Punjab gets online facility for customs clearance
Ludhiana: The Punjab's Customs Department has launched Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) system, which will facilitate faster clearance of consignments.

Rajiv Kapoor, joint commissioner, customs department (Ludhiana), said "The importers and exporters will no longer require submission of their documents such as entry bill, shipping bill etc manually. The whole process will now be completed online, which will lead to faster clearance of import and export consignments," he said.

Under the EDI system, the customs department would be linked online with banks where custom duty and drawback claims could be deposited, he said.

He said that unless there is a need of seeking clarification from importers and exporters, all the papers would be cleared on the same day of filing by the customs department. About 700 entry bills and 2,900 shipping bills are filed every month at dry ports in Ludhiana.
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IT exports touch $22 billion
New Delhi: Software and IT-enabled services exports increased by 36 per cent to touch revenues of over Rs1,00,000 crore (nearly $22 billion) in 2005-06, riding on the success on global delivery model, strong human resource and robust expansion plans. Members registered with the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) exported software of over Rs1,00,809 crore or $22.47 billion by the end of 2005-06, against the total exports of Rs74,019 crore in 2004-05, according to an official statement.

The highest exports by STPI registered units were from the state of Karnataka at Rs37,000 crore, showing a growth rate of 34 per cent followed by Maharashtra at Rs15,500 crore, a growth rate of also 34 per cent and Tamil Nadu at Rs13,960 crore.

Andhra Pradesh has posted the maximum growth rate in software exports at 51 per cent by touching a revenue of Rs1,25,000 crore. Software companies registered with STPs in Haryana, UP, Delhi, West Bengal and Orissa also posted strong growth.

With the exception of Kerala, which posted a growth of only 10 per cent, all other states performed well, as the statement lists the growth percentage.
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Asean wants India to remove negative list
New Delhi: Asean is insisting that New Delhi eliminate its big list of negative items, against the stand taken by the former. Asean on its part has given a list of sensitive items on which there would be a phased tariff reduction. India on its part wants a negative list of items on which there would be no tariff reduction to protect domestic interests.

While India has given a list of 991 items in the negative list, Asean has given a country specific list (all member have separate list) of 2,900 sensitive items including 500 highly sensitive items, official sources told the agency.
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Service tax on 15 new services from May 1
New Delhi: Fifteen new services will be brought under service tax from May 1 this year.

The new services made taxable include services provided by share transfer agents and registrar to issues, recovery agents, maintenance and management of Automatic Teller Machines, sale of advertising space or time (except for print media), sponsorship of events by companies (except for sports), public relations management services, ship management services, international air travel (excluding economy class), rail container handling services (excluding haulage charges), cruise ship travel, Internet telephony services, business support services and credit card, debit card and other payment card-related services.

The Finance Ministry has also increased the rate at which air travel agents opt to pay service tax. This has been done in the wake of increase in the general rate of service tax from 10 per cent to 12 per cent. Consequent to this increase, air travel agents now have the option to pay service tax at the rate of 0.6 per cent (earlier 0.5 per cent) in the case of domestic bookings and 1.2 per cent (earlier 1 per cent) in the case of international bookings with effect from May 1.

In the case of goods transported in containers by rail, the Finance Ministry has prescribed 70 per cent abatement on the gross amount charged for transport of goods.
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Nasscom against job quota in pvt sector
Bangalore: Nasscom — the apex IT industry body has indicated that it is against the government move to introduce job quota in the private sector. It said the best way to end discrimination was to raise the ability of disadvantaged sections to compete.

Nasscom President, Kiran Karnik said he did not favour the idea of offering some sops or "baits" to the private sector to agree to reservation. "They (the sops) might be marginally useful but I don't think we should go in that direction," he said.

He said nothing much had been achieved during the last 60 years through reservation, and that the government should take the industry into confidence and discuss the issue. The issues may include primary education, environment to be created, language and social aspects. He added that it is not correct to say that the IT industry has not done much and only objects to the introduction of the reservation policy.
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