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New Delhi, May 8 The farmers of southern Haryana, along with their counterparts in Orissa, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh with dry wastelands, can expect to reap a rich crop of Jatropha plants soon as the bio-diesel extracted from its seeds has been successfully tested to run auto-vehicles like Mercedes-Benz. New Delhi, May 8 The Supreme Court has dismissed the Punjab government’s plea for the recovery of purchase tax on milk from Nestle India Ltd. and other milk product companies, saying the state had made a promise about abolishing it in 1996 and it could not be allowed to resile from its decision. Mumbai, May 8 Unfazed by the skyrocketing global oil prices to $40 a barrel, the government maintained that inflation would be reined in below five per cent as it did not foresee much impact of it in the domestic prices.
Warburg Pincus to
invest $ 500 m in India |
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Tele-density
improves, says TRAI Tele-density in India has improved to 7.8 per cent by the end of April, with mobile subscribers numbering 35 million and landline users placed at 43 million, TRAI, the telecom regulator said today.
An 18-year-old German boy has confessed to creating the Internet Sasser worm, which infected millions of computers worldwide last week, the police said today.
Air-hostess’ job a demanding
one
Tax on ex-gratia due from
date of relieving 
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Bio-diesel crop fuels Haryana farmers’ hopes Tribune News Service New Delhi, May 8 The bio-diesel project has been undertaken by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), DaimlerChrysler and the University of Hohenheim, Germany. Dr Pushpito Gosh, director, Central Salt & Marine Chemicals Research Institute, Bhavnagar, associated with the biodiesel project, disclosed: “The wasteland soil of Haryana, along with wastelands in Maharashtra, Gujarat, MP and other states is suitable for the cultivation of Jatropha, a wild plant whose seeds have been used to extract bio-diesel.” The expert says that bio-diesel has the potential to change the life of rural farmers in dry areas, as they would be able to sell Jatropha at a high price, or could even set up cooperatives to produce bio-diesel for their own vehicles. At present, India has around 130 million hectares of wastelands, but it can be used for the cultivation of Jatropha, which produce hard seeds. The oil extracted from them can be used as bio-diesel without any blending with normal diesel. Says Dr Ghosh: “Unlike normal diesel, the vehicles that run on bio-diesel produce low noise, about one third suspended particles, and give good mileage per litre.” “In the first phase, we have successfully tested it for two Mercedes-Benz cars by running for around 6,000 km. The results are encouraging and in the next phase we plan to test bio-diesel on trucks and other vehicles,” says Dr Raghunath Mashelkar, Director General, CSIR, adding that in the next five years, the country should be able to produce around 10 million tonnes of biodiesel from Jatropha. Unlike other costly alternative fuels, such as hydrogen and fuel cells, he said the cost of bio-diesel would not be higher than the normal diesel. The by-products of Jatropha can also be used as manure. Further country will get huge “carbon subsidy from European countries by greening the wastelands. It has the potential of another green revolution in India.” The CSIR was quite hopeful, he
said, that government, the Planning Commission and the industry would
take up the project whole-heartedly, and would promote bio-diesel on a
large-scale. In the third phase, CSIR will also work on bio-petrol, he
added.
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SC dismisses Punjab’s plea New Delhi, May 8 Rejecting the state government’s
appeal against the Punjab and Haryana High Court order quashing the tax
demand raised by it, a Bench of Ms Justice Ruma Pal and Mr Justice P V
Reddi said the government had not reasonably exercised its discretion to
issue a necessary notification for abolishing of the tax exemption. The
Court said that representation was made by none other than the state’s
Finance Minister in his budget speech in 1996 to grant exemption on
purchase tax on milk after considering the financial implications. It
was then found by the government that the overall benefit to the state’s
economy and public interest would be greater if the exemption was
allowed, the Court said. “It would, in the circumstances, be
inequitable to allow the state government now to resile from its
decision to exempt milk and demand the purchase tax with retrospective
effect from April 1, 1996, (from the companies),” the Court said. The
companies had not paid the purchase tax from 1996 because the government
had decided to abolish it, but later it raised the demand for the same,
which they challenged in the High Court. Their petitions were allowed by
the High Court, which had quashed the government demand. Aggrieved by
the High Court order, the Punjab Government moved an appeal in the apex
court. The companies in their response to the appeal contended that the
then Chief Minister in a dairy farmers’ function on February 26, 1996,
had announced the government had abolished the purchase tax on milk and
milk products and the announcement was given a wide publicity. The
Finance Minister in his 1996-97 Budget speech later also noted that the
government had given a large number of tax concession. It followed by a
memo of Finance Commissioner to the Excise and Taxation Commissioner on
April 26, 1996, referring about the exemption of purchase tax on milk
with effect from April 1, 1996, the apex court in its order recorded. |
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No revision of petrol prices
Mumbai, May 8 “I believe there is no need to review inflation
estimate as of now,” Chief Economic Advisor Ashok Lahiri told reporters
here today. “Nothing that leads me to believe that there will be any
drastic change... let the elections get over”, he said when asked
whether soaring oil prices globally impact domestic inflation. Dr
Lahiri, who held a closed-door meeting with the RBI Advisory Committee,
told the media that the firm crude oil prices were unlikely to have much
domestic impact and inflationary pressure in the economy would be
contained below 5 per cent for the financial year ending March 2005.
Crude oil futures had risen to $ 40 a barrel and concerned over this,
the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries is slated to meet
later this month to discuss what steps the group can take to lower
energy costs. — Agencies |
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Warburg Pincus to invest $ 500 m in India
Singapore, May 8 The New York-based company may plough
$100 million into the country this year, Mr Dalip Pathak, the partner in
charge of India, said in an interview. The firm to date has invested $
900 million in Indian companies. The move takes Warburg Pincus
executives, including Mr Pulak Prasad and Mr Rajesh Khanna, to seek
investments in an economy that probably grew 8.1 per cent in the year
ended March 31. Mr Prasad and Mr Khanna are part of a seven-member team
based in Singapore at the moment. “Warburg Pincus has done well in
India so this is a logical progression,” said Mr Prasenjit Basu,
managing director of Robust Economic Analysis in Singapore. “Singapore
was a good launching pad when things were more uncertain.” Past
investments include a $ 292 million stake in mobile phone operator
Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd. The company is second to Kohlberg Kravis
Roberts and Co. in the private equity industry, with $19 billion of
funds. The companies aim to make venture capital investments in start-up
businesses and leveraged buyouts of out-of-favour companies before
selling the assets for a profit. Warburg Pincus can use a $5.3 billion
fund raised in 2002 and a $2.5 billion pool from 2000 to buy stakes in
closely held Indian companies as well as some publicly traded
businesses. Founded in 1966 by German-born banker Eric Warburg and US
venture capitalist Lionel Pincus, the firm will target companies
involved in most industries, including infrastructure, financial
services and information technology, said Mr Pathak. — Bloomberg
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Tele-density improves, says TRAI New Delhi, May 8 During April 2004, the
user base went up by 1.65 million, as compared to 0.64 million in the
same month last year. The number of mobile subscribers went up by 1.35
million and that of fixed line users by 0.30 million. With this, there
are 78 million telephone users in the country. Meanwhile, India’s
private telecom firms offering GSM-based mobile services reported a
revenue of Rs 8,308 crore in 2003-04, showing a 30 per cent jump over Rs
6,400 crore in the previous year. The revenue growth, however, does not
appear to correspond to the 100 per cent growth in the subscribers base
which doubled to 20.5 million during the year, figures released by the
Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) showed. Also, the monthly
average revenue per user, a key measure of profitability, fell 17.4 per
cent to Rs 432 in the fourth quarter, from Rs 523 in the first quarter
due to tariff cuts arising from stiff competition. — UNI |
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German boy created Sasser Hanover (Germany), May 8 He was released from custody after questioning. The Sasser
worm struck on May 1, and in less than a week affected thousands of
companies and as many as 18 million computers worldwide, forcing some
businesses to shut temporarily in order to debug their systems. The worm
attacks through a flaw in recent versions of Microsoft’s Windows
operating systems - Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP -
and forces the computer into an unstoppable pattern of shutting down.
— AFP |
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Tax on ex-gratia due from date of relieving
Q:
I was relieved from service on February 27, 2004, after opting for
the VRS. I received leave encashment and gratuity in March 2004. But
the ex-gratia payment was made to me in the month of April 2004. My
employer, a public sector insurance company, has added the ex-gratia
amount (above Rs. 5 lakh) in the salary for the financial year,
2003-04. Thus the total salary income from April 2003 to February
2004, including the ex-gratia amount will be around Rs 6 lakh, which
has resulted in higher taxability due to disqualification in claiming
rebate, u/s 88 of the IT Act and tax has been deducted accordingly.
Kindly enlighten me whether my employer is right in clubbing the ex-gratia
amount with the salary received from April 1, 2003, to February 27,
2004, i.e. financial year 2003-04 though the actual payment on this
account has been made in April, 2004 i.e. financial year 2004-05. If
not, kindly quote the Section of the Act under which I can file the
return to reduce the taxability and claim for the refund. Further, it
is learnt that cases have been decided regarding income tax exemption
on the entire VRS amount in favour of majority of bank employees who
had filed appeals in this connection. There was news in a leading
national newspaper on February 19, 2004, that the income tax
department has gone for appeal in the tax tribunal in Bangalore
against the decision of Income Tax Commissioners (Appeals). There is
unconfirmed news that the Tax Tribunal has also given its verdict in
favour of the employees. Please enlighten. — S.C. Juneja,
Abohar A: You should have ascertained from your employer the answer
to this query before opting for VRS. Unfortunately, it is too late
now. Your employer is on right grounds. You were released from service
in the FY 03-04 and the VRS becomes payable on this date. It does not
matter when it is actually paid but tax becomes due on the date of
your release from the service. Your understanding about the court
case is a bit incorrect. The dispute is related to the applicability
of Sec. 89(1) for reducing tax liability and not making the entire VRS
amount tax-free. The Chennai High Court in the case of CIT v M.
Raman, Abdul Hadi and N. V. Balasubramanian JJ, (ITR vol 245, 2000)
decided on 4.3.1997 that — “The amount received by the employee at the
time of voluntary retirement of service would be regarded as salary
and the relief under section 89 of the Income-Tax Act, 1961, would be
admissible in respect of such sum. “The assesse has taken voluntary
retirement from the service and received an amount of compensation at
the time of his voluntary retirement. The question that arises is
whether the compensation received by the assesse at the time of
voluntary retirement would fall within the provisions of the Section
17(3)(i) of the Income Tax Act, 1961, that is, whether it can be
regarded as salary and the assesse would be entitled to the relief
provided u/s 89 of the Income Tax Act, 1961. This court in the case
reported in CIT v. J. Visalakshi (1994) 206 ITR 531, held that if an
employee receives at the time of resignation, the amount could be
regarded as salary and the assesse would be entitled to the relief
provided u/s 89 of the Income Tax Act, 1961. The said principle
rendered by this court in the case of resignation would equally apply
to the case of voluntary retirement of an employee from service.” |
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Rs-100 note Forex reserves
Thomas Cook
PTC-PSEB pact Samsung IOB results |
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