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Business & Economy
Rewriting IT law on top
of Chidambaram's mind
What is India News Service,
Wednesday, 2 March 2005, 1400 hrs IST
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram is planning to rewrite the income-tax law. Also high on his agenda is an omnibus insurance law that would help the Government to raise the FDI limit in the insurance sector from 26 per cent to 49 per cent.
"The proposal to hike FDI in insurance has not been put off. We will have to introduce a Bill. Some other amendments are required to both the Insurance Act, 1938 and the IRDA Act, 1999. All amendments would come together," he said in an exclusive interview to Business Line, a day after presenting the Union Budget for 2005-06.
He also said that he proposes to completely rewrite the existing Income-Tax Act.
"The intention is to bring a brand new I-T Act," Mr Chidambaram said, while asked to elaborate on his announcement in the Budget that he intended to place before Parliament a revised and simplified Bill.
The Finance Minister hinted that the reference to `sales promotion including publicity' would be removed from the ambit of the newly introduced Fringe Benefit Tax.
"That is the only entry that they (the industry) have pointed out to me and I have said that we will find out why it is there."
Mr Chidambaram said that the Government and the Reserve Bank of India were in complete harmony over the guidelines for ownership in private banks released by the banking regulator on Monday.
Day later, India Inc nurses a Budget hangover on fringes:
A day after welcoming Finance Minister P Chidambaram\92s Budget 2005, India Inc woke up to a hangover called Fringe Benefit Tax, a sweeping 30 per cent tax payable by all employers \97 and not employees \97 on expenditure that gives a \91fringe benefit\92 to employees.
FM hints at rollback of tax on cash withdrawal:
With mounting pressure from within UPA and outside, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram may partially roll back the proposed banking transaction tax of Rs 10 on withdrawal of Rs 10,000 cash and the Fringe Benefit Tax on perks.
Withdrawal tax = workload blues for banks:
The finance minister\92s proposal to levy a tax of 0.10 per cent on withdrawal of Rs 10,000 and above has kicked up a storm. While top bank officials have refrained from criticising the FM move, bank employees down the ladder, individuals, and corporates have come down heavily on the proposal.
Left lashes out at Chidambaram:
With the fine print in the Budget 2005-06 coming out in the open, Left parties are critical of several provisions and allocations to different sectors, including agriculture, banking, FDI and corporate tax relief, by Union Finance Minister P.
Chidambaram.
TWI gets production rights for India-Pakistan series:
TransWorld International (TWI), on Tuesday bagged the production rights for the India-Pakistan cricket series even though the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) failed to take a decision on award of satellite
rights.
TN presents a deficit budget, no new tax proposals:
The Tamil Nadu budget for 2005-06 presented to the state assembly on Wednesday did not contain any new tax proposals while leaving a deficit of Rs 260.41
crore.
TRAI seeks powers to penalise erring operators:
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is pitching in for powers to impose penalty on operators that offer services below the prescribed quality norms.
Cyber cafes have to keep tabs on customers:
As per the new norm, cyber cafe owners must maintain records including the name, address, log in and log off time of users.
Drugs to cost more; Ipca hikes prices:
Consumers, it seems, will soon have to fork out more money on their medicines. Having digested the impact of Budget 2005, drug companies and analysts tracking the segment feel that medicine prices are set to increase anywhere between two and six
per cent.
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