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Saturday,
August 10, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Tax
collection up 20 pc
Cyber forensic lab for CBI soon
M&M rolls out Scorpio
Pharma industry can raise exports |
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Government to privatise health schemes
Retirement
benefits
Cathay Pacific flies out of red
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Tax collection up 20 pc New Delhi, August 9 In contrast to last fiscal, buoyancy in Corporation Tax and Excise Duty mop up compensated the single digit growth in Income Tax and Customs, resulting in about 20 per cent of total tax collections, Finance Ministry officials told PTI here today. Net Direct Tax grew by 22.6 per cent to Rs 12,517 crore during April-July 2002 compared to Rs 10,208 crore in the year-ago period, while Indirect Tax were up by 15 per cent to over Rs 32,000 crore during the same months. Industrial upturn leading to higher corporate earnings were reflected in 69.6 per cent growth of Corporation Tax mop up at Rs 4,018 crore during April-July although Income Tax grew by only 8.9 per cent to 8,407 crore, sources said. Gross direct tax mop up, however, inched up by only 5.83 per cent to Rs 20,972 crore during the four months compared to Rs 19,817 crore in April-July 2001, sources said. The government refunded a lesser amount of Rs 8,455 crore to tax-payers as against Rs 9,609 crore in April-July 2001. The upturn in manufacturing was also visible from the 21 per cent growth in Excise Duty collections at over Rs 21,000 crore during the first four months. Fall in international oil prices leading to a marginal increase in imports was reflected in about 7 per cent growth in Customs Duty collections at about Rs 12,000 crore. The main driver of growth in tax collections was Corporation Tax which increased by Rs 1,650 crore during April-July over previous year’s collections, despite a hefty refund of Rs 6,566 crore till last month, sources said. The spectacular growth in Corporation Tax mop up was also due to the lower collections in the last fiscal, when the economy was reeling under recessionary trends with corporate earnings taking a hit. The buoyancy in Direct Tax mop up was in line with government’s target of increasing the share of this component to 40 per cent of the total tax collections. Both Corporation and Income Tax rates have been reduced in the past few years and there was little scope for further reduction. So the government intends to increase the tax base and raise the collections. The optimism over Direct Tax was also on account of the limited growth prospects of customs whose rates would be slashed to 20 per cent for finished goods and 10 per cent for raw material imports.
PTI |
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Cyber forensic lab for CBI soon New Delhi, August 9 “Information technology has been providing new dimensions to investigating methods as now-a-days criminals do not leave finger prints but their foot prints can be traced because of new technology,” Mahajan said, inaugurating the first video conferencing facility at the CBI headquarters. Stating that his Ministry would go out of its way to help the CBI in setting up the cyber forensic laboratory, Mahajan said “this laboratory will soon be a dream come true as it will help the CBI.” CBI Director P.C. Sharma said the proposed laboratory would be set up in consultation with the Central Forensic and Scientific Laboratory and necessary measures would be taken to make the evidence admissible in the court of law. Earlier, Mahajan spoke to CBI Joint Director (South) R.N. Savani after inaugurating the video conferencing facility. He admitted that the new technology had both advantages and disadvantages as criminals could use novel innovations to carry out crimes. The country had immense faith in the CBI which was proved by the fact that everyone wanted to get his cases probed by the agency. Sharma said the proposed laboratory would follow standard guidelines chalked out by Interpol. Only 11 cities were to be connected to VSAT system to complete the project. “We are planning to complete this process with the IT and personnel ministry,” he said.
TNS |
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M&M rolls out Scorpio Chandigarh, August 9 The Scropio will initially be available in five colours, red, blue, silver, black and green. The price of the vehicle for the Diesel Turbo 2.6 & Turbo 2.6 DX will be between Rs 5.70 lakh and Rs 6.30 lakh. Speaking at the launch of the Scorpio, Mr Guatan Nagwekar —Vice-President, Sales, Mahindra & Mahindra said, “We are sure that the Scorpio will deliver on all counts of customer expectations, especially since a lot of hard work & customer-centric R&D focus has gone into the making of the Scorpio, all of which is now being rewarded.” The company has tied up with HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Primus Ltd., Citibank and Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services as the preferred financiers. Standard Chartered Bank, American Express, Cholamandalam Finance, HSBC and Sundaram Finance are some of the other financiers for the Scorpio. |
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Pharma industry can raise exports New Delhi, August 9 According to statistics available, the exports from the pharma have the potential to go up from the existing level of Rs 9,000 crore to Rs 25,000 crore in the next five years. “The industry has been doing remarkably well with an average annual growth rate of more than 20 per cent . The export figure, in the coming five years can increase manifold, given the policy framework of the government supports that”, said Mr D.G. Shah, Secretary General, Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance. He said the industry is now looking at generic market and are now aggressively tapping markets including North America and Western Europe. According to FICCI, major Indian pharma companies expect to capitalise on the growing opportunities in the coming years. A large number of products will be going off-patent the world over thereby increasing opportunities
in the international market. Several pharma companies, which have been granted international patents will have profitable opportunities in countries like the USA, Europe, South Africa, Latin America, Vietnam and Sri Lanka among others. On the R&D front, statistics reveal that currently, the investment in research and development is around 0.6 per cent of the total in this industry. While 150 companies invest around two per cent, there are others, which have started spending almost 5 per cent of their turnover on research. “R&D has emerged as a major strength of Indian pharma industries and has made us an attractive destination for overseas pharma companies. Alliances with the foreign counterparts will help Indian companies leverage their R&D capabilities”. Cost effective manufacturing facilities and availability of skilled scientists also place the Indian pharma industry an edge above other nations. The cost competitive advantage must be leveraged to attract FDI in the country, say experts. FICCI has also suggested measures like substantial reduction in customs and excise duties and export incentives. The Federation said that non-tariff barriers should be exercised and the anti -dumping laws should also be strengthened. |
co
Retirement benefits RETIREMENT
benefits (under VRS etc) up to Rs 5 lakh, gratuity upto Rs 3.50 lakh and
leave salary (for maximum 10 months) upto Rs 2.40 lakh, are exempt from
income tax. Paradoxically, most of the retiring employees get deprived
of the benefit of entire standard deduction because of the aforesaid
benefits, which swell their total income beyond the Rs 5 lakh ceiling
for entitlement of standard deduction. This inconsiderate provision
needs to be modified in the interest of retiring employees. Previously, only some partial neutralisation of dearness, was allowed to employees in higher basic pay slabs. On the recommendation of Fifth Pay Commission, last pay revision w.e.f. 1.1.1996, for Central Government employees, undid this unfair disparity and allowed same percentage as dearness allowance irrespective of basic paydrawn, aimed at 100 per cent dearness neutralisation for all employees which most PSUs and state governments have also implemented. Same logic and fairplay demand that disparities in rates, of standard deduction, rebate on savings and even income tax for different income slabs, should be dispensed with. This will go a long way in simplification and rationalisation of income tax computation which at present is quite cumbersome due to multiple provisions for different income slabs. Why penalise an employee if his salary income happens to be higher by a few chips? Plight of a salaried employee is well known unless he has other means of income — fair or foul! Retired and retiring persons from non-pensionable jobs, deserve special consideration as their post-retirement living depends solely on interest/return on their savings. Richa
Bharadwaj, |
Cathay Pacific flies out of red New
Delhi Cathay, which came out of the red, had experienced after the September 11 attacks early this year, reported a turnover of $ 1,991 million, posting a 6.3 per cent increase over that in the second half of last fiscal. In a release here, the airline said it had brought its previously grounded aircraft back into service and restored the flights which were “temporarily suspended after the terrorist attacks in the USA”.
PTI
Incentives for IT units welcomed Chandigarh At present, Gurgaon is the hub of the IT industry and IT-enabled services in the state. Gurgaon has the potential of becoming the hub of Business Process Outsourcing which also involves office processing activities. Such steps will go a long way in realising the potential of not only Gurgaon but also other parts of the state so far as the IT industry is concerned.
TNS
USA, Microsoft settle charges Washington Microsoft’s Passport service, which aims to make online shopping easier by storing passwords and credit-card numbers, came under scrutiny by the US Federal Trade Commission last year after privacy groups said it would give the software giant unprecedented control over users personal information.
Reuters
WorldCom admits $ 3.3 bn fraud New
York The audit of the company’s books for 1999 and 2000 has discovered an additional $ 3.3 billion in improperly reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, WorldCom, which had earlier admitted accounting fraud to the tune of $ 3.8 billion, said last night. The newly discovered amounts “have previously been disclosed to the Security and Exchange Commission and other investigative authorities,” it said in a statement.
PTI |
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Satyam Infoway SBI business cards India Chem 2002 ICAI centre MetLife Bhushan group Bajaj ‘Pulsar’ LIC CII seminar |
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