Wipro Chairman Azim Premji on Thursday came out strongly against the idea of formulating laws on mandatory spending by industry on corporate social responsibility. “I don’t think you generate CSR by putting statutory requirements. I think there is enough social consciousness among the larger companies to drive it on the basis of what they consider their responsibility,” he said.
The British government on Wednesday said that first-time house buyers in the United Kingdom will be offered interest free loans to help them get a foot on the housing ladder. Up to 10,000 people will receive loans of up to 20 per cent of the value of new properties, Chancellor George Osborne said, while presenting the Budget for 2011-2012 in the House of Commons.
Orissa will hereafter be called ‘Odisha’ and the Oriya language will be known as ‘Odia’ with Parliament giving approval to amendment of the Constitution and also passing the related bill. The Rajya Sabha passed the Orissa (the Alteration of Name) Bill and adopted the Constitution (113th) Amendment Bill after a brief debate with members from all parties hailing the move as “historic” for people of the state.
Full exemption from levy of Special Additional Duty of Customs has been provided to Ships; Aircrafts imported by non-scheduled operators and specified parts of personal computers viz., Microprocessor for computer, other than motherboards, Floppy disc drive, Hard disc drive, CD-ROM drive, DVD Drive/DVD Writers, Flash memory and Combo drive. The exemption on parts of personal computers is subject to actual user condition.
In respect of levy of excise duty @ 1% on jewellery and other articles of precious metals which bear or are sold under a brand name, the provisions of Rule 12AA of the Central Excise Rules and Rules 2 & 4 of the Cenvat Credit Rules as amended by Notification Nos. 8/2011-Central Excise (N.T.) and 9/2011-Central Excise (N.T.) both, dated 24th March, 2011 may kindly be referred to. As in the case of branded garments, in case of goods falling under Chapter heading 7113 and 7114 also, where a brand owner gets jewellery or articles other than jewellery made from any other person, and supplies the raw materials such as gold/ silver/ gemstones etc. (of Chapter 71) to the job-worker for such manufacture, the duty liability would be on such person who gets jewellery or articles made from the job worker, unless the job worker opts to discharge the duty liability. However, a person manufacturing jewellery of heading 7113 or articles of heading 7114 bearing a brand name or sold under a brand name on his own account will be liable to pay excise duty unless he claims benefit of the SSI exemption.
Levy of 1% Excise Duty without Cenvat Credit on 130 items: 1 The following changes have been made with respect to levy of 1% excise duty on 130 items which were fully exempt till 1st March 2011: (i) Out of the 130 items covered under Notification 1/2011-CE, dated 1-3-2011, 35 items have been notified under section 4A of the Central Excise Act, 1944 with an abatement of 35%. Notification No. 11/2011-CE (NT), dated 24th March, 2011 refers. The excise duty (and CVD) on these goods will thus be charged on the assessable value determined under section 4A.
Committing to expedite the financial sector reforms, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today exuded confidence that India will achieve over 9 per cent economic growth rate in the coming years. “With strong macro-economic fundamentals and the resilience shown… by the economy in face of adversities, I am confident that we are headed for a 9 per cent plus growth in the coming years”, Mukherjee said while addressing a award function organised by Bloomberg UTV television channel.
The Reserve Bank of India has imposed a penalty of Rs 1 lakh on Bhabhar Vibhag Nagrik Sahakari Bank Ltd (BVNSBL) in Gujarat for not complying with the guidelines on reporting financial transactions of over Rs 10 lakh. “The RBI has imposed a penalty of Rs 1 lakh on the Bhabhar Vibhag Nagrik Sahakari Bank Limited, of district Banaskantha,” an official statement said yesterday.
Ministry of Corporate Affairs [MCA], Government of India, had on 3 March 2011, hosted on its website, the revised Schedule VI to the Companies Act, 1956 which deals with the Form of Balance sheet, Profit & Loss Account and disclosures to be made therein. The revised Schedule VI has been framed as per the existing non-converged Indian Accounting Standards notified under the Companies (Accounting Standards), Rules, 2006 and has no connection with the converged Indian Accounting Standards. It was then mentioned that the revised Schedule VI will apply to all the companies uniformly for the financial statements to be prepared for the financial year 2010-11 and onwards. The text of the revised Schedule VI is available at http://www.mca.gov.in/
Market Research Agency’s Services means any service provided or to be provided to any person, by a market research agency in relation to market research of any product, service or utility, in any manner. “Market research agency” means any person engaged in conducting market research in any manner, in relation to any product, service or utility, including all types of customized and syndicated research services.
