 |
|
|
Economists for mid-term corrections in Budget
Banks offer sops to its employees to beef up deposits
Infosys to spend Rs 800 cr on training
SBI hikes interest rates on FCNR, NRE deposits
BSNL aims at wider broadband connectivity
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Aviation Notes
Investor Guidance
|
|
Economists for mid-term corrections in Budget
New Delhi, December 30 Though they, more or less, supported the measures taken by the UPA government so far to put the economy on high-growth path, they told the Finance Minister to make some bold mid-term corrections in the next year’s Budget to ensure 9 per cent GDP growth. They warned that inadequate investment in critical sectors of infrastructure, irrigation, research and development, will ruin the good economic initiatives embarked upon resulting in hampering GDP growth rate in medium term. In a customary pre-Budget interaction with the Finance Minister here today, they sought enhanced budgetary support for irrigation and research and development, besides rationalisation of farm subsidies and a goods and service tax (GST) by 2009-10. Most of them expressed confidence that India can achieve a 9 per cent GDP growth this fiscal despite inflation hovering around 5 per cent. There is a need to give incentives to foreign institutional investment in infrastructure, besides special incentives to labour-intensive exports and R & D in major sectors, Mr Nagesh Kumar, Director-General of Research and Information Systems for developing countries (RIS), said. He said Mr Chidambaram would have to announce measures in the Budget for 2007-08 to enhance country's competitiveness in the global economy. India cannot aspire to become a superpower on the strength of a few sectors like IT, pharma and auto, he said, adding bold steps would have to be taken. There is robust economic growth and economy is likely to achieve 9 per cent GDP growth. Revenue collections are buoyant and inflation is within control. This is the right time for mid-term corrections, Mr D.K. Srivatava, Director of Madras School of Economics, said. He said in the medium term the country could achieve 9-9.5 per cent growth rate considering the fact that domestic savings rate was projected to rise from 34 per cent to 39 per cent. However, the government would have to increase public sector investment in infrastructure sector from around 4 per cent of GDP to 6-6.5 per cent in the Budget, besides encouraging private investment in this sector. The additional expenditure incurred in a deficit situation should be limited to capital-intensive sectors such as infrastructure, education and health, the economists said. The common recommendations by the economists for the Budget included rationalisation of direct and indirect taxes so that combined central and state taxes could be brought down to around 20 per cent from the present level of 28.5 per cent in a phased manner, Mr Srivastava said. Some participants also sought to speed up reforms in labour, insurance and pension sectors to raise investment in the manufacturing and service sector. The issue of projected revenue loss through tax concessions in special economic zones was also raised in the meeting. The meeting was also attended by Saumitra Choudhuri, Economic Adviser to ICRA; Subir Gokaran, chief economist of Crisil Ltd and Partho Mukhopadhyay of Centre for Policy Research among others. |
|
Banks offer sops to its employees to beef up deposits
Chandigarh, December 30 The high growth in bank credit (30 per cent year-on-year growth) and slower pace of growth in deposits has ensured that public sector banks are offering incentives to their staff members in terms of cash incentives. The State Bank of India and its associate banks are offering 0.25 per cent of the interest charged (of 8-8.5 per cent) to the employees for getting more deposits while many other public sector banks are offering cash incentives to their employees in case they meet the set targets for getting deposits. Promotions are also being offered in case the officials get huge deposits. Official sources informed TNS that these incentives have been offered because the deposit growth in the country’s largest bank — SBI — has slowed down as compared to other public sector banks and private sector banks. The growth has come down to 12 per cent now as compared to 15.5 per cent in March 2006. |
|
Infosys to spend Rs 800 cr on training
Bangalore, December 30 There are more than five lakh jobs available in Karnataka in various sectors, but finding skilled labour is a problem," Infosys Director (HRD) T V Mohan Das Pai said today. Mr Pai was speaking at the launch of an 'on job' training programme for youth initiated jointly by Infosys and Karnataka Government. As part of the programme, Infosys today held a written test and interview for 500 graduates who hail from Kolar and Bangalore city to select them for placements in the company. Asserting that Infosys has an obligation to the state, he said: "We want more and more locals to be there. It is a challenge. Of the 30,000 persons Infosys would recruit this year, about 9,000 will be from Karnataka," he said. In this context, he suggested that there be a national skill development programme to train young people and asked Karnataka to invest at least Rs 150 crore on the programme next year. Infosys is working with the state's social welfare department to pick 500 engineers and depute them for training at IIT Bangalore. "Karnataka has the potential to create 10 lakh jobs in the coming five years," Mr Pai observed.
— PTI |
|
SBI hikes interest rates on FCNR, NRE deposits
Mumbai, December 30 Interest rates on NRE deposits for one year to less than two years have been raised to 6.33 per cent from 6.24 per cent, for two years to less than three years to 6.16 per cent from 6 per cent and for three years to less than five years to 6.08 per cent from 5.91 per cent, SBI said. Similarly, interest rates of FCNR deposits in dollars for duration of one year to less than two years have been increased to 5.33 per cent from 5.24 per cent, for two years to less than three years to 5.16 per cent from 5 per cent and for three years to less than four years to 5.08 per cent from 4.91 per cent. For dollar deposits of tenure four years to less than five years, the interest rate would be 5.07 per cent and for five years it would be 5.09 per cent, the release added.
— PTI |
|
BSNL aims at wider broadband connectivity
Thiruvananthapuram,
December 30 Apart from the broadband connectivity, the BSNL would also provide two crore mobile connections each in the next three years, BSNL Chairman and Managing Director A.K. Sinha said here today. Mr Sinha said of the five million broadband connections, 1.84 million would be provided in rural areas. Pointing out the BSNL wanted to make broadband services more affordable, he said the downloading limits under Home 250 and Business 700 plans would be enhanced to one GB and four GB from 400 MB and two GB, respectively, from next year. The broadband speed would be increased from 256 kbps (kilobits per second) to up to 2 mbps (megabits per second) at the existing tariff of Rs 250 per month, from next year, thus upgrading all its 8.2 lakh broadband users.
— UNI |
|
Halwara airport issue not handled professionally
by K.R. Wadhwaney There is unlimited land available around Sahar airport in Mumbai. But it is illegally occupied by underworld goons and weakling government cannot play tough with them. In view of it, it is not possible to expand. Another international airport of worldclass in Navi Mumbai is, therefore, the only alternative. It will be built on a public-private partnership. According to plans, it will take at least six years before it can become partially operational. The estimated cost will be Rs 4,500 crore. The site selected is much farther than Sahar and passengers living in far flung areas will be subjected to enormous problems in commuting to and from the new airport. The Minister of State for Civil Aviation Praful Patel has gone on record saying: “ We hope to start the bidding process in 2007 after having detailed discussion with the Mumbai Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh”. The airport, much larger than Sahar, will absorb 10 million passengers per year in its first year of operation in 2013. The aviation analysts, however, feel that there are many hurdles before work can begin next year. The delay in starting the construction will lead to delay in completing the first phase. This is not all. But delay beyond certain time will mean escalation of cost of construction. In building another airport around Indira Gandhi International Airport (Delhi), many important office buildings will have to be demolished. One of them is the recently constructed Research Analysis Wing (RAW) guest house. Similarly, Centaur hotel has to be demolished. There are several other buildings that will be adversely affected. Had the construction been undertaken in 1988, as it was planned after inauguration of the IGIA in early 1980s, lot of tax payers’ money could have been saved. The need for Punjab to have another international airport in Halwara (Ludhiana) is urgent. But the project has not been handled as professionally as it ought to have been. Civil aviation and defence aviation (air force) are on different wavelengths. Had civil aviation ministry been prudent in not involving a private player at this premature date before getting clearance from the defence ministry, the project might have taken off the ground. Since it has run into rough weather at the behest of some politicians and bureaucrats, the project may be delayed inordinately. Following this needless tug-of-war between civil and defence ministries, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did not lay the foundation stone for the meaningful project during his two-day visit to Punjab. While government proposals for expansion of airports and flights by national carriers get grounded at flimsy problems, the private players continue to capture space in international skies although some of them are facing cases for non-payment of customs duty. The cases have been filed by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI).
|
|
Rent paid to father eligible for HRA rebate
by A.N. Shanbhag
Q: I stay with my parents in
their house. Recently, one of my friends advised me to pay rent to my
father to claim HRA exemption. Is this allowed under the rules? Is there
any restriction on giving money to your parents and living under the
same roof?
— Ratan Shah A: Capital
gain bonds issue
Q: I had sold immoveable property in March 2006 and
decided to buy capital gain bonds, the last date for which is
31.12.2006. As per my information, there is no capital gain bonds issue
going on. Please advise that in case the issue do not come by 31.12.
2006, what are the options left with me, except to pay tax. Will the
date for purchase of bonds be extended? Please guide at the earliest. —
Shalu Singla A: You realise that you had the chance of
investing in the bonds when these were reissued on 29.6.06. To wait for
as late as 31.12.06 was shortsightedness. You have possibly one good
news and one bad news. First, the good one. The government has issued a
notification on 22.12.06 authorising the issue of Rs 3,500 crore worth
of additional bonds by the REC during the period 26.12.06 to 31.3.07.
However there are some conditions: 1. Those who have already made
investments of Rs 50 lakh or more in the earlier bonds issued on 29.6.06
cannot invest in this fresh issue. 2. Total investment in the two issues
together is limited to Rs 50 lakh. Now, the bad news. As per the first
notification, this fresh issue is available to you only up to 31.12.06
since you have earned the capital gains in March 06. The limit of six
months for investment in these bonds for claiming exemption from
long-term capital gains continues. All said and done, it appears that
the authorities are not inclined to issue any more such bonds because
the various tax concessions would be slowly and steadily withdrawn. Senior
citizen status
Q: I will complete 65 years of age in December 2006. I
am told that the amount not subject to income tax is higher at Rs
1,85,000 for persons over 65 years of age. However, since I turn 65 only
in December, will my income for the remaining three months of the year
subject to the new limit? — Mithila A: NRI/NRO accounts
Q: I am an Indian national and a
Singapore permanent resident currently working in India. My headcount is
Singapore and I am being paid training stipend by the Government of
Singapore in my Singapore account. I currently have an NRE savings
account to transfer my stipend (in Singapore dollars) to India and would
like to open an NRO savings account as well to reimburse my expenses
from the company (Satyam Computers, India) while I am in India (in
Indian currency). It has been two months since I shifted to India and
hence am still an NRI for the time being, but I will be based in India
for 12 months due to which my status will change to a resident Indian.
What is the implication of the same on my NRE & NRO accounts?
Nationality/Passport: Indian; Permanent Resident: Singapore (till
2011) — Amar Singh A: 2. However,
there is a transitional status of RNOR between being an NRI and a
resident. You are likely to be an RNOR for two years but this would
depend upon the number of years you were an NRI before coming to India.
In the RNOR status, your foreign income is not taxable in India. 3.
When your status changes to a resident, you should get your NRE/NRO
accounts re-designated as resident accounts. The interest from NRE
account will be taxable during the FY for which you are resident as per
the Income Tax Act. The interest from NRO account was anyway taxable and
will continue to be taxable even after re-designation. However, since
Satyam is an Indian company, you may face a problem unless the company
has taken a few necessary precautions. The authors may be contacted
at [email protected]
|
|
Markets closed tomorrow
Mumbai, December 30 |
CPI-IW static Nabard bonds Forex reserves |
|||||
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
