Left plans stir against price rise
New Delhi: The four Left parties supporting the UPA Government say that the Government is not adhering to the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) or to the concerns of the Left parties. The Left leaders say they plan to launch a week-long agitation from July 13 to protest against the Government's inaction in checking the rising prices of essential commodities and the divestment policy.

The CPI General Secretary, A.B. Bardhan, told reporters after the meeting that, "We appeal to the UPA partners to intervene and see that Government reconsiders its decision to disinvest in the profitable public sector units which goes against the CMP commitment," he said, quoting a joint statement by the CPI(M), CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc, which have accused the Congress of shedding crocodile tears on the prices front.

The meeting was attended by Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury of the CPI(M), Bardhan and D. Raja of the CPI, Abani Roy of the RSP, and Debabrata Biswas and G. Devarajan of the Forward Bloc.
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New pension plan gets support of Govt staff
New Delhi: The new pension system (NPS) mooted by the government has got the support of the government staff. A nationwide study has showed that over 57 per cent of central and state government employees say they want savings avenues to finance their post-retirement needs. But as there is no retirement savings plan available in the country, these people are making do with surrogate instruments such as post office savings, PPF and other small savings instruments.

These people already have a government pension plan available to them, but despite that umbrella, 56.7 per cent already save an average of Rs54,000 per year. The figure for the state government employees is 57.1 per cent. The sum could be deployed to earn a post-retirement income stream if corresponding long-term pension plans were available.

The figures are taken from an Invest India Market Solutions report and reveal that the Left parties and others are wrong in opposing the introduction of a full-blown pension market in the country.

Because of their opposition, the Pension Fund Regulatory & Development Authority Bill is pending in Parliament, despite being cleared by the standing committee on finance.
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$225 mn loan from World Bank for Orissa
Bhubaneswar: The World Bank has sanctioned the second tranche of the $225 million (Rs1100 crore) Orissa Socio Economic Development Loan. Earlier, in phase-I of this credit plan, the state had received $125 million assistance from the Bank in December 2004.

Official sources said the money to be received from the Bank in phase-II will mostly be spent to carry forward the fiscal restructuring process in the state and will go to fund retirement of high interest bearing loans, thus reducing the debt stress of the state. Besides this, the assistance will be utilized to support the government's financial commitment in various social sector programmes in the field of health, payment of old age pension, anti-poverty schemes, meeting the state share under centrally sponsored programmes, drinking water, panchayati raj projects.
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HNIs may find the going tough on tax front
New Delhi: High networth individuals (HNIs) comprising those who have purchased property for over Rs30 lakh or spent over Rs2 lakh in a year through credit card or invested over Rs2 lakh in mutual funds may soon find the taxman knocking at their doors if their names figure in the Annual Information Returns (AIR) filed with the Tax Department.

The Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, has asked senior income-tax officials to find ways and means to reach those whose names have been thrown up by the AIR filed by third parties such as banks, mutual funds and property transfer registrars.

"My advice to all those who have made large transactions is - Please file your tax returns before July 31," Chidambaram told presspersons after inaugurating the 22nd Annual Conference of Chief Commissioners and Directors-General of Income-Tax here.

He disclosed that the AIRs have thrown up 17,52,652 transactions (relating to financial year 2004-05) involving 6,60,000 separate parties. As many as 1,84,980 parties had undertaken such high value transactions with a permanent account number and about 4,75,019 without PAN. Stating that the Government has no intention of harassing taxpayers, the Finance Minister said that he was only keen that there be further improvement in the level of tax compliance.
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