Aero India 2005 kicks off
Bangalore: The curtain has gone up on Aero India 2005, one of the biggest aero shows ever to be held in the country. The US, Russia and China are among the 32 nations taking part in the aviation show, being held at the Yelahanka air base in Bangalore.

David C Mulford, the US Ambassador to India has said that the US is keen to do business with India in aviation. "We have decided to show our top of the line equipment here and we have a major interest in becoming a bigger player," said Mulford.

With the Indian Air Force Chief announcing on the very first day of the show that India needs to buy 126 fighter jets, the bibig companies represented here are taking the show very seriously indeed.

The Russians have also arrived with their MIG-29 and want to sell it to the Indian Navy and an improved version of it to the Indian Air Force.
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India to set up third station at Antarctica
New Delhi: India plans to set up a new station in Antarctica to be completed by 2007-08, the Minister of State for Science and Technology, Kapil Sibal has said. It would take "at least Rs20 crore" to set up the new system, he added.

"At present 18 countries are engaged in operations at 44 bases in Antarctic round the year," Sibal told newspersons here after his recent visit to Antarctica during February 2-4. India also proposes to strengthen its presence in Antarctica by constructing another state-of-the-art base, Sibal said.

The Minister said that preliminary survey has been completed for the new station and detailed surveys are being carried out to develop a proposal as per the norms and guidelines of the international Antarctic Treaty, which guides activities of nations on Antarctica.
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Govt. approves talks to source gas supplies
New Delhi: The cabinet has given the nod to the Petroleum Ministry for holding talks with Pakistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan to secure gas supplies for India through pipelines.

The three pipeline proposals to be considered are from Iran to India through Pakistan and another from Turkmenistan to India through Afghanistan and Pakistan. The third pipeline will run from Myanmar to India through Bangladesh.

India imports more than 60 per cent of its gas needs and that is only going to increase with time.
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MCX launches crude oil futures trade
New Delhi: Launching the country's first futures trading in crude oil, the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) on Wednesday opened trading at 10 a.m. for US light, sweet benchmark crude West Texas Intermediate.

"Only three monthly contracts would be traded at any given time in lots of 100 barrels, with 50,000 barrels constituting a cargo," the MCX CEO, Ms Anjani Sinha, said at a press conference here.
MCX started off with the first-month April contract and will introduce May and June contracts later.

"This step is crucial for our oil economy and a movement towards developing an Asian oil and oil product market," said the Union Petroleum Minister, Mani Shankar Aiyar, adding that the MCX crude futures would allow oil producers, refiners, trades and consumers to manage their crude oil price risk with greater precision.

The Forward Markets Commission has recommended that options trading be allowed in the market. The market regulator is studying a proposal to have different levels of taxation for hedging and speculative future contracts.

To bring in more transparency in futures trading, the commission has devised a daily monitoring system, which will soon be uploaded onto the Internet. Trading volume in the multi-commodity exchanges is expected to touch the Rs5,00,000-crore mark by the end of the current fiscal, up 375 per cent compared to last year.
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Second phase of Tax Information Network to be set up
New Delhi: The Union Cabinet has approved the setting up of phase-II of Tax Information Network (TIN) at an estimated expenditure of Rs101.25 crore over three years.

While the Government would pay Rs68.75 crore towards the project, the balance amount (Rs32.5 crore) is to be realised from "deductors" (entities or persons deducting income tax at source) through filing fees. The filing-fees (basically uplinking charges) would be payable at the TIN facilitation centre and the quantum of fees payable would depend on the number of deductees involved.

The decision to set up TIN was announced in the Budget of 2003. It was decided that TIN would be set up in two phases and NSDL would host it. The phase-II of TIN is expected to get operational before the stipulated time for e-filing of first quarter returns (during financial year 2005-06) by 2005-06.

Under phase-II, collation of deductee-wise data in tax deduction at source (TDS)/Tax Collection at Source (TCS) returns for eventual dematerialisation of TDS certificates, computerisation of Annual Information Returns (AIR) of high value transactions and integration of information relating to processing of returns of income are to be taken up.

While computerisation of AIRs is expected to help widen and deepen tax base, the dematerialisation of TDS and TCS certificates would enable paperless filing of returns of income by the deductees on Internet.

Further, cross-verification of TDS and TCS deducted by the deductors vis-à-vis credit claimed by corresponding deductees would eliminate frauds. The e-filing of TDS returns by Government deductors in addition to corporate deductors would eliminate requirement to enclose copies of challans etc and result in significant reduction in cost of compliance, a government official said.

An official spokesperson also said that necessary legal changes have been made in the Income Tax Act, with effect from April 1,2005.
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FM: No cuts in subsidies
New Delhi: Two weeks ahead of the Budget, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has ruled out cutting down subsidies intended for the poor.

"Government is committed to fulfilling its responsibility towards the welfare of poor and downtrodden. There is absolutely no question of diluting this responsibility and cutting down subsidies intended for the poor," Chidambaram said at a Parliamentary Consultative Committee meeting yesterday.

"Efforts of the government are directed to ensure that the benefits of subsidies are maximised by making them transparent, well designed and targeted," he said. Chidambaram said the best way to ensure the benefits of the subsidy is to deliver these at target points like in case of cooking gas LPG.
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Kamal Nath: FDI retail policy in two months
New Delhi: Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath has said that the government is considering opening up of retail and realty sectors for foreign investment. "We have had discussions with the retail sector... We want incremental FDI to come in the sector. We do not want FDI which would displace the existing investment," he added.

Asked if the FDI in retail will form a part of India's offer on services at WTO, which have to be tabled before May 31, Nath said," Our offers in Mode 2 and 3 would be driven by offers we recieve in Mode 1 and 4." Nath said FDI in realty should be driven towards construction and not just investment in land holdings and the policy would aim to address this.
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