 |
|
Despite protests, Vat regime begins today
India-aided Cyber Tower to make Mauritius IT major
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Decks cleared for hazardous waste storage plant in Haryana
IA to tap capital market, approves IPO
Govt not to invest EPF funds in stock markets
Travel agents to remove A-I publicity material
Sidbi to finance SMEs in Ludhiana, Gurgaon
Growth rate slows down to 6.2 pc in Q3
|
|
Despite protests, Vat regime begins today
New Delhi, March 31 Under the Vat system covering about 550 goods, there would be only two basic Vat rates of 4 per cent and 12.5 per cent, plus a specific category of tax-exempted goods. There would be also a list of 46 commodities under the exempted category, comprising natural and unprocessed products in unorganised sector, items, which were legally barred from taxation, and items that have social implications. Included in this exempted category was a set of maximum of 10 commodities flexibly chosen by individual states from a list of goods, which were of local and social importance for the respective states and do not have any inter-state implications. The rest of the commodities in the list would be common for all states. About 270 items, including drugs and medicines, all agricultural and industrial inputs, capital goods and declared goods would attract 4 per cent Vat. The schedule of the commodities is being attached to the Vat Bill of every state where the legislation has been passed. The remaining commodities, common for all states, would fall under the general Vat rate of 12.5 per cent. The states would get 100 per cent compensation for revenue loss, if any, in the first year, while 75 per cent of the loss would be compensated in the second year and 50 per cent in third year. Presently, as many as 21 states and six UTs are ready to migrate to the Vat system. Besides, the five BJP-ruled states, which are ready with the legislation and are sufficiently prepared administratively, are also expected to transit to the new system. The concern expressed by these states is that since some of them — Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh — were contiguous with Uttar Pradesh, it was important that UP also implements Vat to ensure that no state gains unfair advantage by distancing itself from the new taxation system. Sources said the Empowered Committee was willing to review the Vat rates of a number of items in June, three months after the new system comes into force. Sources said the Vat panel has agreed to increase the exemption limit of traders from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh. This is expected to keep a large number of small and marginal traders from the Vat net. Sources also indicated that the Finance Ministry has agreed to phase out the Central Sales Tax (CST) within the next three years. This has been a major area of concern of most of states. The three-day traders’ strike call given by the Confederation of All-India Traders (CAIT) entered the second day today. CAIT Secretary General maintained that more than 5,000 trade organisations across the country kept their establishments completely closed. “How will the government implement Vat from tomorrow, when there are no Vat Acts and the rules are not made public. What is the system of provisions the traders will follow? Is it not a mockery that the government intends to replace a 50 year old taxation system in a such a lethargic way,” Mr Khandelwal said.
|
|
India-aided Cyber Tower to make Mauritius IT major
Port Louis (Mauritius), March 31 Built with the help of a $100 million credit line extended by India, the Cyber Tower project, as it is known, is expected to help Mauritius make a major foray into the world of information technology and communication. The 12-storey building has ultra-modern facilities. It offers optic fibre datacom facilities on a ready-to-use basis on each floor. It liberally uses natural light to reduce the consumption of electricity. It has been designed by an Indian firm, C.R. Narayana Rao Architects and Engineers. The project has been completed by the Indian companies in a record time of 18 months. At the peak, 1500 workers from India were engaged in the construction effort. Much of the beauty of the building is also due to materials imported from India. The breathtaking granite on the ground and first floors, the vitrified ceramic tiles, the doors, bathroom fixtures, streetlights, roof and shop-front glasses, partitions, cables, piping and ducts have all been imported from India. The Mauritian leadership has described the Cyber Tower as a jewel of Mauritian economy. About 80 per cent of the building has already been occupied by IT firms from France, the US and India. Work has already begun on the second Cyber Tower, which Mauritius has been financing on its own. Mauritius feels that it can emerge as a major centre for BPOs because it has a large reservoir of educated youth who are fluent in both English and French. The plan is to develop the vast area around Cyber Tower into a cyber city where all kinds of facilities would be made available to IT firms from all over the world to set up shop. Self-sufficiency in power supply, low wages and commendable law and order are what Mauritius seeks to project in its bid to emerge as an IT major at least in Africa.
|
|
Decks cleared for hazardous waste storage plant in Haryana
Gurgaon, March 31 According to Mr Sunial Sabharwal, president, Haryana Environmental Management Society (HEMS), a voluntary organisation set up by the industrialists of the state, the government has communicated to his organisation to complete the formalities to get the possession of the land. The HEMS is to set up the storage facility and the treatment plant. HEMS will initially get the land for a lease of 10 years and the arrangement will be extended for another 50 years. As per the understanding, the lease money will be about Rs 27 lakh per annum, he added. According to Mr P.K.Jain, a member of HEMS and former president of the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the proposed facility would be the first of its kind in northern India. The project will be set up at an estimated cost of Rs 20 crore. The government has nothing to do with it or the running of it. As per the present practice, the units have to store their hazardous waste material in their premises after the approval of the Haryana State Pollution Control Board. According to the Administrative Officer of HEMS, Mr S.L.Gupta, the project is expected to be set by the end of this calendar year.
|
|
IA to tap capital market, approves IPO
New Delhi, March. 31 The IA board which met here yesterday decided to go ahead with the proposal to tap the capital market. The initial public offering (IPO) would, however, be subject to approval from the government, an IA spokesman said without giving further details. Recently Jet Airways also came out with its IPO, which was a success. Along with IA, which has posted profits for the second year running, Air-India is also preparing for its IPO in 2005-06 to fund its fleet acquisition programme and enhance the debt-equity ratio. Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel had earlier asked the two carriers to start working towards this end. He had said the two airlines could launch their IPOs in the later part of 2005-06. Another private sector low cost carrier Air Deccan has also announced plans to go ahead with its IPO by September 2006. As per the revised estimates for 2004-05, the company has shown a net profit of Rs 17.5 crore, after suffering loss for three consecutive years between 2000-01 and 2002-03. The board also approved plans in principle to lease 10 additional A-320 aircraft by September-October this year, the spokesman said. At its meeting yesterday, the IA Board also approved formation of a joint venture with Singapore Airport Terminal Services in areas of ground handling, comprising passengers, cargo, ramp and security services at various airports in India.
RPF issued
The Ministry of Civil Aviation today decided to give the nine private consortia, which have expressed interest to restructure and modernise the Delhi and Mumbai airports, 12 weeks’ time to file their bids. Although there were doubts earlier whether the ministry would be able to go ahead with the issuing of the Request for Proposals (RFP) document by March 31, which was the last date set by it, the orders for the same came late in the evening. The RFP document lists the requirements of new facilities on the civil side of the two airports, besides the additional task of slum clearance for expansion of Mumbai airport.
|
|
Modis to set up shopping malls in region
New Delhi, March 31 The company is already setting up a shopping mall in Noida at an estimated cost of Rs 100 crore, that is scheduled be operational by August this year, said Aditya Sikri, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company, here today. Talking to The Tribune, Mr Sikri disclosed that the Modi Group is shifting its focus from manufacturing to the retail sector, which has a tremendous potential in the domestic market. Since the organised retail market’s share is not even 5 per cent in the Rs 1,80,000-crore retail market, they are moving in that direction. “Our marketing studies have revealed a huge potential in the Chandigarh and Punjab markets. People there have a cosmopolitan outlook and high disposable income levels, besides high awareness about major brands. We are hopeful to set up shopping malls there by next year,” he said adding that the company was currently engaged in identifying suitable land for the projects. Another company of the group, Spice Telecom already has a strong presence in the Punjab telecom circle. The shopping malls in Chandigarh and Ludhiana will likely include multiplexes as well. Referring to the government’s proposal to open up retail sector for foreign direct investment (FDI), Mr Sikri said, “we believe that with the opening of organised retail sector, now growing at over 40 per cent rate annually, new benchmarks will be set up for quality and service. People are ready to pay in such centres, where they can enjoy a certain level of comfort, besides lifestyle products and entertainment.”
|
|
Govt not to invest EPF funds in stock markets
New Delhi, March 31 “The government is quite careful. We do not want to take risks as the CBT has clearly decided not to go for investments in share market or mutual funds”, Union Labour Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao told newspersons on the sidelines of a meeting on labour reforms with trade union leaders here. The minister said that this decision (against investing in equities) has been taken keeping in mind the interests of the workers. The EPFO, which has a corpus of about Rs 1,30,000 crore, has recently appointed global consultants, Mercer, to suggest ways and means to enhance the returns from EPFO investments. The recent hike of the EPF rate to 9.5 per cent is estimated to result in a shortfall of about Rs 1000 crore for the organisation as its earnings from the existing portfolio of investment is unlikely to match up to the requisite outgo. Meanwhile, trade union leaders, in their meeting with the Labour Minister today opposed automatic ‘hire and fire’ of workers.
|
|
Post-Vat, Maruti to be costlier, says MD
Chandigarh, March 31 Steel comprises about 18 per cent of the car body and its sales hike from 12 per cent to 12.5 per cent in the new tax structure would have an impact on all models, he explained. Addressing a press conference, he said their new model, Swift, would roll out in a couple of months. On Vat, Mr Khattar said, “As a manufacturer, we welcome Vat. It has been introduced in 138 countries all over the world.” Expressing apprehension of how exactly Vat will be put into place, with some states agreeing to it and others opposing, he added that the new taxation system was “not aggressive enough, though it was a good beginning.”
Mr Khattar was in town in connection with the opening of the Maruti Driving School, in collaboration with their dealer, Joshi Autozone. It is the third such state-of-the-art school to be inaugurated in the country in five days, after Bangalore and Kollam. “Road safety and traffic management are focus areas on Maruti’s agenda for corporate social responsibility. We are concerned about the mounting deaths on roads. More than 1 lakh persons die every year in road accidents and over 1 million are injured, costing the nation about Rs 55,000 crore. We have also requested the government to set up a National Road Safety Board,” he informed. Modelled on international lines, learners at Maruti Driving will get theory, practical and attitude training on AC cars that are in a good condition. The school has a world-class simulator on which students can practise all car controls like steering, accelerator, brake and gear shift before they take the actual vehicle on the road. The simulators can also create various road and weather conditions like fog, dim light, uphill and downhill terrain. The instructors, including women, have been trained at the Institute of Driving Training and Research (IDTR) in Delhi. IDTR is a reputed driving institute managed by Maruti. The fees for 20 hours of training is Rs 3850. He said the rate was competitive.
|
|
Travel agents to remove A-I publicity material
Chandigarh, March 31 Mr Balbir Singh
Mayal, President, Travel Agents Association of India (Taai), has asked all members of the association to suspend making reservations as well as selling tickets of Air-India and Air-India Express immediately. “Our protest is directed against Air-India more as European and other foreign airlines have used our national carrier in initiating move of reducing commission by two per cent,” says Mr Umesh Kapoor, an office-bearer of the local unit of the
Taai After Air-India, other international air carriers — British Airways, Austrian, Singapore and Asiana besides others — also announced reduction in commission. The
Taai, said Mr Kapur, was in constant dialogue with other bodies of travel agents and travel agencies like Travel Agents Federation of India
(TFAI), IAAI, IATO, ADTOI and ETAA (non-IATA Travel Agents Association) in boycotting Air-India and Air-India Express. Members of these associations have also been instructed not to attend social functions, familiarisation trips, award ceremonies or any official functions of the airlines, who have sent the letters of reduction in commission. They have also been asked to return all promotional material of Air-India.
|
|
Sidbi to finance SMEs in Ludhiana, Gurgaon
Ludhiana, March 31 Ludhiana and Gurgaon are among the 10 clusters that have been identified in the northern region for the purpose. The Rs 1,000-crore project, for which the Ministry of Finance is the nodal agency, would facilitate development of the SMEs by enhancing credit flow to enterprises, apart from improving their efficiency and profitability by assisting them in various fields like technology. This is Sidbi’s first ever tie-up with the World Bank for any project, Mr Rakesh Rewari, Chief General Manager, North zone, Sidbi, said. “We plan to take up 10 clusters of which five would be selected in the first phase. In total the aim is to develop 25 to 30 clusters, taking up around five clusters each year,” he said. The project assumes significance for SMEs as it would not merely provide financial assistance, but also help them in various spheres by providing technical and other types of assistance. “The basic idea is to equip SMEs in the country to help them tackle global competition. They would get help in finances, research and development, technology, energy saving etc ,” Mr Rewari said. By developing clusters, Sidbi aims to extend benefits to the entire region. “For instance, if a textile cluster in Ludhiana is developed and provided with some latest technology, the entire region would be able to reap benefits.” Besides the World Bank line of credit of $ 120 million, there is also a proposal for KFW, Germany, Line of Credit of $ 60 million and grant components from the DFID, UK, and GTZ, Germany.
|
|
Growth rate slows down to 6.2 pc in Q3
New Delhi, March 31 The cumulative growth rate during the period April to December 2004-05 also came down to 6.7 per cent as compared to 8.6 per cent during the same period in 2003-04, latest figures released by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) showed. Quarterly GDP at factor cost at constant prices (1993-94) prices for the third quarter of 2004-05 is estimated at Rs 4,11,907 crore, as against Rs 3,87,910 crore in the same quarter in the previous year. The GDP measured in constant prices, till December was estimated at Rs 11,13,956 crore while it was Rs 20,61,721 crore in current prices. The slide in the GDP growth was mainly on account of a meagre 1.1 per cent fall in agricultural production during period October to December — a sharp fall from the previous year’s 18.2 per cent growth in the same period last year.
|
bb
CPI-IW NHPC contract Closure of units Hero Mindmine Lakshmi Overseas MCX milestone |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
In video (
