SC says sale of surplus land by NTC legal
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has held that the sale of surplus land by National Textile Corporation was legal and has set aside an earlier Bombay High Court judgment which held that the sale of surplus lands of NTC mills was contrary to the BIFR scheme and apex court order.

NTC, Appolo Textile Mills, Mumbai Textile Mills, Eliphinstone Mills, Kohinoor Mills (No.3), Jupitor Mills, Bombay Dyeing and several others had challenged the High Court judgment. The High Court judgment was made after a writ petition was filed by an NGO, Bombay Environmental Action Group, that alleged that surplus lands were sold in violation of rules.

However, the apex court bench said the developmental plan estimated at around Rs5,000 crore were in conformity with the BIFR scheme.
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Tax collections up 21 per cent till February
New Delhi: The central government's tax collections rose by over 21 per cent at Rs2,89,621 crore till February and lifted hopes of meeting the budget target for 2005-06.

Direct tax collections posted almost 30 per cent growth at Rs1,18,550 crore, while indirect taxes grew by over 16 per cent to 1,71,071 crore. Better compliance and higher income in the hands of salaried class pushed up income tax collection by 32
per cent to Rs47,960 crore to offset the impact of higher tax slab and exemption limits carried out in last year's Budget.

The Fringe Benefit Tax garnered a huge Rs2,843 crore in first 11 months. A bullish stock market and rise in investors' wealth helped in collecting Rs2,248 crore in Securities Transaction Tax.

Banking Cash Transaction Tax, which was imposed to keep a trail on unaccounted dealings, fetched another Rs269 crore. India Inc's contribution to the Exchequer rose by 27.7 per cent by way of Corporation Tax at Rs70,590 crore till February.

Excise collections were up by 11.6 per cent at Rs95,447 crore till February amid a robust growth in manufacturing sector. Higher growth in imports, especially petroleum and capital goods, helped the government collect Rs57,431 crore in customs duties, a growth of almost 13 per cent.

Service tax collection grew by 68 per cent at Rs18,195 crore and surpassed the budget target by a month.
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Government to attract overseas investment in mining
Toronto: The government is trying to attract foreign investment in exploration and mining of minerals and metals, and is setting up a 'new mining regime' Apart from increasing the area of operation and duration of concessions, the Government is considering to grant 'right to transfer licence' to a foreign company, and simplify procedures for granting licence for exploration and mining," A K Jadhav, secretary of mines, said.

Addressing an international conference on mines here organised by Natural Resources Canada and Canada-India Minerals and Metals Forum Jadhav said the new regime would come into force soon after amending the relevant statutes that would further encourage foreign investors in exploration and mining.

The Government is in the process of reviewing the national mineral policy and make the sector more attractive to foreign investors. Seamless transfers from one concession to another with easy transferability would receive the government attention, Jadhav said.
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Gold falls
New Delhi: Gold prices fell to Rs8,065 per 10 gram on the bullion market on Tuesday on brisk selling by stockists due to reports of a steep fall in the US market. The metal recovered partly to close at Rs8,085, lower by Rs160.

Gold in Asia rose after its biggest one-day decline in three weeks yesterday spurred some funds buying gold to diversify holdings. It fell 1.8 per cent yesterday as crude oil prices dropped, eroding bullion's appeal as an inflation hedge.

Standard gold and ornaments plunged by Rs160 each to Rs8,085 and Rs7,985 per 10 gram respectively. Sovereign also declined by Rs25 at Rs6,400 per piece of eight gram.

Silver ready gained Rs350 at Rs14,350 per kilo while weekly-based delivery gained Rs110 at Rs14,260 per kilo as speculators enlarged their positions.

Silver coins nosedived by Rs200 at Rs17,400 for buying and Rs17,500 for selling of 100 pieces.
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Indo-US nuke deal smells of double standards, says Chinese scholar
Beijing: The historic Indo-US civilian nuclear deal has come under criticism from a leading Chinese scholar who said the agreement smacks of 'double standards' in global non-proliferation efforts and may complicate resolving the Iran and North Korean issues.

Hu Shisheng, director of the division for South Asian Studies under the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), a Chinese government/security linked think-tank, said the United States' making an exception to accommodate India, driven by geo-political considerations, has sent repercussions through the international non-proliferation infrastructure.

Hu writes that the US-Indian nuclear cooperation might encourage other nuclear powers to enter into nuclear cooperation with their partners, which might trigger a chain reaction of nuclear-technology proliferation. He said China may forge a similar nuclear agreement with its 'all weather' ally, Pakistan.
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Punjab government presents Rs.1390 crore deficit budget
Chandigarh: The Punjab government has proposed a four per cent value-added tax (VAT) on sale of used cars, lump sum VAT on brick kilns and setting up of the fifth pay commission for its employees in the Rs1,390 crore deficit budget for 2006-07 presented in the assembly on Tuesday.

Singla said the deficit on revenue account is estimated at Rs1,390 crore for the coming financial year as against Rs1,710 crore in the current year.

The budget entailed an overall expenditure of Rs27,791.87 crore with the revenue receipts (Rs27,791.87 crore) compared with the expenditure (Rs25,706.32 crore) would result in a surplus of Rs2,085.55 account during the next financial year.

He said that the 52 per cent of the revenue would come from taxes, 36 per cent as non-tax revenue and remaining 12 per cent as grants-in-aid and contributions from different sources.
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Trai sends notices to telecom firms on congestion
New Delhi: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has issued show-cause notices to six service providers — Bharti Tele-Ventures, Reliance Infocomm, Reliance Telecom, BPL Mobile and Spice Communication on traffic congestion.

It said that all mobile operators in the country had failed to meet the benchmarks specified by it. Trai said notices were being issued only to those in whose networks the congestion had increased between September-December 2005. In the cases of other service provides, there was no deterioration in regard to congestion during this period, Trai said.

It said it had prescribed a benchmark for the point of interconnect (POI) congestion between the networks of two operators to be less than 0.5 per cent. Trai has also said, despite issuing directions to all cellular mobile service providers to comply with the quality of service parameters by December 31, 2005, there had been a sharp increase in network congestion.

It said that in September, there were 237 POIs with congestion above 5 per cent which increased to 249 in December 2005. "It was also noticed that in some places, the level of congestion of some operators was in the range of 80 per cent to 95 per cent. This means that of every 100 calls, 80-90 calls fail leading to total chaos in inter-network communications, customer dissatisfaction and a near-collapse of services," Trai said.

Private operators have blamed Bharat Sanchar Nigam saying the failure of the PSU to ensure timely inter-connection was the primary reason for the increase in congestion.

Trai responded by saying that, "It was the responsibility of operators to take necessary action for timely augmentation of POIs through mutual discussions or through legal measures. When mutual discussions failed, operators should have approached the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Authority for resolution."
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Strategic N-programme not to be capped: PM
New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said there will be no capping of India's nuclear programme, and that Washington has assured uninterrupted supply of fuel to Indian reactors under international safeguards.

"India has decided to place under safeguards all future civilian thermal power reactors and civilian breeder reactors, and the Government of India retains the sole right to determine such reactors as civilian," Singh told the Parliament today. He said India will not be constrained in any way in building future nuclear facilities, whether civilian or military, as per our national requirements.

His statement comes within days of India and the US reaching a landmark pact for implementing the July 18, 2005 agreement on civilian nuclear co-operation during the visit of President George W Bush here.
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