Eradi panel wants lesser tax on life policy income
New Delhi: The Eradi panel has asked the government to lower the tax on income of life insurance policy holders from 12.5 per cent to 5-7 per cent, to increase the spread of insurance cover in the country. The recommendations of the panel are reported to be under active consideration of the government. The Eradi committee had suggested a lower tax rate of five per cent to ensure relief to small policyholders, accounting for 76 per cent of LIC’s policyholders with income below taxable limits.

While Mr. Yashwant Sinha, finance minister, has announced "level playing field" in terms of tax incentives allowed by deduction or rebate on payment of LIC premium to all life insurance companies, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBTD) is yet to come out with a clear guidelines on tax rates.
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NTC rehabilitation scheme proposed
New Delhi: The Textile Research Association (TRA) has proposed a draft rehabilitation scheme for the National Textiles Corporation with financial liabilities of over Rs 6,000 crore for consideration of the group of ministers, headed by finance minister Mr. Yashwant Sinha.

Under the plan, viability of each of the 169 NTC mills is being worked out by TRA based on which a draft rehabilitation scheme would be prepared and submitted to the BIFR. Eight of the nine subsidiaries of the NTC referred to the BIFR earlier have been declared sick and recommended for closure. While the textile ministry had submitted a proposal for a mill-wise assessment of the NTC mills, the BIFR has mooted a subsidiary-wise approach.

The deadline given by the BIFR expires in March 2001 but the government has been given one more month by the Supreme Court to come up with another proposal failing which the eight subsidiaries will be closed.
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Inflation dips sharply to 7.53 per cent
New Delhi: The annual rate of inflation fell sharply by nearly 1 per cent to touch 7.53 per cent for the week ended February 24 due to a 0.5 per cent fall in primary commodities prices. The inflation rate based on the wholesale price index for all commodities (base year: 1993-94 = 100), which reigned above 8 per cent for the seven consecutive weeks, fell by 0.96 percentage points.

The index was 8.49 per cent last week and 4.39 per cent a year ago. Final inflation for December-end stood considerably high at 8.71 per cent as against the provisional figure of 8.16 per cent.
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