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FM may dilute tax
on fringe benefits
Choose between RIL, Infocomm, staff told
Spice slashes roaming
charges by 33 pc
SEBI to revise takeover code
Nod to package for coop sector |
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GAIL net
goes up by 4 per cent
Market likely to remain subdued Tax advice No
rebate for interest paid on children’s education loan
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FM may dilute tax
on fringe benefits New Delhi, May 1 The proposed tax of Rs 10 on the withdrawal of over Rs 10,000 cash from the saving bank account had come for sharp criticism by the general public as well as some of the UPA
allies, especially the Left parties supporting the government from outside. Mr Chidambaram, who has given finishing touches to the amendments, is expected to move these changes tomorrow while winding up the discussion on the Finance Bill. He is also expected to raise the limit on tax on withdrawal from accounts maintained by an individual or a Hindu undivided family to 25,000. For others, the threshold limit may be raised to Rs 1 lakh. The Budget has proposed 30 per cent fringe benefit tax on various perks which would be borne by employers. The incidence of tax ranged from 3 to 30 per cent. It is understood that the Finance Ministry may exclude any expenditure on advertisement from FBT, besides expenditure on leased telephone lines. The argument for exemption to these from FBT is that these do not form part of Section 115 WB (2). Use of telephones, including mobiles, may attract 20 per cent FBT. Individual and HUF engaged in business or profession and charitable trusts may also be out of the FBT net. The items that would attract FBT now are likely to include entertainment, sales promotion and provision of hospitality of all kinds by employers excepting on food and beverages. Conference will continue to attract FBT so also expenditure on tour and travel including foreign, hotel charges in connection with conference. The maintenance of motor cars, including depreciation, would also attract FBT. Moreover, loss-making and small companies may be spared from FBT as most of them offer no significant fringe benefits to their employees. Medical facilities, which are not considered perquisites in terms of the proviso to section 17(2), are also expected not to come under FBT, sources said. Mr Chidambaram had set up a committee headed by his adviser Parthasarathy Shome to look into various aspects of FBT following certain anomalies pointed out by industry captains.
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Choose between RIL, Infocomm, staff told
Kolkata, May 1 Reliance group’s HR President V.V. Bhatt asked them to make their choice in a communication sent last month. Interestingly, the top executives and many of the state coordinators have been asked to sign the “enclosed” format and send two separate sealed envelopes addressed to Mr Bhatt’s own office at the Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge Centre and Anil Ambani at his office at Reliance Centre at Ballard Estates, sources said. Responding to the call, at least four top executives, including Chief Operating Officer Kamal Nanavati, have desired switching to the parent company in the event of a split in the family business, RIL sources said here. Others, whose name are indicated by sources to have expressed desire to switch to RIL, include Mr Bhagwan Khurana, Director of
Management Services Division, Mr A.G. Dowda, Head, Reliance Engineers Association Ltd, and Mr Amit Khanna, a high-ranking official in the Corporate wing.
— PTI
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Spice slashes roaming
charges by 33 pc Chandigarh, May 1 The roaming airtime charges have been reduced from Rs 3 per minute to Rs 1.99 per minute. Other charges like service tax surcharge, PSTN etc. will be as applicable. “Subscribers of Punjab frequently visit cities across India, especially Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, UP, Rajasthan and Haryana. With the lowering of roaming rates, our valued subscribers will now be able to save even while roaming. We have always endeavoured to provide more value for money for our subscribers and the efforts shall continue with the same intensity,” said Mr Mukul Khanna, DGM-Marketing, Spice Telecom.
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SEBI to revise takeover code
New Delhi, May 1 SEBI Chairman M Damodaran said the process of revision had already commenced after considering the representations of all apex chambers. ''I hope to take it up in the next board meeting scheduled for the end of May,'' he told reporters last evening.
— UNI
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Nod to package for coop sector New Delhi, May 1 The package covers accumulated losses, unpaid invoked guarantees, receivables from state governments, return of share capital to state governments, human resources developments, return of share capital to state governments, human resources development, conduct of special audits, computerisation and implementation costs. The likely share of the Centre, state government and the cooperatives in the assistance has been estimated at 53 per cent, 31 per cent and 16 per cent, respectively. Other recommendations of the task force include provision of financial assistance linked to reforms in the cooperative sector, institutional restructuring to make way for democratic, member driven, autonomous and self-reliant institutions, radical changes in the legal framework to empower RBI to regular cooperative credit structures.
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by J.C. Anand
Market likely to remain subdued
LAST Friday, when the stock market closed Sensex was down by 129.76 points. In fact, during the past week taken as a whole, Sensex moved down from 6378 points on Monday to 6154.54 points when the market closed on Friday, registering a loss of 223.46 points. The corporate results were mixed but, as a whole, quite discouraging. Hindustan Lever’s first quarter net profit was down by 15 per cent; that of Grasim’s fourth quarter net profit was down by 19 per cent. Glaxo Pharma’s net profit during the first quarter was down by 26.6 per cent and its sales were lower by 23 per cent. Reliance Industries reported quite impressive results posting a 62 per cent increase in its net profit for the quarter ended March 31, 2005. In its annual results for 2004-2005, the company registered a 47 per cent jump in the net profit and a 30 per cent increase in its sales. But the company’s scrip slumped and closed at Rs 528 per share last Friday. What father Ambani made, the sons are trying to unmake. Due to the family dispute, the scrip may even go down further this week. The RBI has announced its Annual Credit Policy. The stock market has not taken kindly to the RBI’s policy and the bank scrips have taken a tumble. While last Friday all sectoral indices were negative, Bankex was down by 104.13 points, the biggest loser of the lot. The FIIs were sellers during the week. According to a report, the FIIs were net sellers for Rs 325 crore on Thursday as compared to Rs 134 crore on the previous day. A further fall in the stock market is expected for various reasons: reports about the weakening of the US economy, poor corporate results of some top companies in India, increasing input costs in industry, political distempers in the country and depressed stock market sentiment. An interesting news is that Nahar Industrial Enterprises has planned to invest Rs 300 crore in expanding its operations — Rs 275 crore in the textile sector and Rs 25 crore in setting up a generation power plant. The company has received the court’s approval for merging Nahar International and Nahar Sugar in Nahar Industrial Enterprises. Eveready has also split its company’s equity capital into two parts — one dealing with Torch and Torch Batteries and the other with the tea business. Each Rs 10 face value equity share will be split into two parts of Rs 5 each. Every present shareholder will be entitled to both these shares. This Monday, Parliament would be deliberating upon the Budget proposals and the market may respond favourably if there is any favourable report. The market as a whole, however, is likely to remain subdued this week.
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by S.C. Vasudeva No rebate for
interest paid on children’s Q. I have taken education loan for higher studies of my son abroad. Kindly let me know if there is any tax rebate on the interest paid on education loan in the current budget? — Nawan Shala A. The Finance Bill 2005 contains a provision whereby Section 80-E of the Income Tax Act 1961 is proposed to be amended. It is proposed to allow without any limit, the entire amount of interest paid by an individual during the previous year on such loan taken by him from any financial institution, or any approved charitable institution for purposes of pursuing his higher education, as a deduction from his total income. It is further proposed that no deduction shall be allowed for repayment of the principal loan amount. The deduction is allowable for a period of eight years beginning from the year in which payment of interest on the loan begins. The proposed amendment would be applicable to assessment year 2006-07 and subsequent years. Accordingly, you would not be entitled to any deduction, but if the loan is raised by your son he would be entitled to deduction under the proposed new section. Variance in signatures Q. Recently, at my request, Sonepat Post Office transferred few National Savings Certificates to Hisar Post Office. The Sub-Post Master at Hisar advised me that the Sonepat Post Office had stated that my signatures did not tally with those on their record. As such, he directed me to get myself identified from someone having dealings with the post office. I showed my PAN card to the official with the plea that my photograph, name and signatures thereon would be sufficient for the purpose. But the official refused to accept PAN card identification. — V. M. Seth A. I have gone through the contents of your question. It seems you have not understood the point made by Sub-Post Master at Hisar. He has not doubted your identification for which PAN card is a valid document. However, the variance in signatures is something for which the administrative procedure may have to be followed. You may discuss with the Sub-Post Master and find out the various alternatives for following the administrative requirement. It should be possible to sort out the matter if all possible alternatives are discussed. Tuition fee and tax Q. I am a Central Government employee working in a CPO. Please guide me through your column on tax matter. I have an annual income of about 2 lakh. Kindly elaborate and show my tax liabilities as per following saving details.
2. Please also tell me if the amount of tuition fee will also be added into my annual income if it is reimbursed to me by my department. 3. Whether GPF amount withdrawn by a government servant will be counted as annual income. — P.C. Saini A. (ii) The tuition fee, if reimbursed to you by the department, would be taxable in your hands. (iii) Amount withdrawn from GPF would not be counted as an income.
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Rao’s word on EPF interest First winner JK Bank chief Rivkin dead |
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Video
(i)
Your question does not indicate the assessment year in respect of
which the taxability is to be computed. It is presumed that you are
interested in knowing the tax liability in respect of assessment year
2005-06 i.e. year ending March 31, 2005. The tax liability has been
computed on the basis of the above presumption