American president Barack Obama has once again targeted American companies having their operations in India to save taxes back home and called such businesses tax evaders. “If you are a business here, entirely located in the US, and investing in the US, and hiring workers in the US, you are paying a 35 per cent rate,” Obama said in an interview to the business magazine Bloomberg Business Week.
This Budget needs to come up with measures that balance the high inflation and sustainable growth. The continuing fiscal problems and revenue deficit will force the budget to take stringent revenue making measures including looking at introducing or extending the stimulus packages to boost revenues,” said G Bala Reddy, chairman and managing director, ICSA India.
Sushanto Roy, CEO, Sahara Prime City, has in a pre-Budget wish list of expectations said: “Given the pent-up demand for affordable housing which was discovered during the recent slowdown there is a need to reintroduce tax holiday under section 80IB for housing projects constructed after March 31, 2008.” Tax holiday for hotels, under section 80ID should be extended to 10 years from existing time limit of 5 years, in view of the long gestation period for the industry, he said.
In a pre-Budget wishlist, Vinod Juneja, managing director, Braj Binani Group, said, “I expect the finance minister to target the GDP growth of at least 8% or higher for the next 3 financial years.” “On tax reforms front, I would be very happy to see the reduction in individual income tax levels as it leaves the consumer with more spending power hence builds consumption leading to higher economy growth. Also I expect reduction in the corporate tax rates.”
Health-care costs are skyrocketing and are going beyond the reach of a common man. The need of the hour is to bring this sector under different schedule with a special status and declare some very important tax rebates to this sector to reduce the ultimate cost to the patient:
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India , the apex audit body, has decided to audit the accounts of five telcos– Bharti Airtel , Reliance, Tata, Vodafone and the state-run BSNL– for 2009-10. Telecom regulator TRAI has already appointed a nodal officer to facilitate this audit exercise.
The ministry of corporate affairs has asked the Registrar of Companies (RoC) to submit a detailed report under Section 234 of the Companies Act seeking an explanation from Adani Exports (now known as Adani Enterprises) for its financial statements for the year 2004-05.
An insurance company is not liable for any deficiency of service if a policy holder fails to submit the information about the accident, damage and claim in writing, a consumer court has held. “The oral approach to the insurance company for appointment of the surveyor and to determine the damages to reimburse has no meaning unless the required information of the accident, damage and claim are submitted in writing,” the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum (Central) has said.
The cement industry has urged the Centre to abolish import duty on raw materials such as coal, pet coke and gypsum since cement as a finished product does not attract duty. In its pre-Budget memorandum submitted to the Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, the Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA) has said the duty on coal, pet coke and gypsum should be abolished
To promote transparency in the financial transactions done by the Gram Panchayats in the state, the Orissa government has decided to rope in the services of the Chartered Accountants (CAs) for compilation of data at the grassroot level. The state government with technical assistance of the National Informatics Centre (NIC) has developed a software for the purpose.
