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 LICs 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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