CST phase out Bill introduced in Parliament
New Delhi: The government has introduced a bill in Lok Sabha seeking to phase out Central Sales Tax (CST) in four stages and eventually abolish it in three years.
Abolition of CST will pave the way for an integrated Goods and Services Tax (GST) which will be introduced by April 1, 2010.

Piloting the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill to amend the CST Act, 1956, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said in the first step, CST is proposed to be reduced from 4 per cent to 3 per cent from 1 April, 2007.

It will go down from 3 pc to 2 per cent from 1 April, 2008, from 2 per cent to 1 per cent from 1 April, 2009, and eventually abolished on 31 March, 2010.

States would be compensated for revenue loss by non-monetary as well as monetary measures, the Minister said in the statement of objects and reasons in the bill.

Chidambaram said CST being an origin-based tax was inconsistent with VAT which was destination-based tax. He said CST results in cascading of tax (tax on tax), since it was not rebateable against VAT.
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Sugar exports at 15 lakh tonnes
New Delhi: As around 230-240 lakh tonnes is estimated to have been produced in the 2006-07 season, the sugar industry may soon face a glut, despite sugar exports to be around 15 lakh tonnes.

"It is estimated that about 15 lakh tonnes of sugar would get exported in this season,'' Agriculture and food minister Sharad Pawar told Rajya Sabha in a written reply on Friday.

Besides export, the government is also considering a proposal to start buffer stock of sugar on the lines of foodgrains procured by government.

Even after taking into account buffer stock of 48 lakh tonnes, the quantum of surplus comes to 33 lakh tonnes, Pawar last month said.

However, the the sugar industry doubts the government estimate on export unless it is subsidized as the international prices of sugar are lower than the Indian prices (at port).
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Give us Rs1.32 lakh per month: Tax officers
New Delhi: Tax collectors demand that top officials of the Central Board of Excise and Customs should (CBEC) be paid a salary of Rs 1, 32,000 per month.

In a memorandum to the Sixth Pay Commission, the Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise) Association has suggested that the post of the CBEC chairman be upgraded to that of principal secretary, and he be paid as much as the cabinet secretary.

The association also demanded that CBEC be upgraded to a department, and the retirement age of officers be raised to 62 years.

At present, the CBEC chairman gets a fixed salary of Rs26,000 while the starting salary of an IRS officer, excluding other allowances, is Rs8,000.

The association has demanded that the starting salary of an IRS officer be hiked to Rs 26,400 per month, and go up to Rs132,000 per month for members who should be ranked at par with a secretary in the central government.

CBEC, which currently has a cadre of 2,130 officers, collected Rs2,40,000 crore in 2006-07 as customs, central excise and service tax, and is expected to mop up Rs Rs2,79,000 crore during 2007-08.
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Inflation rises to 6.1 per cent
New Delhi: The annual rate of inflation rose to 6.10 per cent in the week ended February 24, 2007, compared to 6.05 per cent in the previous week. The rise was mainly on account of higher prices of cement, fish-marine products, ragi, arhar and tyre cord fabric.

This was against 4.18 per cent in the corresponding period a year ago.

The inflation data came a day after prime minister Manmohan Singh expressed relief in Parliament that inflation rate has declined in the last two weeks.

The market was expecting inflation around 6 to 6.10 per cent.

The prices of gram, fruit and vegetables, urad and condiments and spices declined marginally. However, the prices of niger seed and groundnut seed, castor seed and linseed moved up.

The index of manufactured products rose by 0.4 per cent to 182.5 from 181.8 for the previous week. Cement prices rose by 0.4 per cent. Prices of some capsules other than vitamins and antibiotics became expensive up to 24 pc. The index of chemicals and chemical products group rose by 1.9 per cent to 197.2.
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Kerala biggest tippler
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala state leads in per capita consumption of liquor at a massive 8.3 litres!

The per capita consumption of liquor in the rest of the country is at four litres. Punjab follows Kerala at 7.9 litres, according to the latest Economic Review released in the Kerala Assembly.

Worrying, the age at which youngsters start consuming liquor has also come down in the state. While in 1986, the age at which youngsters started drinking was 19, by 1990 it came down to 17 and in 1994 it stood at 14 years.

Kerala's population, according to the 2001 census, stands at 31.8 million.

While most drinkers in the Kerala state fall in the 21-40 age bracket this group also has the highest number of suicides.
To top it all liquor sales this fiscal in Kerala are headed for an all-time high and could touch Rs30.50 billion.
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Indian doctors win legal battle against British government
London: The British government has agreed to withdraw a "discriminatory clause" against Indian doctors which would have excluded them from the appointment process if they did not have visas beyond 1 August, 2007.

The High Court of Justice was due to hear on Thursday the application filed by the British Association for People of Indian Origin (BAPIO) for a judicial review of the injunction on rules affecting Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP) doctors.

As the hearing began on Thursday, the secretary of state's counsel requested a brief adjournment. BAPIO was then informed that the Secretary of State was prepared to concede.

BAPIO then accepted this offer and agreed to withdraw the case since the secretary of state gave an undertaking to the court that this clause will be removed.
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