Govt to roll-out 'big' farm package
New Delhi: At the occasion of evaluation of three years of the UPA government on Tuesday Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the Government would soon unveil a "major initiative" in the next 10 days, which will not only enhance the total public investment in agriculture, but will also enable States to resolve problems of agriculture through comprehensive localised plans.

Dr Singh said the UPA Government's "inclusive growth" strategy, meant stepping up investments in rural infrastructure and agriculture, increasing credit availability to farmers and offering them remunerative price for their produce, besides putting in place the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme and enhancing public spends on education and healthcare.

The PM said, "Through Bharat Nirman, we expect to invest Rs1,74,000 crore in rural roads, housing, drinking water supply, irrigation, electrification and telecommunication," he said.

Further, he said the budgetary allocation for education has been nearly trebled in three years to Rs32,000 crore in 2007-08, while that for health and family welfare more than doubled to Rs17,560 crore.

In agriculture and rural development, funding has been stepped up to over Rs60,000 crore this fiscal, he added.
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New greenfield airport to come up in TN: Karunanidhi
Chennai: Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi has announced plans of setting up a new greenfield airport at Sriperumbudur and Tiruvallur taluks near Chennai. This apart the existing airport at Meenambakkam would also be expanded.

While the greenfield airport would come up over 4,820.66 acres, expansion of Chennai airport would be carried out over 1,069.99 acres at an estimated cost of Rs2,000 crore, he said.

The CM said the work for both the expansion and the greenfield airports would be given to the Airports Authority of India (AAI). The government would provide suitable compensation to 947 households in these areas and also rehabilitate them.

Karunanidhi said land acquisition was estimated to cost Rs1,000 crore. The construction would need an investment of another Rs1,000 crore, he said.
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Property tax paid to local bodies is deductible
New Delhi: The Government has said that property tax paid to local bodies can be deducted from the rental amount and the service tax can be paid on the net amount. However, no deduction would be allowed on any interest, penalty paid to the local authority by the service provider on account of the delayed payment of property tax.
Official sources pointed out that the move to allow deduction of property tax would particularly benefit those renting commercial properties in new shopping complexes.

The Government has also allowed self-adjustment of service tax for a period of one year in the case of renting of immovable property for commercial use. Under the renting of immovable property for commercial use, the Finance Ministry has already specified that renting include letting, leasing, licensing or other similar arrangement and that the contract is for right-to-use an immovable property for consideration.

The Government has however, not agreed to real estate industry demands for switching the incidence of service taxation to the service recipient from the service provider.
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