House passes Finance Bill sans debate
New Delhi: Parliament has passed the Finance Bill, 2004, providing marginal relief on personal income tax to ensure that individuals having a total income of little over Rs.1 lakh are not left with a post-tax income of less than Rs.1 lakh.

Amendments to the Bill also included a deferral of withdrawal of tax exemption for lease payments on acquisition of aircraft. The proposed move to tax the interest on non-resident external (NRE) and foreign currency non-resident (FCNR) has also been deferred from September 1, 2004, to April 1, 2005.

These were part of the 55 amendments moved by the Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, in the Lok Sabha.

The Finance Bill was passed by Parliament without any debate as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) decided to boycott the proceedings over the alleged rude behaviour of the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, towards the NDA delegation that met him on Wednesday.

The Finance Minister, in his July 8 Budget speech, announced a 100 per cent tax rebate for persons with a total income of up to Rs.1 lakh. However, it was later pointed out this would put individuals with income slightly above that level at a disadvantageous position since the marginal cases would be taking home a post-tax income of less than Rs.1 lakh.

The provisions relating to taxation of "gifts" from unrelated persons have also been altered to provide that any sum received by an individual or Hindu undivided family (HUF) from an unrelated person without consideration is to be taxed if the amount exceeds Rs.25,000. The only exceptions are the sums received on the occasion of marriage or under a will or by way of inheritance or in contemplation of death.
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Plan panel forms all-inclusive consultative groups
New Delhi: The Planning Commission has set up 17 consultative groups for eliciting alternative perspectives, new ideas and non-governmental organisation (NGO) inputs into the process of mid-term appraisal of the Tenth Plan (2002-07).

Each consultative group would be chaired by a Member of the Plan panel and will have subject experts from Government and non-governmental agencies as members and these groups would provide guidance in the selection of key issues and emerging problems for policy responses to be dovetailed into the mid-term appraisal report, an official release said here.

The groups would study subjects in the realm of social inclusion and empowerment, labour and employment, poverty elimination and rural employment, environment and forest, agriculture, water resources, culture, higher and technical education, elementary and secondary education and literacy, youth affairs and sports, transport sector, tourism sector, industry, urban infrastructure, external sector and energy.

The consultative groups would have the powers to co-opt and draw professionals and domain experts from outside in a significant bid to get all-inclusive and cross-sectoral views from stakeholders to the proposed policy recommendations and mid-course corrections to the Tenth Plan programmes as also to weld them into the objectives set forth in the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) of the UPA Government.
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India and Japan to step up trade
New Delhi: India and Japan have resolved to enlarge bilateral trade and investment from the current low levels and have underlined the need to evolve a suitable mechanism in this regard.

This was indicated during a meeting here between the Union Commerce and Industry Minister, Kamal Nath, and the Minister of Economy, Trade and Energy of Japan, Shoichi Nakagawa.

Both the Ministers voiced concern over the low level of bilateral trade between the two countries, which has declined from the level of $4 billion in 1997-98 to $3.7 billion in 2002-03.

While Japan's share in India's overall trade is 3.10 per cent, India's share in Japan's global trade is less than 0.5 per cent.
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Orissa signs MoUs for new steel projects
Bhubaneswar: The Orissa Government has signed memorandums of understanding with four steel companies for setting up of medium projects in the State.

The four companies that have signed the MoUs are Sunflag Special Steels Ltd, Maharashtra Seamless Ltd, Orissa Sponge Iron Ltd and SPS Sponge Iron Ltd. The total investment to be made by the four companies will be Rs.2,634.19 crore.

As per the MoU, Sunflag Special Steels will set up its plant at Bomlai in Sambalpur district, making an investment of Rs.348.74 crore in the first phase and Rs.588.45 crore in the second phase.

Maharashtra Seamless will set up its facility near Duburi in Jajpur district. It plans to invest invest Rs.245 crore in the first phase and Rs.205 crore in the second phase.

Orissa Sponge Iron Ltd will promote its facility at Gurla and Govindpur in Sambalpur district. It will make an investment of Rs.395 crore in the first phase and Rs.642 crore in the second phase.

SPS Sponge Iron will set up its plant at Badmal Growth Centre in Jharsuguda district at an investment of Rs.210 crore.

The four companies will make finished products such as sponge iron, pig iron, long steel products, and steel wire rod, special steel, and steel billets. In the first phase, the four companies will have a total production capacity of 1.89 million tonnes, creating direct employment for 3,121 persons.
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