 |
|
ONGC gets nod for marketing LPG, aviation turbine fuel
VSNL misleads TRAI, says FLAG
Indian IT managers among lowest paid
GAIL keen on stake in Nabucco pipeline project
Pak welcomes Indian sugar
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NRI can remit up to $ 1 million annually
Market may see correction
|
|
ONGC gets nod for marketing LPG,
Kolkata, August 21 “We have obtained approval for marketing aviation turbine fuel and refuelling. Our product will be available from 2006-07,” Mr Raha said here. The company, which obtained the approval about 10 days ago, has decided to market the product under brand ‘Oval Air Fuel’, he said. The ONGC had also applied to the Director-General of Civil Aviation for approval of production, storage and delivery of ATF and planned to produce and sell 20,000 kilolitres of ATF from its Hazira unit in Gujarat. “To start with, we will market ATF for captive use for refuelling our chartered helicopters at Juhu used for offshore operations, which was earlier being done by the IOC,” Mr Raha said on the sidelines of an award-giving function for Bengali advertisement and marketing agencies here last night. The company had also applied for approval to supply ATF refuelling stations at various airports. The ONGC has also obtained approval for marketing LPG and propane in the country. These would be marketed from April, 2006, the Chairman said, adding that “We are the first company to market propane in the country”. Asked about the restoration of production at Mumbai High, he said “we expect to restore 70 per cent of normal production by end of August”. Meanwhile O&M, Mumbai and Grey of Bangladesh bagged top honours in the sixth “Sambad Pratidin Srijan Samman” awards for excellence in Bengali advertisement presented here last night. Everest (Mumbai) and Bates (Kolkata) also bagged top awards for their entries in different categories. The ‘Srijan Samman’ also honoured ONGC Chairman Subir Raha with the ‘Hall of Fame’ award for his achievements in the world of business and marketing.
— PTI
|
|
VSNL misleads TRAI, says FLAG
New Delhi, August 21 “VSNL has been unreasonably delaying the access to FLAG cable capacity by carriers in India, thereby deterring them from acquiring the capacity on the FLAG cable
system,” Mr Edward McCormack, Executive Vice-President of FLAG, said in a letter to TRAI Chairman Pradip Baijal. A VSNL spokesperson, however, denied the allegations and asserted “we have honoured all our commitments with the FLAG cable system in letter and in spirit.” This was a commercial dispute and was resolved to the satisfaction of both parties, VSNL said, adding that all issues with Reliance Infocomm over FLAG telecom, including the access to cable landing station, had been resolved last year and no dispute existed anymore. In a strongly worded letter to Mr Baijal, FLAG said that it had not been able to sell the capacity in India to carriers due to its inability to provide any commitment on delivery dates. “In the case of Global One Private Limited an ISP, despite TRAI’s efforts, VSNL allowed the access to FLAG capacity after six months,” the letter said. “These acts of VSNL are designed to force the carriers to buy capacity from the VSNL owned and managed cable system,” McCormack said, adding that Reliance itself was forced to buy capacity of four STM1s from VSNL to meet its urgent capacity needs. NEW DELHI: The Department of Telecom is likely to bring out a white paper on implementation of uniform call rates ‘OneIndia’ after operators submit their plans on Monday. The Department had asked the operators to submit their plans to implement OneIndia by Monday. Going by their stated course of action, plans and reservations, DoT would consider bringing out a white paper that will deal with all ideas and concerns and roadmap for the concept to take shape at the earliest, official sources said. Industry sources said as of now long distance licencees were wary of such a move as they perceived it as hurting their revenues severely.
— PTI
|
|
Indian IT managers among lowest paid
New Delhi, August 21 IT managers, who are responsible for developing IT systems and managing a company’s IT specialists, earn an average of $26,500 a year in India, said the survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting. Swiss IT managers earn the highest salary of $1,61,900 annually while their counterparts in Vietnam are the lowest paid in the world, taking home an average of $20,100 per year. Bulgaria and Malaysia offer an average salary of $28,800 a year to their IT managers, which is more than that in India. Covering about 5,300 companies worldwide, the study found that eight of the world’s 10 highest-paying countries for IT managers are in Western Europe. Switzerland is followed by Germany, where IT managers earn $1,26,700 a year while those in Denmark take home an average pay packet of $1,16,000 a year. Japan and Hong Kong are the only two non-European nations that rank among the top 10 for pay to IT managers. IT managers in Japan earn on an average $1,12,300 a year and those in Hong Kong $97,600 a year. IT managers in the USA, which is ranked 14th, earn an average yearly salary of $89,100 Mercer said.
— UNI
|
|
GAIL keen on stake in Nabucco pipeline project
New Delhi, August 21 "GAIL has sent an Expression of Interest for participation in the Nabucco Natural Gas Pipeline Project," an official statement said. A final decision on GAIL's equity participation was expected by year-end. GAIL has also offered its services for carrying out operations and maintenance for the proposed pipeline, the release said but did not give the quantum of stake the company was seeking in the project. The Rs 25,000-crore (Euro 4.5 billion), 3,300-km pipeline will be running from the Georgian/Turkish border and the Iranian Turkish/border, respectively to Central Europe via Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria.
— PTI
|
|
Pak welcomes Indian sugar
Islamabad, August 21 In a circular, the State Bank has directed all commercial banks to open letter of credit (LC) of the intending importers of raw and refined sugar from India. Earlier, the central bank prohibited the import from India and Israel.
— PTI
|
bb
by S.C. Vasudeva NRI can remit up to $ 1 million annually
Q. I am an Indian citizen. But I have got the immigration to Canada. Still, I am not a Canadian citizen. I want to sell my house in India and transfer the money to Canada. Please advise me about the tax consequences, if any.
— K.S. Rana A. The capital gain on the house which you intend selling, would be taxable. The taxability would depend on the period for which the capital asset i.e. house has been held by you. In case the house is held for a period exceeding three years the capital gains earned on the sale of house would be treated as a long term capital gain and shall be liable to be taxed at a concessional rate of 20 per cent plus surcharge. The tax and surcharge is further increased by an addition of surcharge of 2 per cent towards the education cess. In case the asset is held for a period of less than 3 years, the capital gains arising would be shortterm in nature and tax would be charged at the normal slab rate provided by the Finance Act every year. Capital gain in the case of a longterm asset is computed by deducting the cost of acquisition of the asset, expenditure incurred on any improvement to such an asset and the expenditure incurred wholly and exclusively in connection with the transfer of the capital asset such as stamp duty, registration charges, legal fee, brokerage etc. The cost of acquisition of a longterm capital asset and the cost of any improvement thereto is to be worked out in the following manner: (a) Cost of acquisition X Cost Inflation Index of the year in which the asset is transferred divided by Cost Inflation Index of the year of acquisition or the year beginning on 01.04.1981, whichever is later; (b) Cost of improvement X Cost Inflation Index of the year in which the asset is transferred divided by Cost Inflation Index of the year of improvement to the asset. I may further add that the Cost of Inflation Index for the financial year 2004-05 is 480 and for financial year 2005-06 is 497. For your information, I may also point out that a non-resident Indian or a person of Indian origin is allowed to remit up to $ 1 million every year out of the balance held in his nonresident ordinary rupee account out of sale proceeds of assets for all bonafide purposes to the satisfaction of the authorised dealer, on production of an undertaking by the remitter and certificate by a chartered accountant in the form prescribed by Central Board Direct Taxes vide their circular no. 10/2002 dated 9th October 2002.
Education loan Q. I have taken approx Rs 2 lakh education loan from bank for higher study of my son in India. Now, he has got a job and wants to return the loan. Please advise, if he is eligible for any tax rebate for the amount to be returned to bank. — C.S. Walia A. Section 80 E of the Act has been substituted by the Finance Act 2005 which now provides for deduction of interest on loan taken by a person from any financial institution or any approved charitable institution for the purpose of pursuing his higher education. This deduction is available for initial assessment year and 7 assessment years immediately succeeding the initial assessment year or until the interest is paid by the assessee in full whichever is earlier. In view of these provisions, deduction for loan taken by you is not allowable.
Investment of capital gain Q. I am an NRI living in Denmark since 1973. I have acquired real estate property in India (Panchkula, Haryana) and am now interested in selling the property. I would like to know what options are available for investment of capital gain from sale of property? — Vinay Bhatia A. You have not stated in your query whether the real estate purchased is a residential or a commercial property. In case it is a residential house, you can invest the capital gain earned thereon in the acquisition of a new residential house within a period of two years from the date of transfer or construct a residential house within three years from the date of transfer. You also have the option to invest the capital gain in tax saving bonds which have a lock-in period of three years and carry interest between 4 to 5 per cent. The capital gain earned on the commercial property (not being a residential house) if sold would also be entitled to exemption from capital gains tax, in case the capital gain earned on such transaction is invested in the acquisition or construction of a residential house within the period as aforesaid as also in tax savings bonds within a period of six months of the date of transfer.
MIS scheme Q. I am a senior citizen. The current year’s budget provides for tax saving investments without sectoral caps up to an amount of Rs 1 lakh, under a new Section 80C. Can you kindly list out the various investment avenues for this purpose? Specifically, would investments in post office Monthly Income Scheme (MIS) and 5-year recurring deposit scheme qualify under Section 80C? — S.N. Kakar A. The tax deductions out of total income now provided for by section 80C of the Income-Tax Act 1961 (The Act) are very large in number. It is, therefore, not possible to list them out on account of constraint of space in this column. Basically these are the same items which were earlier covered under Section 88 of the Act. The earlier Section as well as present Section do not provide for any deduction in respect of post office monthly income scheme and five-year recurring deposit scheme.
Tax liability Q. I purchased a trust’s plot from original allottee in November 1983 by paying a premium of Rs 15,000 . The cost of the plot was to be paid in 15 years in instalments. Since my husband is a government official, I got executed General. Power of Attorney from the allottee in his favour for above plot. We constructed house in 1985 and in 1991-92 on above plot by incurring Rs 3.0 lakh approx. and deposited all instalments plus other dues to trust and got sale deed executed in favour of allottee in March 2005. Being a attorney my husband sold the house for Rs 10.50 lakh recently and deposited the sale proceeds in joint account with me. Please clarify the following points: a) Can I first invest Rs 2 lakh in MIS from the above sale proceeds, before investing the remaining amount to purchase property within two years? b) Can I pay some amount to the house loan account of my husband out of the above sale proceeds? My husband had constructed a small house in 2004 by taking house loan. c) Whether there is any tax liability for capital gain on my part? If so, please suggest investment to avoid the same. Can I gift some amount to my daughters who are studying. d) I am a household lady. Can I spend some amount on the education/marriage of my children out of above capital gain? — Amrik Kaur A. I hope you are aware that the exemption with regard to the purchase or construction of new house in respect of capital gains tax can be availed if the capital gain is a longterm capital gain. The exemption from capital gains tax earned in respect of a longterm capital gain can be availed subject to fulfillment of certain conditions. In this connection, I would like to draw your kind attention to reply contained in the column of Tribune on 15th August 2005. I would like to add here that it is a longterm capital gain which is to be invested in purchase of a residential house for availing the exemption. You have all the right to use the money beyond the amount of longterm capital gains in any manner.
Gift & tax Q. Kindly advise and oblige. (a) Can NRI son gift money to his parents to buy property in India.? (b) To what extent is the gift money tax free? — H.S. Dhariwal A. A nonresident Indian can make a gift to his parents without any limitations, as no gift tax is chargeable in respect of the gift received by you.
Readers are welcome to send questions for tax advice. These should be brief, to the point and not exceed 100-150 words. The letters should be sent to Tax Advice C/o The Tribune, Sector 29, Chandigarh-160020 or emailed to: |
bb
by J.C. Anand Market may see correction
An analysis of the financial results of 1765 companies in the first quarter (April-June) indicates that the net profit increased by 46.02 per cent and the sales moved up by 15.01 per cent. Many analysts are of the view that the market is likely to witness a moderate correction this week. FIIs have also been sellers in the F&O segment. For the next fortnight no positive news is expected. The international crude prices had moved up to $68 per barrel but has now moved down to $64 a barrel. It is likely that the international crude prices would stay above $62 per barrel and may even tough $68 per barrel in the coming months. The high crude prices are likely to affect almost every aspect of life adversely in our country. This would particularly affect the profitability of the corporate sector as well as the stock market indices and the price level. It is appropriate, therefore, to recommend that selective profit-booking should be done by investory. The investments should be put on hold till the market correction is completed. Sometimes, investors jump up to buy blue-chip equities when their market values go down in the first flush of the correction process. Let the correction downward movement unwind itself before any purchases are made. It would also be good if fresh investments are made in those industries that are likely to be less affected by the high and souring international crude prices. These sectors are: textile & garments, mining, lignite, coke, sugar, plantation, construction and infrastructural projects, pharma, diamond & jewellery and production, transmission and distribution of power projects (like ABB, Alstom projects, windmill companies) etc. The long-term investors should place the following companies on the watchlist: Alstom, Sabero Org, India Rayon, Aegis, Su-Raj Diamonds, Indian Glycols. |
| 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 | |
The ONGC has obtained approval from the Centre for marketing aviation turbine fuel (ATF) and refuelling at airports and would start marketing products in 2006-07, ONGC Chairman Subir Raha said.
Sensex closed at 7780.75 points and Nifty at 2383.45 points last week. During the past five months (March 24 to August 19), the market gained about 1338 points on Sensex (20.76 per cent) and 368 points (18.26 per cent) on Nifty. It now appears that enough is enough and a healthy correction is needed. The huge market gains were due to three major factors: massive FII inflows, heavy purchases by the domestic mutual funds and good first quarterly results. In just eight months of the current calendar year, the net FII inflow is already about 84 per cent of the total funds which came from FIIs last year.