Duty free import of wheat by private traders allowed till Dec. 30
New Delhi: The Government has confirmed that private traders will be allowed to import foodgrain at zero per cent duty till December 30, this year. "No further duty free wheat imports for (private traders) will be allowed beyond December 30 and there would be enough supplies before the arrival of the Rabi crop in February," agriculture and food minister Sharad Pawar said, after a 75 minute meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Pawar clarified that the official notification on reducing the duty for private wheat imports from 5 per cent to zero would be issued within two days. Pawar said that though recent rains had caused some damage to crops due to floods, the overall Kharif production would be good. This also augurs well for the forthcoming Rabi wheat crop, he said.

The meeting was also attended by finance minister P Chidambaram and deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
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CBEC offers "trade facility" to avoid adjudication
New Delhi: The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has said that assessees who are faced with showcause notices in cases involving either fraud or misstatements could henceforth avoid sidestep adjudication procedure by opting for a scheme that allows voluntary payment of duty along with interest and penalty.

Under the scheme, penalty would be 25 per cent of the duty and assessees would be required to make the entire payment within 30 days of the receipt of the show cause notice. This "trade facility" would be available for both Central excise and customs duty cases, which are at the showcause notices stage.

Announcing the features of the optional scheme, the CBEC chairman, V.P. Singh, said that this "trade facility" has been provided through the Taxation Laws (amendment) Act, which came into force on July 13 this year.
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ISRO links up with RCI for EDUSAT station
New Delhi: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) on Tuesday, through which it will set up an Edusat up-linking station and a studio at the RCI building.

The uplink will enable RCI to connect 100 study centres via satellite for special education for the disabled. The Edusat studio will also conduct various teleconferences on disability-related issues, said the release.

RCI has also collaborated with the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) for facilitating children with disability in acquiring knowledge and skills. As a part of the agreement, NIOS will provide skill-based training in Braille and sign language and will offer academic, technical and vocational courses through open and distance learning mode.
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Central customs duty collections up 34 pc in April-Aug
New Delhi: The Centre's customs duty collections are experiencing an upward growth in the current fiscal. The latest data from the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) shows that these collections have surged by 34.05 per cent during April-August to Rs34,110 crore, as against Rs 25,446 crore in the corresponding period last year.

According to CBEC, customs duty collections in August 2006 stood at Rs7,407 crore, up by 30.08 per cent, compared with Rs5,694 crore recorded in the corresponding period last year.

Customs duty collections have grown by 33.5 per cent during the first four months of the current fiscal. For 2006-07, the Centre has pegged the customs duty collections target at Rs77,066 crore. This represents a 20 per cent increase over the revised estimate of Rs64,215 crore in 2005-06.
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