SEZ approvals to be put on hold: Kamal Nath
Bangalore: All special economic zone (SEZ) approvals have been put on hold until a meeting of the empowered group of Ministers on January 22. The meting will take stock of how the states have been following up the clearances and addressing land acquisitions and related issues, according to Commerce Minister, Kamal Nath.
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CBDT hikes direct tax collection target by 12 per cent
Mumbai: The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CDBT) has raised its annual target for direct tax collections by 12 per cent for 2006-07 and aims to mop up around Rs230,000 crore, against the 2006-07 budget estimate of Rs205,000 crore.

The highest increase in target has been set for Mumbai, the biggest contributor to the direct tax kitty.

Mumbai's collection target has been increased by Rs 10,000 crore to Rs 79,000 crore. This enhancement is based on the assumption that collections will be up by 40 per cent over last fiscal.
The expectation is based on the fact that the banking and manufacturing sector has done well last year.

This is in contrast to the previous year, when the poor performance of banks, insurance oil and telecom companies had contributed to a shortfall in direct tax collections.
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NCAER revises GDP forecast to 8.44 per cent
New Delhi: The National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) has revised its forecast for the country's gross domestic product growth for 2006-07 to 8.44 per cent, from the 8.13 per cent that it had forecast in October last year.

The projected real GDP growth is still lower than the 9 per cent witnessed in the first two quarters of this fiscal, but if compared to the earlier forecast it is higher by 0.3 percentage points.

The NCAER has projected a lower fiscal deficit of 3.63 per cent for the current fiscal, against its October projection of 3.71 per cent. It has also projected a decline in the current account deficit to 1.93 per cent, from the earlier forecast of 2.11 per cent for 2006-07.
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CAS to be extended to more cities
New Delhi: The government has decided to extend the coverage of the conditional access system (CAS) to other cities in a phased manner.

Among the new cities likely to see implementation of CAS would be Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Pune, and Indore, and satellite towns of Noida and Gurgaon.

Implementation of CAS is in line with the government's plan to move towards digital mode of delivery from the current analogue mode of transmission.
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