Lahiri report recommends reduction in oil duties
New Delhi: The much awaited Ashok Lahiri committee report on the various duties imposed on petroleum products is apparently ready and may be presented along with the Union budget.

The panel, headed by Ashok Lahiri, chief economic advisor of the Finance Minister has been working to bring down duties on petroleum products. Petroleum duties including state and central levies like customs, excise and sales tax are very high in India.

Some of the key recommendations made in the report include having a fixed duty structure on auto fuels like petrol and diesel, against the current ad valorem structure, which will ensure that duties don't go up as prices move up. Customs duties on crude may also be slashed by five per cent from the present ten per cent, as per the recommendations of the report. To counter revenue losses, due to the reduction in customs, excise duties on petrol and diesel may be increased.

The Kelkar panel on taxes had earlier recommended both the introduction of specific duties and reduction of customs on crude to five per cent.
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States endorse 'white paper' on VAT
New Delhi: In a major step towards introduction of Value-added Tax from April 2005, States of the Union have endorsed a "white paper" on the new tax regime, which would be formally issued on January 17.

The Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers met here to fine-tune the draft and finalise the white paper that would contain the structure of VAT apart from other procedural details.

VAT panel chairman, Asim Dasgupta, said the committee had interaction with national level trade and industry bodies, which have pointed out ground level difficulties in implementing VAT and demanded a more liberal penal cause for non-compliance.
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India and other Asian countries meet to fix oil supplies
New Delhi: Nine Asian countries will begin a summit from Thursday to thrash out issues relating to oil supplies. The agenda includes long-term import contracts and the much talked about pricing issue called the Asian premium.

India, currently, imports 23.6 million tonnes from Saudi Arabia, which is twenty six per cent of India's total crude imports. The imports are done through evergreen contracts where the supply is assured, but the price and volume are negotiated every year.

Currently oil markets follow three benchmarks. European prices are indexed to Brent, while US prices are fixed to the WTI Index. For Asia, prices are pegged to the Dubai crude. Whenever Asian sellers, like Saudi Arabia, charge a premium from the Asian buyers, Indian prices go up. India wants the right to choose the benchmark prices at which it will buy crude from Saudi Arabia.
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Birgunj ICD: Indo-Nepal bilateral trade from Feb 1
Kolkata: The Birgunj inland container depot (ICD) in Nepal is to be thrown open to India-Nepal bilateral trade from February 1, subject to the clearances by Customs authorities of the respective countries.

This has been decided at a high-level meeting between the senior officials of the two countries in Kathmandu a few days ago. With this, the traffic throughput of Birgunj ICD, set up with the World Bank assistance of more than $23 million, is expected to rise sharply.

The Birgunj ICD was commissioned in July 2004. At present, it handles only third country containerised trade, i.e. containerised imports from and exports to countries other than India, routed through Kolkata port. Nepal being a land-locked country, Kolkata port provides the transit facility for its third country imports and exports.

Once the Birgunj ICD starts handling the bilateral trade, containerised exports from any part of India to Nepal could be sent straight by rail to the ICD. Similarly, exports in containers from Nepal to India too could be routed through the ICD and transported by rail to any part of India.
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$110.83 million World Bank loan for TN health project
New Delhi: The agreements for the World Bank's assistance to the Tamil Nadu Health System Development Project have been signed in the Capital. The World Bank is providing a loan of $110.83 million for the project.

An official release said that the total cost of the project is estimated at $131.59 million, with IDA loan amounting to $110.83 million and the Government of Tamil Nadu contributing the rest. The IDA credit is available under standard terms and is repayable in 35 years including a grace period of 10 years.

The project would be implemented over a period of five years and is expected to be completed by March 31, 2010.
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