House
passes Finance Bill sans debate
New Delhi: Parliament has passed the Finance Bill,
2004, providing marginal relief on personal income tax
to ensure that individuals having a total income of little
over Rs.1 lakh are not left with a post-tax income of
less than Rs.1 lakh.
Amendments to the Bill also included a deferral of withdrawal
of tax exemption for lease payments on acquisition of
aircraft. The proposed move to tax the interest on non-resident
external (NRE) and foreign currency non-resident (FCNR)
has also been deferred from September 1, 2004, to April
1, 2005.
These
were part of the 55 amendments moved by the Finance Minister,
P. Chidambaram, in the Lok Sabha.
The
Finance Bill was passed by Parliament without any debate
as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) decided to boycott
the proceedings over the alleged rude behaviour of the
Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, towards the NDA delegation
that met him on Wednesday.
The
Finance Minister, in his July 8 Budget speech, announced
a 100 per cent tax rebate for persons with a total income
of up to Rs.1 lakh. However, it was later pointed out
this would put individuals with income slightly above
that level at a disadvantageous position since the marginal
cases would be taking home a post-tax income of less than
Rs.1 lakh.
The
provisions relating to taxation of "gifts" from
unrelated persons have also been altered to provide that
any sum received by an individual or Hindu undivided family
(HUF) from an unrelated person without consideration is
to be taxed if the amount exceeds Rs.25,000. The only
exceptions are the sums received on the occasion of marriage
or under a will or by way of inheritance or in contemplation
of death.
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Plan
panel forms all-inclusive consultative groups
New Delhi: The Planning Commission has set up 17
consultative groups for eliciting alternative perspectives,
new ideas and non-governmental organisation (NGO) inputs
into the process of mid-term appraisal of the Tenth Plan
(2002-07).
Each
consultative group would be chaired by a Member of the
Plan panel and will have subject experts from Government
and non-governmental agencies as members and these groups
would provide guidance in the selection of key issues
and emerging problems for policy responses to be dovetailed
into the mid-term appraisal report, an official release
said here.
The
groups would study subjects in the realm of social inclusion
and empowerment, labour and employment, poverty elimination
and rural employment, environment and forest, agriculture,
water resources, culture, higher and technical education,
elementary and secondary education and literacy, youth
affairs and sports, transport sector, tourism sector,
industry, urban infrastructure, external sector and energy.
The
consultative groups would have the powers to co-opt and
draw professionals and domain experts from outside in
a significant bid to get all-inclusive and cross-sectoral
views from stakeholders to the proposed policy recommendations
and mid-course corrections to the Tenth Plan programmes
as also to weld them into the objectives set forth in
the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) of the UPA Government.
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India
and Japan to step up trade
New Delhi: India and Japan have resolved to enlarge
bilateral trade and investment from the current low levels
and have underlined the need to evolve a suitable mechanism
in this regard.
This
was indicated during a meeting here between the Union
Commerce and Industry Minister, Kamal Nath, and the Minister
of Economy, Trade and Energy of Japan, Shoichi Nakagawa.
Both the Ministers voiced concern over the low level of
bilateral trade between the two countries, which has declined
from the level of $4 billion in 1997-98 to $3.7 billion
in 2002-03.
While Japan's share in India's overall trade is 3.10 per
cent, India's share in Japan's global trade is less than
0.5 per cent.
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Orissa
signs MoUs for new steel projects
Bhubaneswar: The Orissa Government has signed memorandums
of understanding with four steel companies for setting
up of medium projects in the State.
The four companies that have signed the MoUs are Sunflag
Special Steels Ltd, Maharashtra Seamless Ltd, Orissa Sponge
Iron Ltd and SPS Sponge Iron Ltd. The total investment
to be made by the four companies will be Rs.2,634.19 crore.
As
per the MoU, Sunflag Special Steels will set up its plant
at Bomlai in Sambalpur district, making an investment
of Rs.348.74 crore in the first phase and Rs.588.45 crore
in the second phase.
Maharashtra
Seamless will set up its facility near Duburi in Jajpur
district. It plans to invest invest Rs.245 crore in the
first phase and Rs.205 crore in the second phase.
Orissa Sponge Iron Ltd will promote its facility at Gurla
and Govindpur in Sambalpur district. It will make an investment
of Rs.395 crore in the first phase and Rs.642 crore in
the second phase.
SPS
Sponge Iron will set up its plant at Badmal Growth Centre
in Jharsuguda district at an investment of Rs.210 crore.
The
four companies will make finished products such as sponge
iron, pig iron, long steel products, and steel wire rod,
special steel, and steel billets. In the first phase,
the four companies will have a total production capacity
of 1.89 million tonnes, creating direct employment for
3,121 persons.
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