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RBI may not cut interest rates
Aviation Notes
Investor Guidance |
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RBI may not cut interest rates
New Delhi, March 15 "As long as there is a threat of inflation, you have to trust the RBI to use policy interest rates in order to contain inflation and dampen inflationary expectations," finance minister P Chidambaram said at India Today Conclave in response to a query whether there will be interest rate cuts to give a fillip to the sagging industrial growth. Chidambaram, however, said determination of policy interest rates is under the domain of the RBI. The very purpose of fixing policy interest rates is to contain inflation. He attributed high inflation to rising prices of food and commodity prices in the world, saying that India is not entirely insulated from the global trends. Citing examples, he said the global crude oil prices surged to $110 a barrel yesterday from $37 when the UPA government came to power. Similarly, global prices of palm oil that India imports rose to $1,270 per metric tonne from $471 per MT. The inflation rate rose to over nine-month high of 5.11 per cent for the week ended March 1. The industrial growth as represented by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) plunged to 10-month low of 5.3 per cent in January. The finance minister said: "We have recognised that there is a slowdown, thanks to the US impending recession. We have applied tax book economic approach to boost consumer demand by putting more money in the hands of tax payers, cutting excise in customs duties and enlarging public expenditure." — PTI
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Industrial quality ‘guru’ Juran dead Dr Joseph M. Juran, an American industrial engineer and philanthropist, has died at 103. He died of a stroke on February 28. While making significant contributions to management theory, human resource management and consulting as well, he wrote several books, and is known worldwide as one of the most important 20th century thinkers in quality management. Born in Romania in 1904, Juran's penniless family had to flee the country because of religious persecution, when he was only three. As an 8-year-old migrant into the US, his childhood was spent in a bare tar-papered shack having to look after and feed a drunken father. From those lowest levels of deprivation to graduation in electrical engineering from Minnesota University was itself a story of determination and grit. Subsequent evolution of his Quality Trilogy mantra and half-a-century of single-minded pursuit of quality into a revolution sweeping the world has been the life of a true evangelist. Every well-known word in Quality lexicon owes it to Juran: Pareto;
Project-by- Japan was the first to accept his Quality Trilogy in the early fifties and pursue it with the fervour of a convert. While quality and reliability went up, prices fell down and profits surged. In a mere three decades, it had propelled a war-ravaged Japan to challenge the mightiest of the world and on their own turf. One by one, global icons had begun to fall against its onslaught. What was still more important was that Japanese living standards had risen in parallel to come to par with the best in the world. Learning the Japanese lesson for the US & Europe was a sheer issue of survival. What came as total surprise was the enthusiasm with which newly industrialising countries of South-east Asia adopted Juran's teachings: Korea followed by Thailand; Malaysia & Indonesia. China is the last to join the brigade. Results have repeated everywhere. Among Dr Juran's many seminal books on quality in the last half-a-century was a "A History of World Quality " in 1995, tracing quality as applied by different nations to their renowned areas of specialization such as ship-building in Norway; Warships in Venice; beer in Czechoslovakia. Idol-making for a temple was the topic chosen for India by the well-known Indian art historian Dr B.N. Goswamy, who wrote that chapter.
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Aviation Notes In bid for modernisation, the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) has turned messier than ever before. During the two-day strike of the airport employees, the terminal buildings were littered with filth causing insurmountable inconvenience to passengers. In the last few months, it has received more severe stick than it had got in the past two decades when the terminal was commissioned in 1986. Soon, the dismay may turn into sunshine as, apart from completion of renovation work, there are vital changes in the offing before the year ends. The chairman of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), S. Ramalingam, is scheduled to retire on December 31, 2008. The advertisement on January 9, for the replacement, came as a big surprise. More than 12 persons applied before the closing date on February 4. Among seven internal aspirants, two frontrunners are V.P.Agarwal (planning) and S.C. Chatwal (finance). Both are of Member status. Agarwal, 52, has been with the organisation for more than 25 years, while Chatwal, a chartered accountant, has been with the AAI for years. After laying down his office, Ramalingam will be provided a befitting assignment as he remains favourite of the authorities. The Rs 2,530-crore project of the new international airport at Devanhalli (Bangalore), 35 km away from its centre, has been completed. But operations will be delayed for considerable time because of several unforeseen hitches that have surfaced. Apart from the lack of proper connectivity, there are several other problems that besiege the operations. The Air Traffic Control (ATC) facilities have yet to be put in place. The pavements of taxiways have not yet been concretised. There is dispute over users fee from domestic and international passengers. The litigation in this regard is pending. There is a proposal to continue domestic operations from the existing airport and international from new one. But, builders of the new airport have different ideas. All said and done, an inordinate delay is a serious possibility. The decision of India and Pakistan to double the number of flights is an exercise in futility. It is more a hasty political decision than borne by needs and promoting people-to-people contacts. Analysts say that traffic is available but travelling will be possible only if both countries relax rules in awarding visas. In the absence of visa facilities, the flights, if started, will fly empty and airlines will be subjected to needless losses, which they will be unable to bear. It is a laudable move to allow air force pilots to fly Pawan Hans helicopters. According to analysts, Pawan Hans is very useful organisation and it needs to be provided benefitting facilities to push its operations.
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Investor Guidance
Q: I want to know whether the money sent from the US, UAE etc to an ordinary saving account (of another person other than the sender) in Indian bank will be taxable or not?
I was told that all banks send statement to the IT Department regarding the foreign money remittances to an individual’s savings account. Is it mandatory that the person, who is receiving the money, shall have an NRE account? — Ashirvad A: It is not mandatory that the person who is receiving the money should have an NRE account. The money may be sent to a resident account too. However, the purpose for which you send the money is important. If it is a gift (or amount sent for household expenses) and you are close relative of the donee, there is no tax. Otherwise, if the amount exceeds Rs 50,000 during a FY, the whole of such amount will be charged to income tax of the recipient. The law regarding this is as follows : Where any sum of money exceeding Rs 50,000 is received without consideration by an individual or an HUF from any person, the whole of such sum will be charged to income tax of the recipient under the head, income from other sources. “Provided that this clause shall not apply to any sum of money received a)from any relative, b) on the occasion of the marriage of the individual, c) under a will or by way of inheritance, d) in contemplation of death of the payer, e) from any local authority, f) from any fund or foundation or university or other educational institution or hospital or other medical institution or any trust or institution referred to in Section 10(23), or g) from any charitable trust or institution. If the gift amounts received by the donne from all the sources, other than those mentioned above, exceed Rs 50,000, the donee has to treat the entire amount as income for the year and pay income tax thereon. ‘Relative’ means i) spouse, ii) brother or sister, iii) brother or sister of spouse, iv) brother or sister of either parents, v) any lineal ascendant or descendant, vi) any lineal ascendant or descendant of the spouse, or vii) spouse of the persons referred in clauses (ii) to (vi). Capital gains
Q : I am a senior citizen and my total income from other sources, inclusive of pension, is less than the permissible limit. I have recently sold mutual funds gaining short-term gains. Can I add this to my total income and not pay 10 per cent income tax separately? Adding this gain will, however, still remain below Rs 1,85,000. — Pai A: If your total income, including capital gains, is below the tax threshold applicable to you, you do not have to pay any tax. For a resident individual or an HUF, where the total income as reduced by short-term or long-term capital gains on which tax is exigible falls below the tax threshold of Rs 1.10 lakh (Rs 1.95 lakh and not Rs 1.85 lakh for senior citizens and Rs 1.45 lakh for non-senior females), the gains would be reduced by the amount by which the total income so reduced falls short of the threshold and the balance of the gains would be taxed at the rates applicable. In short, where the tax liability arises only because of inclusion of such capital gains in the total income, tax is levied on the excess over the minimum taxable limit. Incidentally, as per Budget-2008 provisions, basic threshold has been increased to Rs 2.20 lakh per year for senior citizens. Therefore, if you were to book the short-term gains next year, you would have more room to earn such
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