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New Delhi, May 9 The Union Ministry of Health has called a meeting on May 12 here to take a major decision whether cobalt or linac technologies should be promoted for the treatment of cancer under the National Cancer Control Programme. Reliance not to
levy roaming charges Cellular major Reliance Infocomm Ltd will not levy roaming charges for both incoming and outgoing calls in India, in sharp contrast to that of existing GSM players, making the company’s cellular services cheaper by over 50 per cent than an average GSM player.
A few Airtel
subscribers feel bad Not all mobile phone users were pleased to receive an election-eve message from Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the top official of a leading mobile service company revealed today. Exim Bank gets
RBI nod to raise $300 m Export-Import Bank of India is planning to raise $ 300 million from overseas markets to enhance lending operations and enable corporates to invest abroad.
Weak market
awaits poll results
Conveyance
allowance up to Rs 800 not taxable
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Meeting for cancer-curing machine convened New Delhi, May 9 The meeting has been called, just before the formation of the new government, and would have financial implications worth hundreds of crores of rupees. Some medical experts and a few companies are allegedly making efforts to influence the committee to take a decision in favour of linac technology, though a recent report of the World Health Organisation (WHO) states “for the majority of treatable cancers linear accelerators offer no advantage over cobalt therapy.” Dr K R Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, Kirloskar Theratronics (P) Ltd, a company selling Canadian cobalt machines under the Theratronics brand name claims “in view of the growing number cancer patients in India, currently estimated at 100 million, the country needs cost effective technology to treat patients that can work under all weather conditions.” Medical experts say at present there are around 300 radiotherapy machines installed at different hospitals in India, but there is a shortfall of around 700 machines. Under the 10th Five Year Plan, the government has plans to spend Rs 250 to Rs 300 crore on the installation of these machines. Different companies are lobbying to get a share in this Budget. The Atomic Energy Commission is also pushing for the cobalt technology. Talking about the performance of cobalt technology, Dr Singh says: “Over 225 cobalt radio-therapy machines are working in India, including one at Oswal Hospital, Ludhiana, against around 60 linac accelerator machines. The cost of cobalt machine is around Rs 1.35 crore as against around Rs 3 crore of linac machines. Further, its maintenance and operational costs are around Rs 4 lakh annually as against about Rs 50 lakh in case of linac ones.” Citing the recommendations of the Planning Commission and the WHO, he added: “Instead of promoting a few cancer treatment institutions in metro cities, the government should promote primary and secondary treatment centres in states and districts with private sector participation.” Criticising the lobby in the Union Health ministry, he asserted: “With the same amount of grant, we can set up 50 per cent more cancer treatment centres in the country provided appropriate technology is used.” Interestingly, as per the WTO both cobalt and linac accelearators serve
the same purpose. Cobalt is considered the best choice of treatment for head and
neck cancer and useful for breast and cervix cancers, the common types of
cancers in India, but high-energy linacs are required for very deep-seated
tumours and for some specialised treatment.
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Reliance not to levy roaming charges Mumbai, May 9 “We will continue to offer home-tariff rates to customers who travel out of their registered location, even as the stress would be to offer a single rate across the country,” Reliance Infocomm president (Wireless Products and Services) S P. Shukla said here today. The company does not incur any additional operational overheads, even while a customer is travelling, as the call would originate and terminate on its nation-wide network, he said adding: “So we have decided not to levy roaming rates”. “We stick to our philosophy of providing affordable mobile services to masses and now will offer affordable roaming service,” Mr Shukla said. All GSM players in the country had hiked roaming rates by Rs 1.50 on May 1, citing an end to the existing promotional offer, which was launched around five months ago. Not levying roaming charges means Reliance would be only charging call forwarding rates and customers would have to pay Rs 1.49 per minute (under plan Rs 149) for mobile-to-mobile outgoing calls while away from home turf, he said. This is in contrast to the GSM customer, who would be paying a minimum of Rs 1.99 (under plan Rs 149) per minute (under entry level scheme) and an additional Rs 1.50 per minute as roaming charges while the subscriber is away from home. Reliance Infocomm would levy only call forwarding for incoming calls while travelling outside the circle, making it cheaper by more than 50 per cent than that of a GSM player. The incoming call rates would further increase depending upon the distance between the home turf and the areas of visit, which means a subscriber would have “shell out” more as the distance varies, he said. In international roaming, for call forwarding from India, the company would charge Rs 15.99 per minute per call, while outgoing calls would be charged based on the tariff of the operator in that country, he said. Hutch H utch has become the first and the only operator in Haryana today to offer two-way international roaming to its prepaid subscribers. Hutch subscribers will not be able to make and receive calls and send SMS while roaming internationally in over 70 countries, including Pakistan and 120 networks in the world. This makes Hutch the only Haryana operator to provide its entire subscribers base, both prepaid as well as postpaid the benefits of two-way roaming internationally, including Pakistan.This service is exclusive to Hutch in Haryana and is being provided
through a technology called USSD callback roaming. — TNS, Agencies |
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A few Airtel subscribers feel bad Jaipur, May
9 “Many customers, especially those in the US and on roaming facility, complained to us when they received the phone messages,” Bharti Tele-Ventures Chairman and Managing Director Sunil Mittal said while speaking to reporters here. He said while most customers received the messages for free, those on roaming facility had to pay a small amount when they received them. Much to their harassment, customers in the US received the messages during night time, he said. Bharti Tele-Ventures provides mobile service, under the brand name, ‘Airtel’, to nearly seven million customers in 15 of the 23 telecom circles of the country. Mr Mittal said while the company did not profit much,
the surfeit of messages from political parties clogged the lines on occasions
and the company was left answering questions from angry customers. — UNI |
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Exim Bank gets RBI nod to raise $300 m New Delhi, May 9 The proposed issue is part of Exim Bank’s Rs 7,000 crore borrowing plan for this financial year, Exim Bank chairman, T.C. Venkat Subramanian, told PTI here. “We will soon go with the international bond issue of $ 300 million,” he said. Reserve Bank of India has given its nod for borrowings from the overseas markets, Subramanian said. Of the Rs 7,000 crore borrowings for 2004-05, he said 50 per cent would be in local currency and 50 per cent in dollar. The bank will tap both domestic and international markets to raise funds with maturity period between 1-5 years. Disclosing plans for its lending operations, he said the bank will encourage Indian companies to invest overseas to set up manufacturing or assembly units in potential markets like China, Central Asia and Eastern Europe as well as Africa. Exim Bank has a loan portfolio of Rs 11,000 crore and has set a target of Rs 9,000 crore loan disbursement during this fiscal year. The bank has also set a target to bring
down its NPA to one per cent by the end of this fiscal from 1.6 per cent in
2003-04. — PTI |
Conveyance allowance up to Rs 800 not taxable Q: I am a teacher. I have a house building loan from department and returned. Now I have a loan from ICICI for addition and alteration. 1. Is there a tax rebate on interest and principal amount? 2. I have learnt the definition of income of Government employee. This definition, the fixed medical allowance is not included. Is it true or not? 3. I am a handicapped 45 per cent. I had taken Rs 150 as the conveyance allowance. Is it deductible? 4. I am working in border belt. We all are taking 5 per cent of basic pay as the rent-free accommodation. Is it taxable or not? A ns: You have not stated in your question whether house built by you has been given on rent or is a self-occupied property. The deduction for interest on loan taken of addition and alteration is deductible, in case of a rented property to the extent of 100 per cent of interest paid. However, against the income from house property in case of a self-occupied house, the deduction is allowable to the extent of Rs 30,000 only. Since the income from self occupied property is considered to nil as per the provisions of the Act, the amount of Rs 30,000 can be adjusted against any other income (except long term capital gain) for the year. However, in case of borrowing for the acquisition or construction of a house an assessee is entitled to a higher deduction even in case of a self-occupied property. Since the question raised by you is with regard to the addition and alteration of the property, a lower deduction of Rs 30,000 would be allowable in case yours is a self-occupied property.As far as the payment of instalment for loan is concerned, a rebate from tax payable is allowable under Section 88 of the Act to the extent of 20 per cent of the amount of loan instalment provided the income before deduction under chapter VI-A is Rs 1,50,000 of less. If such income is between 1,50,000 to Rs 5,00,000, the deduction allowable would be 15 per cent of the amount payable as instalment towards the repayment of the loan. It should be noted that the maximum amount of loan instalment to be considered for the purpose of the allowable rebate is restricted to Rs 20,000. The rebate under Section 88 of the Act is also allowable in respect of other amounts such as provident fund contribution, life insurance premium etc. The total amount in respect of which the rebate under Section 88 of the Act is allowable, is restricted to Rs 70,000. The amount of loan instalment of Rs 20,000 forms part of the overall limit of Rs 70,000. 2. The fixed medical allowance is not exempt from tax. The exemption is allowable only in respect of reimbursement of medical expenses. 3. The conveyance allowance to the extent of Rs 800 per month is exempt from tax. Accordingly, the conveyance allowance of Rs 150 p.m. would not be taxable in your hands. The provisions with regard to the rent-free accommodation have been changed recently. From the question it is evident that you are a state Government employee and in your case the accommodation is provided by the state Government. The perquisite value to be taken is equivalent to license fee which would have been determined by the state Government, in accordance with the rules framed by the Government for allotment of houses to its officers. Accordingly, the amount to be included in your salary towards rent-free accommodation would depend on the rules so framed by the government. You may therefore seek the clarification from the concerned department of the Government of the Punjab. 4. A revised return can be filed under section 139(5) of the Act only if a person has filed a return under section 139(1) or in pursuance of the notice under Section 142 of the Act. The requirement therefore is that the revised return can only be filed if the original return is filed on due date prescribed under the Act. Leave encashment
Q: Kindly clarify if the leave encashment is taxable
as G.01 CBDT vide its letter No. 174/48/82-10(A1), dated 12th September 1985
said that the relief u/s 89(1) read with Rule 21A of the Rules, would be
admissible in respect of encashment of leave salary to an employee while in
service. Further Hon’ble Supreme Court in a Preview Judgement directed.
That
an employee is not getting the amount of leave encashment for any service
joining to employee this. Amount to be got by forgiving the right to go to on
leave. In reality a tax payee is transforming his right of enjoying his leave
into cash. In this context the amount of leave encashment is not income
conferred report. Hence, cannot be taxable under any section of IT Act, under
any circumstances. I took leave encashment during October 2003, if it is
taxable or not? A |
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