadian economies and by forming strategic alliances, both countries will be benefited. Mr. Dosanjh also had an interactive session with industrialists which was organised by PHD CCI in collaboration with the Punjab Government where he discussed various matters relating to industry and Indo-Canadian business relations. During his interaction, he told the members that the discussions relating to hydel-power projects, transportation and science and technology are already going on between the two governments. Mr. Peter Sutherland, Canadian High Commissioner in India, while speaking to the members, said steps are underway to double trade between the two
countries." A large part of it yet remains to be exploited and at present India is only the 25th largest exporter to Canada in spite of common linkages of language and legal system", said he. Earlier Mr. Amarjit Goyal, Chairman, Punjab committee of PHDCCI, said North India has abundant resources and also trained manpower. Mr. R I Singh, Principal Secretary, Industries, Punjab, gave a presentation about the state of industrial development in the state and also indicated that the PHDCCI, in collaboration with the Punjab Government, might mount a high-powered delegation to Canada and some other countries to ensure inflow of foreign direct investment and to promote trade between the two countries.
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SEBI seeks RBI help
mumbai, dec 24 (PTI) — The Securities and Exchange Board of India (sebi) has sought assistance from
RBI and Income Tax authorities to improve regulation of plantation firms, sebi Chief
D.R. Mehta said. “Sebi has written to RBI and Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to participate in the working of the task forces keeping track of vanishing companies.” Mehta told
PTI. Market regulator was enlarging scope of task force work to include Collective Investment Schemes (CIS) like plantation firms, Mehta said, adding sebi had constituted seven task forces to go into investors’ grievances about the companies that had raised funds from the market but were now untraceable. He said some companies have issued post-dated cheques to investors and dealing with such firms would be easier with
RBI's co-operation. Similarly, Income Tax authorities had powers to inspect details of the money raised through various schemes and track the spendings of plantation firms, he said. About 642
CIS entities, with investor funds of Rs 2681 crore, have sent information to sebi and only 49 had filed applications for
registration, he said. The plantation firms with 111 schemes worth Rs 400 crore have claimed they had either repaid or taken steps to disburse back money to the investors, according to latest information
available with sebi. Sebi has filed public interest litigations against five
CIS entities and its promotors to recover Rs 1,129 crore.
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A peep into government spendings ALTHOUGH the financial rules required that the government expenditure should be evenly distributed throughout the year, scant attention is given to this. Instead these rules are flouted with impunity by the state governments. Even after the passing of the Budget by the Vidhan Sabha, the Finance Department in each state government keeps its hold on various departments as they are supposed to get the Budget released from it. The Finance Department takes its own time in sanctioning the budget for each department deliberately delaying the matters. This is just to show its overlordship, thereby also paving way for savings, if possible. Contrary to these rules, spending on budget is always uneven. The maximum budget is generally released in the fourth quarter (January to March) of every year. Even of this, the budget is kept to be spent in the month of March. This is the reason that normally the government treasuries and nationalised banks are directed on the last day of March, which is the last day of the financial year also, to remain open till midnight so that all the bills etc of various government departments are cleared. Many a time this also happens that the bills are got cleared and then money is kept in the bank to be utilised later so that it does not lapse. A peep into this practice has been provided by report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India pertaining to the Punjab Government ending March 1999. The rush of expenditure particularly in the closing months of the financial year, according to the report, is regarded as a breach of financial rules. The position in respect of expenditure (revenue capital) for the four quarters and also of March 1999 of Punjab Government shows that the expenditure incurred in March 1999 in 25 cases ranged between 20.28 and 100 per cent of the total expenditure during the year indicating a tendency to utilise the budget at the close of the financial year. In fact 28 per cent of the total budget of 25 departments of the Punjab Government was spent in March alone in 1998-99. In case of capital outlay on welfare of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribe and backward classes, 100 per cent expenditure which was Rs 4.48 crore, was spent in March. In respect of housing, 65.85 per cent budget was spent in March and the next on the list was capital outlay on animal husbandry with 62.50 per cent expenditure spent in March. From the bottom side comes roads and bridges, flood control and dairy development with 20.28 per cent, 20.51 per cent and 20.85 per cent, respectively. The total expenditure of these 25 departments in 1998-99 was Rs 628.20 crore. The expenditure in the first quarter was Rs 99.94 crore, in the second quarter Rs 130.40 crore, in the third quarter Rs 144.19 crore and in the fourth quarter Rs 253.67 crore. Of this, Rs 189.17 crore were spent only in March. According to rules the spending departments are required to surrender the grants/appropriations or portion thereof to the Finance Department as and when the savings are anticipated. However, at the close of the year 1998-99, there were 44 cases in which large savings had not been surrendered by the departments. The amount involved was Rs 1921.69 crore. In 14 cases, unsurrendered savings of Rs 1 crore and above in each case aggregated to Rs 1210.45 crore. According to the Punjab Contingency Fund rules 1951, advances from the fund can be drawn for meeting an unforeseen expenditure. It was seen that Rs 19 crore were drawn from the contingency fund between June 1998 and March 1999 against three sanctions issued by the Principal Secretary, Finance, for meeting expenditure on grant-in-aid to Punjab roads and bridges development board (Rs 17 crore), augmentation of water supply and sewerage at Anandpur Sahib (Rs 2 crore). A review of the sanctions disclosed that as these could have been foreseen and provided for in the regular budget or supplementary demands, the action of the State to operate contingency fund was irregular. |
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Textile industry alleges
step-motherly treatment NEW DELHI, Dec 24 (PTI) — The low capital, but high labour intensive, textile industry, which earns $ 12 billion in foreign exchange through exports, is at the “cross-roads”, due to delay in follow-up action by the government on the new textile policy. The industry, which has a potential to earn $ 50 billion through exports, is faced with the problem of fresh investments as it was no longer attractive because of lack of incentives, textile
industry sources said. Alleging step-motherly treatment of this traditional industry, the sources warned that India would lose out to other textile exporting countries like China and even neighbouring Sri Lanka and Bangladesh if the
government did not correct the anomalies in the duty structure and extend incentives to attract investment into the sector. The duty structure which encourages finished textile imports and discourages raw material imports has handicapped the industry, the sources said adding “we need to have growth-oriented duty structure”. When contacted Textile Secretary Anil Kumar said his ministry has already taken up some of these concerns with the Finance Ministry and Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha has already promised at one of the recent FICCI meetings to address them in the forthcoming budget as part of indirect tax reforms. A major problem faced by the industry is obsolescence of the machinery, the sources said adding the weaving mills would have to switch over to shuttleless looms fast to face the global challenges with the phased dismantling multi-fibre agreement (MFA) by December 31, 2004. Though the country has 16.5 lakh powerlooms, only 10,000 are shuttleless as against China which has already 1.5 lakh shuttleless looms. “If we have to make textile production cheap, we must have many more shuttleless looms”. “For this, the government should consider allowing imports of second hand shuttleless looms duty free to attract speedy technology upgradation of the weaving industry in the country,” the sources said. Modernisation of a large weaving mill costs less than Rs 100 crore and this the industry could easily afford but they are not doing it as there is no incentive. Asked if duty-free imports would lead to revenue loss to government, the sources said where there was no import of shuttleless looms presently where was the question of losing revenue. To a question whether duty free imports would affect domestic textile manufacturers of shuttleless looms, the sources said their production is far less than the demand which was huge. |
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New economy stocks are worst sufferers THE stock market has tumbled and the new economy stocks are the worst sufferers. The Sensex was down by 231.26 points (5.58 per cent) and Nifty was lower by 70 points (5.37 per cent) during the last week. I had alerted the readers last week that the stock market was likely to go down and this downward movement would continue till the end of the current month. Though there may be a slight recovery on Tuesday or Wednesday, but this would be short-lived and the indices are likely to close lower when the market closes on Friday. One explanation for the sharp decline in the market prices of new economy stock is that a leading foreign brokerage house has downgraded the rating of the new economy stock and put a “sell” report on Indian Infotech stock. The US economy, it is believed, is slowing down and there is likely to be lesser demand for the technological services from the Indian companies relating to software business. This led to selling by FIIs as well as by the financial institutions and even some mutual funds. No fresh funds are expected from the FIIs during this week. There are redemption pressure on the mutual funds. There is also a report that some stock brokers are facing payment problems. The traders have suffered heavy losses and have no inducement to make fresh buying till some positive indications of upward movement emerge. There are also adverse reports about the state of the Indian economy. According to Dr B.B. Bhatacharya, head of the Centre for Development Planning, the industrial slowdown is expected to pull down the GDP growth for the current fiscal year to a low of 5.4 per cent provided the agriculture and service sectors perform reasonably well. The next quarter results of the corporate sectors are expected to be even lower than the last quarter’s results. I expect mild recovery during the first fortnight of the next month, January 2001. Long-term investors, who can hold their investment at least for the next two years, can pick up some good scrips from this bear market, provided they employ their own rather than borrowed funds. There is a good report for the shareholders of Astra IDL. Astra Zeneca, the foreign collaborators of Astra IDL have finally prevailed upon Hindujas to part with their 25.75 holding in the equity capital of the company. Astra Zeneca is a top global pharmaceutical company and will now be holding 51.50 per cent equity in the company. This would make for the introduction of many new drugs of the collaborators in India through Astra IDL. Last week, the company’s scrip, which had gained more than Rs 100 in its market price since the rumour of the take over of the Hindujas’s equity in the company went up to Rs 480 for its Rs 10/- face value share but it closed lower at Rs 419.80. The share-holders who hold the shares should stay out. This company has now good potential to grow at a fast speed. Fresh buying is, however, not indicated. Vikas WSP scrip has good scope for flying higher and may be picked up at the current market price of Rs 576. Syngenta India, which forms the demerged part of Novartis India, and is a leading agrochemicals company, will be listed on the BSE in January. Currently the company’s business comprises insecticide (48 per cent), herbicide (23 per cent), fungicide, (10 per cent), seeds (11 per cent) and public hygiene (7 per cent). The face value of its equity share is Rs 5.
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Q: I am a pensioner and getting Rs 2400 p.m. pension. During assessment year 2000-2001, I received gross amount of Pension Rs 46080 including D.A. + 2200 as interest from Bank A/cs. My commuted pension is Rs 1600 p.m. In the Form 2C, it is mentioned that commuted value to be included. Please guide me my tax liability as I am a telephone subscriber and how to calculate tax. — Harish Kumar, Amritsar Ans:
While computing your taxable salary income the commuted value of pension will be included in the gross salary amount. The standard deduction would thus be permissible on the pension amount including the commuted value of pension. The bank interest received by you of Rs 2,200 would be examined u/s 80L of the Income-tax Act, 1961. Q:
I am an Asstt. Manager in a Bank. I had raised Housing loan of Rs 1,50,000 in 1991 and supplementary H.L. of Rs 1,00,000 in 1996 from my bank. In May 1999 I again availed supp. H.L. of Rs 1,83,000 for the enlargement of same House which has been constructed in 1991 and completed in 1996. Total interest on H.L. for the year 1999-2000 was debited Rs 33,020 including that of loan raised in May 1999 besides the Insurance Premium of Rs 938 also for that property. My manager while computing income tax for the year gave me the benefit of Rs 30,000 only under the Section 192 (2-B) - Rule 26B whereas the limit has been raised to Rs 75,000 second Proviso to Section 24(2) on the loans raised after 1.4.99. Please clarify whether I am eligible to get the benefit upto Rs 75,000 on the interest of H.L. and can get the refund after filing the return. — R.K. Sharma, Shimla Ans: On the facts stated by you, you are eligible to deduction of interest of Rs 33,020 in respect of housing loan. This entire amount is deductible for your because upto Rs 30,000 interest pertains to the loan taken in 1991 while the balance interest on housing loan has been taken by you after 1st April, 1999. Therefore, the enhanced deduction, there could be permissible to you would be upto Rs 75,000 per annum in respect of the Assessment year 2000-2001. This limit would get increased to Rs 1 lakh for the Assessment year 2001-2002. Q: I want to know some points regarding the Income Tax for the financial year 2000-2001. Please guide me about these points. (i) What is the standard deduction for men, women and Sr. citizens. (ii)What are the rates of calculating Income Tax for the Financial year 2000-2001. (iii) Is there any surcharge on income tax? If yes, what is its percentage and on what amount is it applicable? (iv) Is the accrued interest on NSCs is income from other sources and is there rebate on the same amount u/s 80L. If yes, what is its maximum limit? (v) Is there income Tax on R.D.? Is it assessed every year or on maturity? What is the rate of interest on R.D.? — Sat Pal Saini, Ambala City Ans: The standard exemption permissible to every individual tax payer is Rs 50,000 for the financial year 2000-2001. Thus, no income-tax is payable if the net taxable income does not exceed Rs 50,000. The senior citizens tax rebate in respect of Income-tax payable by them is to the extent of Rs 15,000. The women tax payers are eligible to a tax rebate to the tune of Rs 5,000. The rates of Income-tax for the Financial Year 2000-2001 are Nil upto the income of Rs 50,000, 10 per cent in case of income between Rs 50,001 to 60,000, 20 per cent in respect of income between Rs 60,000 to 1,50,000 and 30 per cent in case of income exceeding Rs 1,50,000. Surcharge is payable on Income-tax. There is no surcharge on I.T. on income upto Rs 60,000. Surcharge is payable @ 10 per cent in the case of income between Rs 60,000 to 1,50,000 while the surcharge @ 15 per cent is payable in respect of income exceeding Rs 1,50,000. The accrued interest on NSC is eligible for tax rebate u/s 88 and the same is also tax deductible u/s 80L within the limit of Rs 12,000. The income of recurring deposit is assessed every year in respect of interest accruing on such recurring deposits.
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FICCI demands tax holiday for e-commerce NEW DELHI, Dec 24 (PTI) — Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry today demanded a five-year tax holiday for e-commerce to enable software industry to plough back its resources for future development. In its pre-Budget memorandum to government, FICCI has also demanded lowering of corporate tax rate saying that the countries which have higher rate of taxation would face problems as operators tend to avoid countries with high incidence of taxation. The Chamber has also suggested formulation of rules for proper monitoring of commerce done through net while also demanding a unfirom commercial code to enable search and acess of legal and financial status of potential trading partners. Other demands include doing away with provisions of capital gains tax especially on items such as transfer of domain and other e-commerce applications. “Double taxation avoidance agreements would also need to be reviewed and modified to specially mention methodology to be adopted for taxing arising from e-commerce business,” FICCI said. The Chamber further said special courts need to be set up for speedy disposal of cases and grievances related to e-commerce business and called for avoidance of double taxation in e-commerce transactions. IT as self-employment JABALPUR, Dec 24 (UNI) — Union Heavy Industries Minister Manohar Joshi today asked the youth to adopt Information Technology for self-employment and help the nation reduce its unemployment. Mr Joshi said Maharashtra was exporting software worth more than Rs 1,000 crore and if other states too developed such facilities in the private sector by adopting the Maharashtra pattern, the country’s foreign exchange inflow will increase dramatically. |
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Booze turns boon for them LONDON: It may be the mocker of hopes and dreams, the devil’s brew, the curse of the working class — but alcohol was also the saviour of Western civilisation. Without booze we would have poisoned ourselves with contaminated water centuries ago, say scientists. Their research has also revealed that alcohol consumption has left Europeans with a distinctive evolutionary legacy. People of Caucasian origin can consume vast quantities of wine, beer and spirits at a single sitting. By contrast, many individuals with Oriental roots need only take a sip of sweet sherry to trigger crippling allergic reactions. “Brewing beer and fermenting grapes saved us from drinking polluted water, and meant that alcoholic beverages became our staple drink for thousands of years,’ says Dr David Sherman, of Central Middlesex Hospital in London. “People in the Far East tackled the pollution problem a different way — by boiling their water to make herbal infusions, like tea. As a result, they did not evolve the power to break down alcohol, which explains why so many suffer reactions when they drink today.’ In other words, the average Briton’s ability to hold 12 Sea Breeze alcohol-pop drinks and six whisky chasers at the office party is a genetic inheritance from ancestors who were simply trying to avoid getting cholera. The crucial point is that clean, drinkable water has only been publicly available since the Victorian era. For millennia before that, people faced a major health headache — their water supplies quickly became polluted with their own waste products, making them dangerous, even fatal, to consume. “How many of our progenitors died attempting to quench their thirst with water can never be known,’ states Harvard scientist Bert Vallee, who argues that alcohol played a major “nurturing role” in the Western society. “A safe bet is that a remarkably large portion of our ancestry succumbed.” Salvation came with the production of beer and wine. Their natural antiseptic powers and acidity killed off most harmful microbes and led to the drinks’ widespread popularity. As a result, the Old and New Testaments have virtually no references to water as a common human beverage. By contrast, wine is hailed. `Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake,’ states St Paul in his First Epistle to Timothy. Similarly, Columbus made his voyage with wine, not water, on board; the Greek word akratidzomai — “to breakfast” — literally translates as “to drink undiluted wine’; while Frederick the Great, in a diatribe against the spread of coffee-drinking in Prussia, said his armies had been victorious because his soldiers were “nourished on beer”. Then there was Jesus’s transformation of water into wine, “an act that may acknowledge the goodness of alcohol versus the polluted nature of water,” says Vallee. So from the Iron Age to the Middle Ages many people existed in states of blissful intoxication. Then, in the nineteenth century, doctors began to appreciate the dangers of alcohol indulgence. At the same time, the first great engineering works that brought clean water to the public were launched, while religious groups began campaigning for tight controls of alcohol. The all-day drinking of beer and wine by adults and children died out. Yet we still carry the biological legacy. Virtually no person of European origin is unable to break down alcohol, thanks to a set of genes that firstly convert alcohol into acetaldehyde, and then into acetic acid. By contrast, more than 40 per cent of people of Eastern origins lack the gene. The question is: which came first? Did the ancestors of Western people start drinking wine and beer because they were already genetically equipped to cope with it, or did that ability evolve after they started to exploit alcohol? In other words, having started on the booze, did we then have to evolve genes to cope with it properly? Or did we take to booze in the first place because we could already handle it, leaving Orientals — who could not — to find other routes? “It’s a difficult one,” admits geneticist Steve Jones. “However, there have only been about 500 generations of humans since the dawn of the agricultural revolution. So it is probably more likely that the Europeans were already able to break down alcohol, and so took to the stuff in a big way. We have certainly made use of it since then, of course.”
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Inflation up NABARD Rangs Tech New drug United Bank Citibank |
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