VAT meet put off due to debate on finance bill
New Delhi: Finance minister Jaswant Singh has called off the meeting with empowered committee on value-added tax (VAT), scheduled for Tuesday. The meeting between Singh and committee chairman Asim Dasgupta was cancelled because of Rajya Sabha taking up the Finance Bill on Tuesday, official sources said here. Dasgupta, also the West Bengal finance minister, was supposed to meet the finance minister before taking a final” decision on the implementation of value-added tax from June as almost 16 states, covering over 75 per cent of India’s trade and manufacturing, had agreed to switch-over to the new tax regime, replacing the sales tax.
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Service tax comes under union list, Lok Sabha okays bill
New Delhi: The Lok Sabha on Tuesday adopted the 95th Constitution amendment Bill seeking to include “taxes on services” in the Union List. The Bill will pave the way for inclusion of services within the purview of the value-added tax system. The Bill was passed with 333 voting in favour of it and 10 opposing the legislative move. The AIADMK opposed the measure saying the VAT-related legislation fell exclusively within the domain of the states.
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Railways joins the bottled water war with rail neer
New Delhi: The Railways on Tuesday entered the Rs 1000-crore bottled water business by launching Rail Neer. With the Railways itself constituting about 20 per cent of the market, Rail Neer has thrown a challenge to other brands. It will be produced by Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC). The company plans to market the water even outside the captive railway market. It’s first plant at Nangloi in Delhi was inaugurated by Railway minister Nitish Kumar. IRCTC is planning to set up two other plants.
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Winner of debt swap scheme for states is West Bengal
New Delhi: West Bengal is set to gain the most from the debt swap scheme for states. The state has the largest corpus of small savings schemes. West Bengal’s net small savings as on January 31 stood at Rs 6,024 crore followed by Gujarat at Rs 4,089 crore and Uttar Pradesh at Rs 3,860 crore. The total corpus of net small savings scheme up to January 31 amounts to Rs 34,998 crore. For the debt swap scheme, 30 per cent of the net small savings due to states will be used in the current year. This will be complimented by additional market borrowing.
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