Gujarat to get big ticket investments
Ahmedabad: The chief minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi said a total of 330 memoranda of understanding (MoUs) were signed during the two-day `Vibrant Gujarat: Global Investors' Summit-2007' concluded here, promising investments to the tune of Rs4,49,003 crore with the potential to create 9.5 lakh job opportunities in the State.

This included 308 MoUs, worth investments of Rs3, 43,784 crore, expected to create 9, 17,355 job opportunities. Besides, 22 announcements were also made during the summit to make investments to the tune of Rs1,05,219 crore, with an estimated 33,500 job opportunities.

Taken together with the 19 MoUs, worth an investment of Rs11,067 crore, signed during a separate seminar on Information Technology in December 2006, to create 3,25,900 job opportunities, as a prelude to Vibrant Gujarat, the State has been promised a total investment of Rs4,60,070 crore during the last two months, with a potential to create a total of 12,76,755 job opportunities.
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PM in meeting Chinese premier
Cebu: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had a meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on the sidelines of the tenth ASEAN summit. The meeting came ahead of impending talks next week between National Security Advisor, M K Narayanan, and his Chinese counterpart, Dai Bingguo, in New Delhi which will take discussions forward on the boundary issue.

India has said that the talks will move forward on the basis of the Agreement on Political Parameters and Guiding Principles signed between the two countries in April 2005.

Both countries agreed to speed up efforts to resolve the nagging boundary dispute and not to allow it to hamper all-round development of ties during Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to India in November last year.
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Builders want stamp duty exemption
New Delhi: In a pre budget memorandum submitted to the Finance Ministry, Confederation of Real Estate Developer's Associations of India (CREDAI) has said that on the pattern of Special Economic Zones, the Government should offer exemption from Excise and Sales Tax on the building raw material and from Stamp Duty (on first allotment) for slum area development and low cost housing projects.

The Confederation lamented that high stamp duty rates in many states were adversely affecting the housing sector. At present, the states are charging up to 15 per cent of stamp duty on the transfer of property, leading to rise in prices.

The builders' body also demanded exemption from service tax for builders developing projects on their own account.

CREDAI suggested that rental housing stock investment allowance at 20 per cent, rental income from newly constructed houses with area of each unit not exceeding 150 sqm be completely exempted from income tax for first five years and at the rate of 50 per cent for next 5 years.
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