Retailers plan to go to court against service tax
Mumbai: The country's top retailers are planning to challenge the government's decision to charge service tax on commercial rentals in a court of law.

Several leading retailers like Kishore Biyani of Pantaloon Retail (Future Group), BS Nagesh of Shoppers' Stop, Noel Tata of Trent and Vinay Nadkarni of Globus among others had a meeting in Mumbai to initiate their future course of action. The group of retailers has also employed legal firms to advise them on the issue.

The retailers will initially make a representation to the government under the aegis of the Retailers Association of India (RAI). If things still do not work out, they might consider legal options, top officials said.

The Union Budget imposed a 12 pc service tax on commercial rentals. The education cess on services has also gone up from 2 pc to 3 pc taking the total service tax to be paid by the developer or the property owner to 12.4 pc of the rental income.

Technically, service tax on rentals will have to be borne by landlords who lease out space to retailers. Currently, over 90 pc of the modern formats are leased by retailers. However, several lease agreements hold a clause which states that any additional tax or levy will have to be borne by the lessee.
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Poverty levels reducing; NSSO
New Delhi: Official data has shown that more people had moved above the poverty line by 2004-05 compared with the earlier estimates of 1999-2000.

As per the provisional data of the 61st round of large sample survey on household consumer expenditure, the poverty ratio at the national level was about 22 per cent in 2004-05, down from the roughly comparable data for 1999-2000 which showed a poverty level of 26.1 per cent for that year.

Estimates of 22 per cent of the population living below the poverty line are based on the `Mixed Recall Period' under which consumer expenditure data for five non-food items - clothing, footwear, durable goods, education and institutional medical expenses - are collected from a 365-day recall period and the consumption data for the remaining items are collected from a 30-day recall period.

The survey on consumer expenditure is undertaken approximately every five years by an official body, the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO).
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Power situation to ease with Dabhol restarting: Deshmukh
Mumbai: The Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has said power purchase agreement for the controversial Dabhol power plant will be signed soon, which will pave way for substantially easing the situation in coming weeks.

He said the government is signing a PPA with Ratnagiri Gas and Power which needs some help from the government. He said the Maharsahtra government has decided to help them and this would be completed by Monday.

He said the total generation would reach 1,400 MW by this summer while the third phase to be completed by December would enable the plant to generate 2100 MW, easing the power situation in the state substantially.
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