Government approval for 26 SEZs
New Delhi: The government has granted approvals for twenty six more SEZs. These included the proposals of Emmar Hills Township, Parsvnath Developers, and TCG Urban Infrastructure Holdings.

The inter-ministerial Board of Approval also gave in-principle clearance to eight proposals including Writers and Publishers' proposal for a multi-product special economic zone in Chattisgarh and Rassai Properties and Industries Ltd's proposal for a multi-product zone in Andhra Pradesh.

The BoA has also considered a total of 82 proposals for SEZs in Assam, Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh.

An official release said the total number of formal approvals had now increased to 212 and that of in-principle approvals to 152.

About 11 of the 26 proposals cleared relate to the ones to be set up in Ranga Reddy district in Andhra Pradesh.

These include two proposals of Maytas Properties Pvt Ltd and one of Rudradev Infopark Pvt Ltd for information technology zones. Lahari Infrastructure Ltd's proposal for a services zone in the district was also cleared.
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PM promises financial sector reforms
London: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said India, in the long run, would be able to create a meaningful political consensus and take forward reforms in key services sectors including legal and finance.

Addressing the India-UK Investment Summit here he said, "Our government would like to see a further liberalisation of trade in services, including financial and legal services. I am aware that there is great interest in Britain in our financial sector," he said
Singh said: "I do believe we need to promote a widely held pension fund system. We need a much larger insurance sector, with a higher capital base with more diverse products.

"It is these which will generate the necessary long term funds for investing in a debt market and make available resources for investment needs of our country, particularly in the vital infrastructure sector."
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Direct tax collections rise 41 per cent
New Delhi: The Revenue Department is hoping to top its financial year tax revenue estimates of Rs327,205 crore by Rs15,000-20,000 crore on the back of almost 41 per cent growth in direct tax collections, up to September this year.

According to latest data with the Revenue Department, the overall direct tax collection for the April-September period of the current financial year was Rs79,208 crore, as against Rs56,278 crore collected during the same period last year.

The increased tax mop-up in the current financial year, ministry officials said, is due to higher direct tax collections, and a similarly higher mop-up from Customs and service tax.

Income tax collections in September stood at Rs8,910 crore, compared with Rs7,154 crore during the same month last year, an increase of over 24 per cent.

Corporation tax collections stood at Rs27,226 crore against
Rs20,427 crore in September 2005, up by 33 per cent. The total direct tax collection stood at Rs 36,228 crore, as against
Rs27,659 crore in September last year, an increase of 31 per cent.

For the first half of the current financial year, corporation tax collection stood at Rs 49,813 crore, which was around 48 per cent more than the Rs 33,685 crore collected during April-September 2005-06.
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I-T Dept to target non salaried class for TDS norms
New Delhi: The income tax department, which had found laxity in filing of TDS returns, plans to tighten the norms for deducting tax at source for the non-salaried class.

The move could end the party for non-salaried tax payers like contractors, traders, small businessmen whose tax gets deducted at source when they receive payments from various sources and have refunds to claim. These tax payers, for whom working capital is a problem, will have their money locked up as they would have to wait for the refunds.

Sources said the idea behind the move is to establish a trail and keep a tab on the flow of money. Unlike the quarterly instalments in which advance tax is paid by this category of assesses, TDS is a monthly pay out which ensures a regular cash flow for the government, as against advance tax which comes only once in three months.

Compared to advance tax TDS has the advantage of producing a paper trail. At present, about 50 pc of the total direct tax collections come through the TDS route.
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Price volatility may affect gems, jewellery exports
Mumbai: Export of Indian gems and jewellery is likely to get affected by the increased volatility in prices of gold and precious stones. Traders say exports in this sector are unlikely to surpass previous records.

Traders said said a 10-15 per cent volatility in prices of precious metals is rare and has dealt a blow to the jewellery industry and ways to enhance consumption have to be adopted worldwide. Gems and jewellery need to be promoted in manner similar to the way luxury items like perfumes and watches are being promoted across the world.

The Indian gems and jewellery export account for around 17 billion dollars. The gems and jewellery export, including that of rough diamonds, has gone down by seven per cent between April to August 2006 at $6356 million as against $6,826 million in the corresponding period last year.
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