States given leeway to exempt small traders from VAT
New Delhi: States can now exempt traders with gross annual turnover of or less than Rs10 lakh from being put under the value added tax (VAT) net from April 1.

This is double the turnover ceiling of Rs5 lakh proposed in the original VAT design and mentioned in the white paper on State-level VAT prepared by the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers under Dr Asim Dasgupta, finance minister of West Bengal.
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Teledensity at 9 per cent, 2mn new users added
Mumbai: India's teledensity has touched 9 per cent with 2 million new subscribers being added in February of which mobile subscribers comprised a large 1.7 million with 0.4 million subscribers in the fixed-line segment.

Of the mobile subscribers 1.1 million were of the GSM segment against CDMA's addition of 0.5 million subscribers in February 2005.

The total mobile subscriber base was a little higher than 51.4 million at the end of February 2005, while the total subscriber base of fixed lines stood at around 45.6 million.

About 50,000 broadband connections were added during October-December 2004.

The teledensity figures have been improving mainly on account of growth in the mobile subscriber base.

About 20.9 million subscribers were added during the first 11 months of FY05, of which 17.8 million were mobile subscribers. Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Jammu & Kashmir, Assam and the North East belonging to the C circles have been growing faster than other circles.
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China to fuel global auto demand; see opportunity for India
New Delhi: According to an annual global survey of automotive leaders conducted by KPMG LLP the automotive industry is likely to see an accelerated financial turnaround.

Global automotive executives say they expect to reap higher profits this year as against the earlier forecast for the year. Significantly 80 per cent of the respondents in the survey felt that the next big surge in global automotive demand would come from Asia, mainly from China. They said that the bulk of this demand would be met by vehicles made locally, specifically Chinese and Korean brands, rather than by imports.

Therefore, companies are likely to focus on investing in China. KPMG says this is both a challenge and an opportunity for auto players in India.

Further, an increasing focus on cost reduction by global auto majors in the US and Europe can lead to increased outsourcing to India and China. Auto players in India need to be ready to seize the resulting growth opportunities. While outsourcing continues to be a preferred option for cost reduction, product innovation is increasingly being explored for reducing costs.

"In future, the advantage of lower labour costs will not be enough to attract global customers — Indian players need to have product development and research and development (R&D) capabilities in place to meet the original equipment manufacturers' requirements in the area of product innovations as well," KPMG said.
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SC advances floor test in Jharkhand to March 11
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered that the floor test in the Jharkhand Assembly be held on March 11 instead of March 15, as scheduled earlier.

The SC further said that the order should be treated as a "notification" for convening of the Assembly and that there was no need for a separate notification.

The three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice RC Lahoti, Justice YK Sabharwal and DM Dharamadhikari directed that no Anglo-Indian member should be nominated till the floor test took place and said that the agenda on March 11 would be to have a floor test between the contesting political groups to see which of the two claimants — Shibu Soren and Arjun Munda — command majority in the state assembly.

The direction has come in a petition filed by former BJP state chief minister Arjun Munda and Anil Kumar Jha, a voter in Jharkhand, who have challenged the governor swearing in JMM chief Sibu Soren as chief minister and the long duration given to him to prove his majority in the house.
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