Government to mop up Rs 5,000 cr as war tax
New Delhi: The government is planning to mop up Rs 5,000 crore through the war tax route. It is proposing that indirect taxes should be left out as it may create inflationary pressures, which may prove to be detrimental to the ruling coalition's  prospects in the general elections.

The finance ministry is also looking at the option of imposing a small cess on diesel to raise some Rs 2,000 crore as part of the  mop-up operations. This will be in addition to the additional surcharge being proposed on income and corporate taxes.

Finance minister Yashwant Sinha is expected to present the proposals to the cabinet next week, and an ordinance is expected to be promulgated by the last week of July. The president has given sanction to the finance minister to impose marginal duties to reduce the burden on account of the Kargil conflicts.

Sinha was, however, not forthcoming on these additional taxes. He said in Mumbai that "we will manage the impact of the Kargil conflict too". He added: "A section of the media has raised the spectre of a Kargil tax. I am in no position to talk on the tax."
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Cyber law on anvil
Mumbai: The ministry of commerce is finalising a draft cyber law, in which it is understood to have categorised cyber crimes and laid down penalties.

The law is understood to define any person found to be wrongfully obtaining control, damage, conceal or block access, either temporarily or permanently to any computer, database or computer network will be guilty of computer crime. It also includes intentionally introducing computer viruses into a system or network under its purview. The definitions are based on the Indian Penal Code.
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IDBI shareholders criticise management
Mumbai:Shareholders of the Industrial Development Bank of India had an argument with the management at the annual general meeting  on 15 July over its poor performance compared to ICICI Ltd in terms of   profitability, increasing non-performing assets and  low share price.

G.P. Gupta, chairman and managing director of IDBI, responded to the shareholders' concern and said in relative terms the financial institution had not fared as badly against competition as it appeared. He said the performance of the company slowed down due to a difficult economic environment in 1998-99, but the company was not lagging behind in competition.
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BankAm re-looking at India operations
New Delhi: Bank of America is taking a re-look at India and has identified it as a market for special focus.

Arun Duggal, managing director of BankAm, said the bank is convinced about the potential of the Indian economy and it is comfortable about its risk factor. He said BankAm's think-tank has rated India ahead of China.

The bank recently sold its retail business in India to ABN Amro.
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Technology park in Goa
Panaji: Software Technology Park of India is to start operations in Goa soon as part of a government move to help the fledging software sector in Goa. STPI plans to set up a datacom link and a telecommunications gateway in the state, STPI chief executive officer Sushil Gupta said.
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Bid to renew licence of Gujarat bank
Surat: The Gujarat government has sought the intervention of the finance ministry in the Bank of Gujarat matter. The Reserve Bank of India cancelled the licence of the bank in January 1999 as it had not started operations since the grant of licence in 1992.

The state government has already initiated proceedings to get a new licence for the bank. The bank's licence was  cancelled  after the Industrial Development Bank of India stalled a move by the Gujarat State Fertiliser Corporation to invest in its  share capital.
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Sun Life acquires stake in Birla Capital AMC
Mumbai: Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada has acquired Capital International's 40 per cent share holding in Birla Capital Asset Management Company at Rs 30 a share.

The equity capital of the company has been hiked from Rs 15 crore to Rs 22 crore and Sun Life has been issued fresh equity, also at Rs 30 a share. Sun Life will hold a 50 per cent stake in the entity, which has been renamed as the Birla Sun Life Asset Management Company.

Sun Life has also acquired from Marlin Securities the latter's 50 per cent holding in Birla Marlin for Rs 10 per a share aggregating Rs 4 crore. The company is now called Birla Sun Life Securities.
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Birla-Sun Life to start two schemes
Mumbai: The Birla-Sun Life alliance plans to launch two open-ended funds in the coming three months.

S.K. Mitra, head of the Birla financial services, said the first of these would be a knowledge-intensive fund which would invest in equity in high-tech areas such as infotech, biotech and pharmaceuticals. The other will be a balanced fund with an equity-debt ratio of 55:45.

The asset management company is planning to ask investors of Apple Mutual Fund to move over to Birla funds owing to an imbroglio over the change of Apple Asset Management company by trustees.
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India ranked last in global  competitiveness
Bonn: India's openness to trade and investment has been ranked last among 59 countries even as its global competitiveness took the 52nd position, down two places since last year, the World Economic Forum of Geneva said in its annual report.

The forum in its 1999 global competitiveness report on countries, placed India in the bottom 20 in the survey of 59 countries for all but one of the eight criteria adopted to judge the competitiveness of economies and assess long-term growth potential. Some 4,000 executives have given their views in the survey.

India's rankings in the eight criteria are openness - 59, government - 29, finance - 46, infrastructure - 51, technology - 38, management - 41, labour -56 and institutions -35.
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Low-cost airline planned
New York: A new low-cost airline will begin operations in the US in January 2000.

The airline, named JetBlue, will have funding from George Soros, Chase Capital Partners and Weston Presidio, a San Francisco-based venture capital fund. The airline's chief executive David Neeleman said the planned start-up differs from other  low-cost airlines because it is highly capitalised, has a good management team and mixes common sense with high technology.
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