FM hints at lower taxes in 2007 Budget
New Delhi: Finance minister P Chidambaram has raised expectations of tax rate cuts in the forthcoming budget saying that there is scope for further reduction (in rates) if greater tax compliance were to be achieved.

Chidambaram told the 'economic editors' conference' here that many people were willing to pay taxes and lead a life of dignity and peace. He said this attitudinal change was the result of moderate and stable tax rates and that there wass scope for further moderation.

However he said all this would depend upon greater tax compliance. He said the there had been "considerable buoyancy" in tax collections during the current fiscal and until September 30, 2006, the growth rate of revenues under each head of tax has been ahead of the target.

He highlighted the fact that the tax-GDP ratio of the central government has increased from 8.3 per cent in 1998-99 to 11.2 per cent in 2006-07 (budgeted).
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NCAER estimates GDP at 8.2 per cent for 2006-07
New Delhi: The National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) revising its growth projections for the economy in the current fiscal has said its estimates put GDP growth at 8.2 per cent for 2006-07.

In its latest quarterly review of the economy discussed in-house at the 'state of economy' seminar, organised by the council here, NCAER said that this is the third forecast for 2006-07, after two earlier estimates in April and August 2006.

The latest third revision in GDP growth rate as compared with its August forecast represents an increase by 0.2 percentage points. NCAER predicts higher growth in all three major production sectors.

Agriculture, industry and services are projected to grow by 2.7, 8.6 and 9.9 per cent respectively during the current fiscal, it said.

The revised projections for 2006-07 also show a higher current account deficit of 2.1 per cent of GDP and lower gross fiscal deficit of the Centre at 3.7 per cent of GDP. Inflation rate is projected at 5 per cent.

The quarterly review also provides a medium-term scenario 2007-08 to 2011-12 with the projections placing the average real GDP growth at 8.2 per cent per year during the next five years.
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Steel production target set to revised
New Delhi: With steel companies rushing to add capacity, the steel production target envisaged in the National Steel Policy (NSP) is set to be revised.

The NSP has revised its target steel production capacity to 65 million tonnes (mt) by 2011-12 and 110 mt by 2019-20 from present level of about 40 mt.

Steel minister Ram Vilas Paswan said while addressing the Economic Editors conference here, "We had a target of producing 65 mt of steel by 2011-12. But in view of the capacity expansions announced and MoUs signed we would exceed the target and produce 80 mt of steel within the period."

A steel ministry document has even estimated that India could have 180 mt of annual steel manufacturing capacity by 2019-20.
Steel companies in the recent past have signed a spate of MoUs for adding steel capacity both from domestic and overseas companies.

All together 116 MoUs have been signed in various mineral rich states with intended capacity of 150 mt, with an investment of Rs 3 lakh 57 thousand crores.
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Global BPO market down
New Delhi: The global outsourcing market shrank for the first time ever in the third quarter of the current fiscal. The value of the outsourcing deals signed in third-quarter declined 15 per cent to $4.5 billion against the same period last year, according to offshore advisory firm TPI. A larger number of single-process deals and shortening contract durations were the prime reasons behind the decline.

The Big Six BPO players -- (IBM, HP, CSC, Accenture, EDS, Capgemini) -- saw their share of the BPO market drop from 40 per cent to 35 per cent.

According to TPI there were seven multi-process contracts signed till date, compared with 20 in 2004, and 11 in 2005. By total contract value (TCV), multi-process contracts account for only 10 per cent year-to-date, compared with 24 per cent in 2004 and about 12 per cent in 2005.

The BPO market did experience growth globally in the third-quarter. Europe closed the gap with the Americas, with nearly a 46 per cent share of the BPO TCV signed so far this year, compared with almost 49 per cent for N America. Indian-based providers continued to gain TCV market share, increasing from nearly 1 per cent in 2004, to slightly over 4 per cent in 2006. Their share of awarded contracts have also increased from about 2 per cent to nearly 8 per cent during the same period.
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WB-PwC study finds Indian tax laws burdensome
New Delhi: India has the most burdensome tax administration as measured by the number of pages of central tax laws among the world's top 20 economies, a joint study conducted by global accounting major PricewaterhouseCoopers and World Bank showed.

India, ranked 10th among the world's 20 biggest countries in terms of GDP and has 9,000 pages of primary tax legislation.

The study found that the volume of primary tax legislation is on the increase worldwide. This means more new legislation is being enacted than repealed.

For instance in the UK over the past 10 years, the number of pages has more than doubled from about 3,700 to 8,300, giving it the second ranking in the list.

The report said a particularly worrying consequence was that with the sheer volume of tax legislation no individual can possibly read all of it. The days of a tax director being confident of spanning all the relevant parts of the tax code seem to have also disappeared, it added.

Ultimately, when tax laws become too voluminous, compliance drops more through ignorance than deliberate evasion, it noted.
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Delhi International airport to get fourth runway
New Delhi: GMR, engaged in modernizing the Delhi airport in a joint venture said it would construct two new runways as against plans to add one runway earlier, to add to the two already existing at the IGI Airport. This is being done to cater to a projected 37 million passengers.

The fourth runway would be added to the Delhi International airport after 2020 depending on the passenger traffic. The Delhi airport had already started contributing 30 per cent to the overall revenue of the Group.

DIAL started the modernisation project from May. The first phase of the project is expected to be ready by March 2010. Te proposed third terminal at the Delhi International Airport will incur an expenditure of Rs 375-400 crore and will be completed by March 2008. Terminal, 1-C will function in place of terminal 1-B, which will be closed after the new terminal is completed. Terminal 1-B caters to the departures of most of the private carriers.
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DoT for blocking incoming ILD calls without caller ID: Trai opposes
New Delhi: The Department of Telecom is considering blocking all international long distance telephone calls coming into the country without caller line identification.

This is being considered in face of security concerns. However, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has cautioned against such a move on the grounds that blocking calls would lead to inconvenience to consumers as a large number of international calls would not be completed and this would affect the collection of the Access Deficit Charges.

A large number of ILD calls coming into the country do not display the phone number of the person who is calling. They either come with the digits like 301, 401, 501 or as `unknown number'.

The DoT move comes after the security agencies pointed out the rampant practice could pose a security threat to the country. While some of the operators have expressed technical problems in displaying the CLI number for calls coming from international destinations, DoT officials said that it was possible to put a system in place.
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