8.5 percent EPF interest rate is 'Interim', says Minister
New Delhi: The Central Board of Trustees of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has lowered the annual rate of interest to 8.5 per cent on the fund deposits of subscribers for 2004-05, compared to 9.5 per cent interest paid in the previous year. Even as the trade union leaders - particularly those representing CITU and BMS - threatened to take to the streets and launch an agitation against the lowering of interest rate, the Minister for Labour, Sis Ram Ola, tried clarified that the 8.5 per cent rate of interest was only an "interim rate".

He assured the labour leaders that he would try to persuade the Government to come out with a final rate of interest payable to the subscribers on the basis of funds available with the EPFO at the end of the first half of the current fiscal. Among the trade unions, only the Congress-affiliated INTUC appeared to have no quarrel with the lower interest rate. The other trade unions had initially demanded a much higher rate of interest at 12 per cent, which they said was in keeping with the inflationary spiral. Ola said that the Finance Ministry will also be urged to issue the notifications for the EPF rates for the previous two financial years at the rate of 9.5 per cent, which are still pending.
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TRAI: I&B Ministry to issue broadcasting services licence
New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has clarified that the licences for broadcasting services would continue to be issued by the Information & Broadcasting Ministry even under the unified licence regime. It has also said that the Ministry would regulate the content. TRAI, in its draft recommendations on unified licence issued last week, had said that operators migrating to the new regime would be permitted to offer broadcasting services as well. Explaining the rationale for such a move, it said, "Unified licence implies that a customer can get all types of telecom services. The operator can use wireline or wireless media. These services would include telephony, Internet, broadband, cable TV, Direct-to-Home, radio and broadcasting."

However, the regulator on Monday said that in the case of stand alone broadcasting service license, the prevailing process of issuing such a license would continue under the aegis of the I&B Ministry. The Department of Telecom, in January, had notified that broadcasting and cable services would be part of telecom services. Operators pointed out that the unification of license might lose its meaning if a separate license were required for each type of service. TRAI has also extended the last date for submitting comments on the draft recommendations to August 31.
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Aiyar seeks zero excise duty on LPG and kerosene
New Delhi: The Petroleum Ministry had recently written to the Finance Ministry seeking nil excise duty on LPG and kerosene. Currently, kerosene attracts an excise duty of 16 per cent duty rate while that on LPG it is 8 per cent. Both the products earn the exchequer revenues of around Rs.3,000 crore per annum. The surge in global oil prices coupled with the non-revision in consumer prices has dented the profitability of the marketing business of oil companies. It is in this context that the Petroleum Ministry has been seeking duty reductions.
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Xerox Modicorp among 42 FDI proposals cleared
New Delhi: The Government has approved Xerox Modicorp Ltd's proposal to bring in foreign direct investment (FDI) worth Rs.95.69 crore into the company. The Xerox proposal was among the 42 FDI proposals cleared by the Government today involving a total FDI worth about Rs.360.6 crore.

The proposals, pertaining to the sectors of chemicals and petrochemicals, bulk imports with ex-port/ex-bonded warehouses sales, health, consultancy, tourism and software development, were cleared by the Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, based on recommendations by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), an official release said here.

The Rs.134.40-crore proposal of AAPC (Thailand) for setting hotels in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and other tourism related activities, was also cleared.
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