India to buy Iran LNG for $800 mn a year
Mumbai: India will buy 5-million tonnes of
liquefied natural gas (LNG) a year from Iran for $800 million per year under a 20-year contract beginning 2010, according to a top official from Petronet LNG Ltd.

All the gas would be processed by Petronet, founded by state-run energy firms GAIL India Ltd, the country's largest gas distributor, Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd, the largest crude oil producer, Indian Oil Corporation, the largest refiner, and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd.

Iran will begin exporting LNG within eight years. Iran is at present eyeing Asian markets for its LNG, particularly India. Iran holds the world's second-largest natural gas reserves but has been slow to develop LNG, gas cooled to a liquid state for loading onto tankers.

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Proposal to tax core services to be withdrawn
New Delhi: Finance Minister P Chidambaram is likely to withdraw the circular proposing to tax core services outsourced to India. BPO services are not taxed in Sri Lanka or the Philippines.

According to Nasscom, if CBDT taxes BPO services it will drive away BPO operations away from India. Although it is four months since the circular was issued, BPO operation have stayed in India.
Senior government officials have briefed the finance minister to the effect that the concept of core services would not stand up in the courts.
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IIMs told to fix uniform fee structure
New Delhi: The government has asked the Indian Institutes of Management to work out a common and uniform fee structure by this June end at a meeting held between the HRD Ministry and the institutes of management. According to the human resource development minister, Arjun Singh, the government has made no recommendations of the fee structure.

In an interaction that lasted for nearly two hours, Arjun Singh met with five IIM directors - Bakul Dholakia (IIM-A), Shekhar Chaudhuri (IIM-C), Devi Singh (IIM-L), SP Parashar (IIM-I), Krishna Kumar (IIM-K) and R Srinivasan, the dean of IIM Bangalore (academic).

The IIM directors appeared optimistic and said they expected that many of the problems that had cropped up in the last six months and lot of issues in which there have been differences of opinion between the institutes and the ministry would be resolved. The meeting was held to break the impasse over drastic reduction of fees effected by his predecessor in the NDA government, Murli Manohar Joshi.

The meeting was attended by Y C Deveshwar, chairman of IIM, Kolkata; H. Singhania, director, IIM, Lucknow; S P Parashar, Indore; Devi Singh, Lucknow; B Dholakia, Ahmedabad; R. Srinivasan, dean, academic, IIM, Bangalore; Shekhar Chaudhury, director, IIM, Kolkata and; Krishna Kumar, Kozhikode
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Trai to review spectrum allocation
New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has suggested efficient use of spectrum by operators and a review of spectrum allocation and pricing policy to increase availability of spectrum (wireless bandwidth) to telecom service providers.
The regulator has therefore asked telecom operators and consumers to submit their suggestions so that fresh guidelines can be evolved on these issues.

A consultative paper circulated by TRAI on the issue says that spectrum allocation policy should be separate from licensing of services in view of the new unified licencing regime and also outlines ITU (International Telecom Union) methodology for assessment of future requirement of spectrum. According to the consultation paper greater amount of spectrum has been allocated in other countries and more spectrum should be allotted to the operators in India as well.
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Subsidies on LPG, kerosene to stay for two years
New Delhi: The finance ministry is likely to extend the subsidies on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and kerosene sold through the public distribution system (PDS) by two years. Earlier under the rule of the National Democratic Alliance, it had been decided to phase out the subsidies by the end of the current year.

The finance ministry will ask the oil marketing companies to bear a part of the subsidies on the two fuels because of their rising international cost and unchanged domestic prices.

Oil companies have estimated an under-recovery of around Rs14,000 crore during the current fiscal in case LPG and PDS kerosene prices remain unchanged and the budgeted subsidy is kept at one-third of its 2002-03 level.
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M Damodaran to continue as IDBI CMD
Mumbai: M Damodaran has been reappointed chairman and managing director of Industrial Development Bank of India upto May 31, 2007.

An IAS officer of 1971 batch, Damodaran would continue to hold the post even after the financial institution is converted into a banking entity on October 1, 2004. In addition, Damodaran will continue to hold the charge as UTI-I administrator and CMD of UTI Mutual Fund till January 2005 as per an earlier order. He assumed additional charge as IDBI CMD from October 1, 2003, till May 31, 2004.
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Supreme Court says double taxation avoidance agreements valid
New Delhi: The Supreme Court says that treaties for avoidance of double taxation between India and other countries will over-ride the Income Tax Act (I-T Act) provisions and that the income derived by an NRI from his property in Malaysia is exempt from tax in India under the Indo-Malaysian treaty of 1977.

The apex court dismissed the appeal by the Commissioner of Income Tax and said if immovable property, from which the gain was derived, was situated in Malaysia, the tax laws of India would not apply to the income. This ruling could have a bearing on certain pending petitions challenging the Indo-Mauritius double taxation avoidance treaty.
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