 |
|
NHPC plans power projects in Hearing on outsourcing
begins today TAX
AND YOU No tax benefit on pension amount
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Economic recovery in US perks up sensex
H-P to acquire GlobalSoft
|
|
NHPC plans power projects in J&K and HP New Delhi, November 30 Of this, 4,357 MW will be added during the Tenth Five-Year Plan (2002-07) and 16,004 MW during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan. During the Twelfth Five-Year Plan, capacity addition of over 11,000 MW is planned. Among the ongoing projects, the remaining two units of 100 MW each of the Chamera stage II project will be commissioned shortly. “While one unit of the Chamera stage II project will be commissioned shortly, the last one will be commissioned by December 2003,” Chairman and Managing Director of NHPC Yogendra Prasad told The Tribune in an exclusive interview. Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh are the major regions where the additional power projects of NHPC were being planned. While a total of 510 MW was being planned during the Tenth Five-Year Plan in Jammu and Kashmir, 2,665 MW would be added from projects commissioned in the state during the Eleventh Five Year Plan, he added. Mr Prasad said all ongoing projects were going ahead of schedule but environmental clearances arising due to existing procedural necessities were causing delay in some cases. “There are problems arising from environmental clearances, mainly because of procedures. Once we deposit the money with the state government, the final clearance comes from the Central Government. This causes some delay,” he said. Mr Prasad said there had been a lot of discussion in recent times about the need for the involvement of the private sector in hydro-power generation in the country. “However, the empirical evidence globally suggests that the hydro-power generation predominantly was the domain of the state sector. Throughout the world, the hydel sector continues to remain within the state sector,” he said. There were other aspects in which the public sector enjoyed a distinct advantage. “The private sector wants immediate returns and hydro-power projects are long gestation projects. These requires investment in training of manpower. Then there are financial shocks involved. The private sector so far has not displayed the patience that is required in such a line of operation,” Mr Prasad said. The NHPC Chairman said it was wrong to assume hydel projects caused ecological imbalances. “On the contrary, the hydel projects are environmentally compatible and I want to prove it in a scientific manner,” he said. “In fact, in hydro-power, the cost of generation, operation and maintenance is lower than other sources of energy. Hydro-power has the ability to start and stop quickly. It also has higher efficiency (over 90 per cent) compared to thermal (35 per cent) and gas (around 50 per cent),” he added. Besides, value addition of capital assets in hydro-power was 99 per cent and cost of generation free from inflationary effects after the initial installation. In addition to hydro-power, the NHPC had been appointed as nodal agency for exploitation of geo-thermal energy in the country by the Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources (MNES). Mr Prasad said presently the power generation company was implementing two geo-thermal projects. These included the Puga geo-thermal field in Jammu and Kashmir and the Tattapani geothermal field in Chhattisgarh. “The action plan indicating the various steps for exploiting Puga geo-ther mal field for power generation by developing it as a national experimental demonstration project of 5 MW capacity has been submitted to the MNES for consideration and providing necessary funding for further exploration and subsequent exploration of the field,” he said. Encouraged by offers from within the country and abroad, the NHPC would also launch a consultancy service company. “The NHPC board has allowed setting up a new subsidiary company to provide consultancy services in the country and abroad,” Mr Prasad said. During the current financial year, new assignments and payment amounting to Rs 9,265 lakh and Rs 1145 lakh, respectively, had been received by the NHPC for consultancy services, he said. “The total value of consultancy assignment and payments received on account of services is more than Rs 15,297 lakh and Rs 5,046 lakh, respectively,” Mr Prasad said.
|
|
Hearing on outsourcing begins today New York, November 30 The Indiana State Senate probe would also look into a Bill that would require that contracts for services entered into by a state agency must specify that only US citizens and those authorised to work in the USA could be hired. This follows State Governor Joe Kernan’s decision this week to terminate the four-year contract awarded to the Tata Consultancy Services’ American subsidiary to upgrade the state computer network processing unemployment claims. Kernan’s predecessor Frank O’Bannon had cleared the contract weeks before his death on September 13. Senator Jeff Drozda, who had proposed the Bill that would require all state-related work to be done by US citizens said “I want to send a message to other states engaged in outsourcing and awarding of work contracts to foreign companies.”The Bill is expected to be taken up by the state legislature’s economic and development and technology committee in January and its outcome would be closely watched by different states who are also under pressure to enact similar legislations as also countries, including India, which are doing outsourcing work. |
bb
by R.N. Lakhotia No tax benefit on pension amount
Q. Our government has launched Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana for citizens aged 55 years and above and the LIC is to operate the scheme. The person who invests the money has been defined by the LIC as “pensioner” and the amount (interest) to be paid to the investor has been defined as “pension”. Will the amount received by the investor as pension be shown as income chargeable under the head “Salaries” against Serial 1 of Naya Saral (ITS-2E) as is being done in the case of other pension received by the pensioners from the Central/state governments and will the investor be entitled to claim standard deduction on this pension? If not, will the amount received as pension shown as interest against Ser 8(c) of Naya Saral will deduction be admissible against Ser 8(c) and will deduction be admissible under 80L? Will the amount be shown as “others” against Ser 8(e)? — Bhupinder Singh, Patiala Ans: The amount received under Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana will not be shown as salary income in the income-tax return form. It will be shown as income from other sources. Thus the benefit of standard deduction which is available to salaried employees will not be available in respect of the amount received under Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana. Similarly, tax deduction which is permissible on family pension will also not be permissible on the amount received under the scheme. No tax benefit under Section 88 is permissible on the amount so received from the LIC on account of pension under the Yojana. Std deduction on pension Q:
I am a Principal-cum-DDO of Government Senior Secondary School, Lahla, Palampur (HP). I am an ex-serviceman and drawing pension. Please clarify me whether standard deduction is to be calculated separately on salary as well as pension or on total income. — Dr M.R. Labana, Palampur Ans: Standard deduction will be permissible on the pension amount received by you. However, standard deduction will be on the total amount of salary + pension amount taken together. Thus for the financial year 2003-04 the maximum standard deduction on salary as well as pension amount taken together will be restricted to 40 per cent of your salary and pension amount subject to maximum of Rs 30,000. No tax on gift Q:
One of my blood relations who is an NRI settled in the USA want to give me a gift of $ 4000 (in cash) at the time of leaving India for the USA. Can I take gift in cash dollars? Do I need a gift deed on stamp paper or plain paper is OK. Can I deposit by converting the dollars into Indian rupees and put into my saving bank account. How to reflect this gift in the balance sheet? — P. Singh, Chandigarh Ans: Your blood relation who is an NRI while he is in India can make a cash gift to you. You must obtain a gift letter from him. The letter can be either on a plain paper or on a stamp paper. The gift will be reflected through necessary entry to be made in your capital account. There is no tax on the gift received by you. For any other
problem, please contact the Exchange Control Department of the Reserve Bank of India. Rebate on tuition fee Q:
Some days ago in your column you wrote about rebate u/s 88 under the heading tuition fee for full-time education of children as “Rs 12000/- p.a. per child”. And I have read in Kalyan’s “Income Tax made easy for salaries 2004-05” book “the amount paid as tuition fee for the full-time education of children shall qualify for rebate for actual amount paid or Rs 12000 p.a. whichever is less”. And also I have read in newspapers that this rebate will be only for two children at Rs 12000/- per child maximum i.e. maximum Rs 24000/- p.a. Is this rebate per child? If yes, for how many children? Is this rebate maximum Rs 12000/- p.a. in total for all children of a family what may be number of them? Is this rebate only for two children? — Jaswant Singh, Sangrur Ans: Under Section 88 of the Income-Tax Act, 1961, as amended by the Finance Act, 2003, tax rebate on tuition fee paid to any university, college, school or any other educational institution in India will be eligible for tax rebate only if such expenses relate to full-time education of your children. The maximum amount which is eligible for such tax rebate is Rs 12,000 per annum per child subject to a maximum of two children. If the amount paid as tuition fee etc. is less than Rs 12,000 per annum then the actual amount will be eligible for tax rebate. Finally, please do remember that the benefit of tax rebate will not be permissible for more than two children of the
assessee. |
bb
by J.C. Anand
Economic recovery in US perks up sensex The stock market remained subdued till last week but it galloped from 4822.15 points on November 24 to 5,044 points when the market closed on November 28 (Friday last week). This sudden turnabout from a stagnant to a bullish market was triggered by two major factors: the first was the announcement by Pakistan that its army would stop firing along the Line of Control to which India responded in the same way, the second factor was the news that the US economy is recovering and the fourth quarter results have recorded a big jump in the corporate profits which are highest during the last decade. The news of recovery in the US economy pushed up the stock markets not only in India but also all along the globe. In the stock market there was a revival of the bullish trend. The major gains came to the IT sector. A booming US market would bring higher business orders and better rates to these companies. But the other sectors of the industry, excepting the multi-pharma companies, also participated in this market upsurge. The textile sector companies also recorded major gains. Vardhman group of companies (Mahavir Spinning and Vardhman Spinning), Nahar, GTN, Grasim, Indian Rayon and even Eurotex recorded price levels which were the best for a long time. One reason was that by the end of December 2004, the WTO-mandated agreement placing restrictions on textiles in international trade would come to an end. The Indian textile industry would be in a position to push up exports. Aluminum manufacturing companies particularly Hindalco made 2.3 per cent gain in its market price and closed at Rs 1,243. National Aluminum share rose by 8.5 per cent to Rs 155. This was particularly due to the report that the international prices of aluminum have gone up. Nahar investment which had been recommended at Rs 18 or so closed at Rs 39 after touching Rs 44 per share. Lumax recommended at Rs 58 per share is now quoting around Rs 84. I think that Balmer Lawrie Van Leer has still some scope to move up during the next six months. But the other two shares seem to have covered up the long distance for the time being and there is no immediate trigger for further rise in their share prices. There is a market rumour that the iron and steel prices may be jacked up by Tisco and steel sector companies in January. One can make investments in Tisco around Rs 350-360 for moderate appreciation by mid-January. There is hardly any scope for decline in the market price of this scrip. Investors should hold on to Larsen & Toubro scrip which is now quoting around Rs 400. There is still ample scope for further rise that may come during the next six months or so particularly after the demerger of cement sector of Larsen & Toubro.
|
bb
H-P to acquire GlobalSoft
Bangalore, November 30 About 30 per cent of Digital's shareholders are institutional. The floor price is said to represent a premium of 50 per cent of the scrip's average price on the National Stock Exchange over the last 26 weeks. Digital GlobalSoft will be delisted from Indian bourses post-acquisition. — IANS Sify network services for overseas market
New Delhi:
Sify is exploring the possibility of starting network services for overseas clients mainly in the USA as part of which it may undertake offshore network management activities. “We are looking at network services in overseas market in the space of IP-VPN (Internet-based virtual private networks),” George Zacharias, President and Chief Operating Officer of Sify Ltd said here.
— PTI
Gurgaon unit to be Suzuki R&D hub
Bangalore:
Maruti Udyog's research and development facility will become Suzuki's Asia hub by 2007 for the design and development of new compact cars, says a top official of the firm. As Maruti will invest substantially in upgrading its research and development centre at Gurgaon for executing design and development projects for Suzuki, including localisation, modernisation and greater use of composite technologies in upcoming models.
— IANS |
bb
FII net buyers HM’s Avigo soon Oil firms to pay SEBI report ACC investment Indraprastha Gas Ambani donation NTPC stations |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | National Capital | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Video
