The construction sector has requested for a review of the changes in the service tax law proposed in this year’s Budget. Several suggestions have been made by the trade associations. Considering all the inputs, I propose to provide tax relief to this sector by enhancing their rate of abatement from 67% to 75% of the gross value where such value includes the value of the land constructed upon. Certain procedural bottlenecks relating to the completion certificate prescribed in the law would also be simplified.
Full exemption from excise duty has been provided to betel nut product commonly known as ‘supari’. This exemption is now being extended to scented supari. Central excise duty on corrugated boxes and cartons was reduced from 8% to 4% when they are manufactured starting from kraft paper. I propose to extend the exemption to cover units that manufacture such cartons from corrugated paper or paperboard also.
The Coffee growers in the country have been facing long standing financial problems ever since the coffee prices fell to very low levels during the period 2000-2004. Relief Packages in the form of Special Coffee Term Loan 2002 and Special Coffee Relief Package 2005 were sanctioned to revive coffee sector, besides other initiatives like PM’s Relief Package for Debt Stressed farmers and Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme 2008. However, a large number of affected growers did not get the required relief.
Considering the pressing need for more hospitals all over the country, it is proposed to include the business of a new hospital anywhere in India, with at least one hundred beds for patients, as a ‘specific business’ for availing the benefit of investment linked deduction.
The income-tax department has served service tax notices on IPL sponsors DLF, Adidas and Religare. Sources said the tax demand on DLF, the title sponsor which is supposed to pay Rs 40 crore a year as sponsorship fee for five years, was Rs 4.8 crore for the league’s first edition in 2008. Adidas and Religare sponsored teams.
The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the Finance Bill for 2010-11, with a special relief package for coffee growers, and tax concessions for healthcare, auto and realty sectors, but without any change in the levies on petroleum products. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee moved the bill after the fresh amendments after a 50-minute final reply to the debate on the subject in the lower house of parliament, which was then passed by voice vote.
The CBI today arrested two senior officers of the Ministry of Home Affairs in two separate cases — an alleged excise evasion racket in the Union Territory of Daman, and an alleged scam in the purchase of bulletproof jackets for use by central police forces.
The Government is likely to place in the public domain by next month a revised discussion paper on the proposed Direct Taxes Code (DTC). After a quick round of consultations with some of the major stakeholders, the draft legislation (Bill) on DTC will be introduced in Parliament in the Monsoon Session, the Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, told the Lok Sabha here on Wednesday.
If everything goes well as planned, India will be ready to have internationalised domain names on the Internet in seven Indian languages — Hindi, Bangla, Punjabi, Urdu, Tamil, Telugu and Gujarati — by next year.
Against the backdrop of multi-crore Satyam fraud, the accounting regulator ICAI has sought information from 150 chartered accountant firms, including multi-national corporations, to see whether they circumvented laws while providing auditing services in the country.
