Amid growing concern over the problem of black money, President Pratibha Patil said on Friday the war against the menace should be fought through domestic and cross-border measures.The President, while addressing the concluding ceremony of celebrations for 150 years of the Income Tax Department, also made a strong case for tightening laws to book tax evaders."The war against black money has to be addressed both domestically and through cross border measures," she said, adding the efforts to enhance global cooperation need to continue."There has to be continued (cooperation) through appropriate agreement on tax information exchange, and on mutual cooperation between countries to track down evaders taking shelter in other jurisdictions", she said.On the domestic front, Patil said: "Fostering of an environment of voluntary compliance will help. There is also need for putting in place measures, through laws and procedures, to ensure that recalcitrant tax evaders are brought to book".It may be recalled the government has taken various initiatives to deal with the menace of black money and has set up several committees to ascertain the extent of black money and suggest measures to tighten tax laws.On the international front, the government has been taking a pro-active role at global forums especially G-20, revising bilateral tax treaties and signing new pacts with tax havens or low tax jurisdictions.Speaking on broad policy issues on taxation, the President said the interface with compliant taxpayers, especially small taxpayers, senior citizens and pensioners must be initiated and maintained on a continuous basis, for a feedback on difficulties being faced by them."Rectifications in systems and processes, if required, can then be carried out in real time. At the same time, the use of electronic modes for filing returns should be further popularised in the interest of greater efficiency", Patil said.In 2011-12, about 92 lakh taxpayers used the e-filing facility for income tax returns.Patil also expressed confidence that with the widening of the present taxpayer base by about 3.5 crore taxpayers, the direct tax-to-GDP ratio should rise beyond the present figure of 6.1 per cent.She said that for any dynamic institution, innovation is the keyword. "There should be periodic interaction between officers, holding of brainstorming seminars and workshops as well as study of international best practices and experience sharing...," she said.The President said dialogue with major think tanks, economic institutions and experts for fostering of innovative and new solutions to the problems which confront tax administration, could be intellectually stimulating, and can also generate some new ideas.She said a major initiative to reform and simplify tax laws has been launched with the introduction of the Direct Tax Coder now under consideration of Parliament.Direct tax contributes about half of the Central Government's revenues.(PTI)
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Brent crude fell below $115 a barrel on Monday, weighed down by expectations that OPEC's oil output in May would come in higher than April, while investors also kept an eye on demand from top consumer the United States as the summer driving season begins.More oil from top exporter Saudi Arabia and fellow OPEC members Nigeria and Iraq should push the group's total output higher and more than compensate for a further fall in Libyan supply in May, according to a Reuters survey.Brent fell 35 cents to $114.68 a barrel and US crude dropped 52 cents to $100.07 at 0804 GMT.7Reuters data showed that early morning trades were about one-quarter of the average trades done in the last two weeks due to public holidays in the United States and the UK. The US driving season traditionally kicks off on the weekend of Memorial Day, a public holiday taking place on Monday."The holidays have sidelined trades, as there are no aggressive buyers seen so far, but a weaker economy also seemed to have affected sentiment slightly," said Ken Hasegawa, a commodity derivatives manager at Newedge Brokerage in Tokyo.A plunge in US home sales reported last week could have stoked investor concerns. Industry data showed pending sales of existing US homes fell more than expected in April to hit a seven-month low, dashing hopes for a recovery in the vital housing market.However, eyes remained peeled on gasoline demand as there are uncertainties over the strength of the recovery in the world's largest economy."There are expectations of prices picking up purely because of the drive time in the US," said Jonathan Barratt of Commodity Broking Services managing director in Sydney. "We feel that might actually support crude prices."Still, government data ahead of the driving season last week showed gasoline demand over the previous four weeks down 2 percent on the year.High energy costs have sparked global concern as they are a drag on economic growth. A slowdown in economic expansion would in turn slow the growth in demand for fuel.In France, the Group of Eight world leaders agreed that the global economic recovery was becoming more "self-sustained", although they said higher commodity prices were hampering further growth.Middle EastFighting in Libya has almost shut down output in what used to be Africa's third-largest producer, but supply from all 12 members of OPEC is expected to average 28.90 million barrels per day (bpd) this month to help cover the gap.This is up from a revised 28.79 million bpd in April, the Reuters survey of oil companies, OPEC officials and analysts found. In small, independent oil producer Yemen, forces loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh opened fire on protesters in the southern city of Taiz on Sunday, killing at least six people and wounding 120, hospital sources said.In the capital Sanaa, seven explosions were heard on Sunday night in the district of Hasaba, the scene of a week-long fighting between Saleh's forces and a rival tribe in which 115 people were killed, residents said.Global powers are worried the country, already on the verge of financial collapse and home to al-Qaeda militants, could turn into a failed state that threatens the oil-rich region and its neighbour Saudi Arabia.(Reuters)
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India's annual monsoon rains have hit Kerala two days earlier than expected, weather officials said on Sunday, boosting prospects for a harvest that could spur Asia's third-largest economy.The July-September monsoon irrigates 60 per cent of India's farms and good rains will brighten hopes for a bumper harvest that should ease high food prices and boost the purchasing power of the 600 million Indians dependent on agriculture.Higher farm supplies could also encourage the government to allow wheat and rice exports, restricted since 2007 to boost domestic supplies to fight high food prices."It's been raining over the Kerala coast and over the Andaman sea," a senior official of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) told Reuters, declining to be named as he is not authorised to speak to the media.The monsoon generally hits the mainland around June 1 and covers the rest of India by mid-July. The weather office predicted earlier it would arrive in Kerala on May 31.They have forecast a normal monsoon this year, which would give India rainfall of between 96-104 percent of the 50-year average of 89 cm (35 inches) during the four-month period.Predictions have often been proved wrong in the past, most recently two years ago when the IMD failed to predict the worst drought in nearly four decades. But if the forecast is right, 2011 will see the second straight year of normal rains.(Reuters)
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Reliance Industries has said its eastern offshore KG-D6 gas field development cost is much less than what Gujarat government company GSPC and state-owned ONGC are spending on projects in the vicinity of its KG basin find.Reliance had in 2004 proposed a $2.4 billion investment for producing 40 million cubic metres per day of gas from 5.32 trillion cubic feet of reserves in the D1/D3 fields of the KG-D6 block. Later, in 2006, it revised the capital expenditure requirement to $5.2 billion in Phase-I for producing a higher 80 mmscmd of gas from 11.3 tcf of reserves.Replying to a draft audit report of the CAG, which said that the increase in field cost would mean a lower profit take for the government, Reliance said, "It has set a benchmark for the lowest project costs across the world."Its cost estimates for producing gas from the deepsea KG-D6 block are the lowest even in comparison to shallow water projects."Oil and Natural Gas Corp's block KG-D5 in vicinity, with a discovery made in 2001, has 1.9 tcf of gas reserves with an estimated development cost of $7.7 billion, for which a development plan is under preparation."Gujarat State Petroleum Corp's (GSPC) shallow water block in the same basin, which had a discovery in 2003, is estimated to cost $2 billion to develop 1.4 tcf," it said.ONGC's KG-D5 block sits next to Reliance's KG-D6 area, where the first discovery was made in 2002. While Reliance took six years to bring KG-D6 gas on to production, even after 10 years of the first discovery, ONGC has not yet been able to put together a development plan.Reliance said the allegations that government revenue interests have been affected by the 'gold-plating' are completely false. The New Exploration Licencing Policy, under which Reliance had won the KG-D6 block in 2000, brought an end to the 'cost plus regime', where firms got a fixed return on all the capital they invested.Under NELP, a contractor like Reliance "never benefits by an increase in costs," it said, adding it was imperative to view the revenue interest of the government from the point of view of the contribution of the project to the nation."Needless to say, inspite of all the noise, the draft CAG report has found nothing to suggest that Reliance indulged in 'gold-plating' viz that Reliance placed orders on its own affiliates at inflated costs or that payments made to vendors came back to Reliance," the voluminous 250-page response said.After an extensive and detailed audit process, in which eight CAG officials spent six months on Reliance premises, "CAG does not state that any evidence exists to support any case that the contract cost has been dishonestly inflated.""Using the benefit of hindsight, the CAG cannot question the technical and operational judgements of the operator that were in effect the best possible judgements at the time, based on the best information available," it added. (PTI)
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Median forecast from a poll of 28 economists is for an annual growth of 8.2 per cent in the quarter through March, unchanged from the previous quarter.Forecasts ranged from 6.3 per cent to 8.9 per cent.The economy is expected to have grown 8.5 per cent in fiscal year 2010-11 that ended in March, just below the 8.6 percent estimated by the government, and up from 8 percent a year earlier, the poll showed.Forecasts for the full fiscal year growth ranged between 8.0 per cent and 8.7 per cent.Factors To Watch# India's industrial output grew an annual 7.3 per cent in March, smashing forecasts on the back of a revival in capital goods production.# Services sector gained momentum in April, with strong growth in new business orders, a HSBC survey showed early this month.# Manufacturing sector maintained its strong rate of expansion in April, helped by higher output and employment, the latest purchasing managers' index (PMI) data showed.# While both input and output price indexes fell from the highs seen in March, they remained way above the 50 mark as soaring fuel and raw material prices drove up costs and fed into output prices, a clear indication that high inflation was here to stay.# India's headline inflation eased to 8.66 percent in April, but upward revisions to past readings and the prospect of higher energy prices will keep pressure on the central bank to raise interest rates in June and maintain its hawkish stance.# The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which has been one of the most aggressive of major central banks in tightening policy, early this month raised rates by a higher-than-forecast 50 basis points and said it was willing to sacrifice a bit of growth to tame inflation.# The RBI has raised its policy rate nine times by a total of 250 basis points since March 2010.# Most economists in a recent Reuters poll expect the central bank to raise rates by at least another 75 basis points in 2011.# Monsoon rains, which are vital for boosting farm production and rural incomes in the nation of more than 1.2 billion people, have been forecast to be normal in 2011.Market Impact# Bond dealers said a March-quarter GDP growth number of around 8.1-8.3 percent will have little market impact.# However, they said a number below 8 per cent could push yields down by 4 to 5 basis points as the market has been heavily sold in recent sessions, while a number above 8.5 per cent could push up yields by 2 to 3 basis points.(Reuters)
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Tutorial services provider Career Point Infosystems saw a dream market debut on Wednesday as investors bet on robust growth outlook for the Indian education sector, though analysts viewed it as an expensive buy.Shares in Career Point more than doubled on listing, to end almost 104 per cent up at Rs 632.35 in a Mumbai market that rose 0.66 percent. Nearly 15 million shares changed hands, making it one of the most active stocks on the Bombay Stock Exchange.Rajasthan-based Career Point provides tutorial services for various entrance examinations, including the highly competitive engineering and medical exams for admission into India's premier colleges.Although the company has a niche play in terms of service offering, it is focused only in a particular region, which may hurt its growth avenues in the near term, Angel Broking analyst Shristi Anand said.The company's revenue outlook of Rs 830-840 million and Rs 250 million in profit this year makes its 12-month forward price to earnings ratio "very high" at about 40, Anand said."Tutorial services business is too localised. For them to go pan-India, it will take some time to establish leadership. So we would suggest exit by taking the listing gains," she added.Career Point, which raised Rs 1.15 billion through the public issue, intends to utilise the proceeds to meet costs of construction and development of an integrated campus facility and to build classroom infrastructure.VVLN Sastry, country head, Firstcall India Equity Advisors, said companies like Career Point and Firstobject Technologies Ltd enjoy a lot of attention due to "an e-education buzz,", but there was definitely some profit-taking risk with the stock.Analyst Krupal Maniar of ICICI Securities said despite people's inclination towards "recession-free stories," Career Point is "definitely expensive" at this level."There is always some fancy valuation attached to these stocks, specially when the market is moving up and you are flooded with liquidity," Maniar, who also advises profit taking on the stock, said.IPO AppetiteCareer Point follows in the wake of successful listings by Microsec Financial Services on Tuesday and movie distributor Eros International Media on Wednesday, both of which debuted at significant premiums, underscoring a revival in investor appetite for Indian share sales.Foreign funds have bought a record $20.1 billion of Indian equities so far this year, with more than one-third of that having come in since the start of September. Dealers expect foreign fund inflows to maintain pace at least until end-October.A swarm of Indian companies plan IPOs in the next few weeks, tapping a market trading at 33-month highs, and rushing to get out of the way of many jumbo state-run offerings expected over the next couple of months."There is big appetite from all the funds in Singapore, Hong Kong for education stocks in India, and we believe there are very few companies where they can invest," Naushil Shah, an analyst with Anand Rathi Securities, said.Since Career Point has a franchise-based business model, it will not require significant money to be invested upfront, which will raise profitability, Shah said.(Reuters)
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India's Tata Group has given a whopping $50 million to the prestigious Harvard Business School here to fund a new academic and residential building on its campus, the largest gift received by the institute from an international donor in its 102-year-old history.The gift comes from Tata Companies, the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and the Tata Education and Development Trust, the philanthropic entities of the Group.It comes days after Anand Mahindra, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Mahindra and Mahindra Group, gave $10 million to the Humanities Centre at Harvard. A Harvard alumnus, Mahindra gave the gift, the "largest" in the Centre's history, in honour of his mother Indira Mahindra.Ratan Tata, Chairman of Tata Sons, attended Harvard's Advanced Management Programme -- one of three comprehensive leadership programmes offered by the Harvard Business School's (HBS') Executive Education in 1975.He had also received the School's highest honour, the Alumni Achievement Award, in 1995.The School said it will use the $50 million gift from the Tata Group to fund a new academic and residential building on its campus for participants in its broad portfolio of Executive Education programmes.HBS hopes to break ground for the building, which will be named Tata Hall, next spring. It is expected to be open for use by late 2013.Calling it a privilege and a pleasure to "give back to Harvard a little bit of what it gave to me," Tata said he hoped the new facility would encourage and inspire future leaders to take advantage of the executive education offerings at HBS."The Harvard Business School is the preeminent place to be exposed to the world's best thinking on management and leadership and we are pleased that this gift will support the School's educational mission to mold the next generation of global business leaders," Tata said.Expressing "deep appreciation" for Tata's "generosity," Harvard Business School's Indian-origin Dean Nitin Nohria said the "historic" gift comes from an organisation "revered" for its significant economic, civic and philanthropic impact."The Tata Group is widely respected for integrity and innovation, not just in India where it produced both the first indigenous car and the 2,000 dollar Tata Nano automobile ? but in a variety of business lines across several continents, from cars to hotels and from tea to information technology," Nohria said. (More) PTI YASHarvard University President Drew Faust said Tata knows "firsthand the transformative educational opportunities" offered through the School's Executive Education programmes."Thanks to this generous gift, HBS will be able to expand its already robust offerings in Executive Education, deepening ties with leaders across the country and around the globe."Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, who joined Tata and Nohria for the announcement today, said the 50 million dollar gift will help create jobs in the city.HBS launched the Advanced Management Programme, the world's first Executive Education programme, in 1945.More than 9,000 business leaders from around the world enroll in the Executive Education programmes at HBS as well as in off-campus locations each year, participating in a range of comprehensive and custom programmes.Currently, more than 50 per cent of participants are from outside the US and enroll in over 75 open enrolment Executive Education programmes and more than 60 custom programmes.Tata earned a degree in architecture from Cornell University in 1962. He had given an endowment of USD 50 million to Cornell in 2008 for agriculture and nutrition programmes and for the education of Indian students at Cornell.He was named one of the 30 most respected CEOs in the world by Barron's magazine in 2007, the same year the Tata Group was awarded the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy.In 2008, he was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People.(PTI)
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In a major setback to yet another Vedanta project, the Orissa High Court on Tuesday quashed the land acquisition procedure for the proposed Rs 15,000 crore Vedanta University along the Konark-Puri Marine Drive.Terming the state government notifications made for the land acquisition as illegal, a division bench comprising Chief Justice V Gopalgowda and Justice B P Das directed the company to return the awarded land to the original owners.At least two PILs and six individual petitions were filed in the High Court since 2007 challenging the land acquisition procedures for the proposed university project.The petitions had said that Land Acquisition Company rules, 1963 had not been properly followed.The proposed project would have caused extreme debilitating impact on the eco system as well as the local bio-diversity, the petitioners had contested.Similarly, the status of the company was also questioned on the ground that it was not properly formed as per the Company's Act.Several sections under Land Acquisition Act 1894 along with Land Acquisition (Amendment) Act, 1984 and Land Acquisition (Company) Rules 1963 and Companies Act 1956 were discussed during the combined adjudications of the petitions.The High Court framed 17 issues and thereafter proceeded discussing each of these issues and held that land acquisition procedure for Vedanta were illegal in all these 17 counts.Accordingly, the High Court quashed the land acquisition notifications and also the award proceedings in favour of the company and directed them to return the land to the original owners.The government had in August denied environment clearance for Vedanta's $1.7 billion bauxite mining project in Orissa on grounds of serious violation of forest laws.The petitioners had pointed out that the proposed university project site, which was to come up near Puri, about 60 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, was close to Balukhand Konark Black Buck Sanctuary and a river.They also objected to inclusion of a large chunk of land belonging to Lord Jagannath temple in the proposed site.Sterlite Foundation, a private limited company which subsequently changed its name to Vedanta Foundation in 2004, entered into an MoU with Orissa government on 19 July, 2006 to set up a university near Puri.The company had proposed to set up the university for undergraduate and post graduate courses in engineering, medicine, management, general science and humanities. It had asked the government to make available vast areas of contiguous land around Nuanai along Puri-Konark Marine Drive.Accordingly Orisa government confirmed availability of contiguous land of about 8,000 acres and subsequently notifications were issued for acquiring 6,500 acres including about 500 acres of land belonging to Lord Jagannath temple.The proposed project had evoked strong protest from areas near Puri with senior Congress leader Uma Ballabh Rath spearheading an agitation demanding its scrapping. Rath was among the first to file PIL in the High Court challenging the university project.(PTI)
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Environment Ministry is all set to revoke the green clearance granted to the Rs 15,000- crore Vedanta University project near Puri in Orissa, which had been opposed by a section of locals, in view of a recent court order declaring "illegal" the land acquisition process.In April, the ministry had suspended environment clearance to the project following allegations of "illegal activities" by promoters, the Anil Agarwal Foundation.It had directed that all construction and development works be halted until a detailed examination of the complaints is completed by an Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) and a final decision taken on the issue.However, sources in the ministry told PTI that now there was no question of giving clearance to the project in the wake of the adverse Orissa High Court ruling."The court has already declared the land acquisition process illegal. Hence there is no question of seeking further clarification in the matter," they said.The University was proposed to be built on 6,000 acres along the Orissa coast between Puri and Konark which was opposed by environmentalists as well activists alleging that the project would pose a serious threat to natural biodiversity and wildlife in the nearby Balukhand sanctuary.Responding to several PILs filed in the court alleging that Orissa government and Vedanta did not follow the Land Acquisition (companies) Rules (1963), a bench comprising Chief Justice V Gopalgowda and Justice B P Das last week ordered the return of acquired land to their owners.The court held that the land acquisition notification for the Vedanta University project was illegal and ordered Vedanta to return the plots to their owners.The Environment Ministry too while suspending the clearance had alleged that it had "received information alleging, inter alia, irregularities, illegal, unethical and unlawful deeds" by the Foundation.It also noted that "serious objections raised during Orissa Coastal Zone Management Authority meeting had not been appropriately considered" in issuing the clearance.(PTI)
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Police sifted through forensic evidence and security camera footage and questioned members of a home-grown Islamist militant group for clues to the worst bomb blasts in Mumbai since Pakistan-based militants attacked the financial hub in 2008, officials said on Thursday.There has so far been no claim of responsibility for setting off three near-simultaneous improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which were packed with ammonium nitrate during evening rush hour on Wednesday, killing 18 people."There was no intelligence regarding a militant attack in Mumbai. That is not a failure of intelligence agencies," Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram told a news conference."(We) know that perpetrators have attacked and have worked in a very, very clandestine manner."He said it was too early to point the finger at a particular group, but said the "coordinated terror attacks" could be in retaliation to a number of plots recently stopped by police or arrests, including from the Indian Mujahideen.The home ministry said in a statement police were interrogating some Indian Mujahideen members who were arrested some days before the attack, but it had no specific leads on who could be responsible.The Indian Mujahideen is a shadowy home-grown militant group known for its city-to-city bombing campaigns using small explosive devices planted in restaurants, at bus stops and on busy streets.The group has been accused of ties to Pakistani militant groups involved in attacks in Indian Kashmir as well as elsewhere in the country."It's very likely coordinated by Indian Mujahideen looking at the severity and scale of the attacks -- in the past they've used tiffin carrier bombs and IEDs," said Rohan Gunaratna, a Singapore-based al Qaeda expert.The bombings were the biggest attacks on Mumbai since the 2008 assaults killed 166 people, raised tensions with nuclear rival Pakistan, and left a city on edge.After a two-year chill following the November attacks, India and Pakistan have been trying to normalise ties and later in July their foreign ministers are due to hold talks.Pakistani leaders were swift in condemning the bombings, as was U.S. President Barack Obama. Top U.S. diplomat Hillary Clinton is also due in India for scheduled talks next week.Any suggestion of attributing blame for the latest bombings to Pakistan-based groups would complicate a fraught relationship between the two countries, and further unravel Pakistan's ties with the United States."We live in the most troubled neighbourhood in the world. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the epicentre of terrorism," said Chidambaram, adding that Pakistan had still not given India support in pursuing those behind the 2008 attacks in Mumbai.India's main opposition, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), blamed the government for its laxness towards security."This repeated attacks on Bombay should be viewed as a policy failure. It is not an intelligence failure," top BJP leader L.K. Advani, a former deputy prime minister, said.Chidambaram said 18 people had died in the attacks, lowering an earlier figure of 21. He said 23 of the 131 wounded and admitted to hospitals were in a critical state.Jewellery TargetsThe blasts came as beleaguered Prime Minister Manmohan Singh struggles to get past a series of corruption scandals and a resurgent opposition that has led to policy paralysis in Asia's third largest economy. A cabinet reshuffle this week was criticised as too little, too late.Singh left for Mumbai on Thursday evening, but details of his visit were not immediately available.Mumbai, a coastal city of 20 million people that is home to India's main stock exchanges, has a long history of deadly bombings and Wednesday's attacks did not rattle financial markets.The bombings were centered mainly on south Mumbai's bustling jewellery market districts, crowded with diamond and precious metals traders and artisans.The blasts occurred at rush hour at about 6.45 pm (1315 GMT) on Wednesday within minutes of each other. One bomb was placed at the side of the road, concealed under garbage and a food cart, another hidden under an umbrella near a motorbike and a third on the roof of a bus stop."These IEDs were not crude devices, but it seems that they were made with some sophistication. Those who made them had prior training," Home Secretary Raj Kumar Singh told reporters. He said they were detonated with some form of timers.He said police were investigating whether electric wires found attached to a body had anything to do with the bombs. U.K. Bansal, the country's top internal security official, did not rule out the possibility of a suicide bomber but said there was no firm evidence yet.The biggest and deadliest blast was in the Opera House area, a crowded hub for diamond traders. Pakistani-based militants carried out the rampage in 2008 near the same area.Another blast, also in south Mumbai, was at the Zaveri Bazaar, India's largest bullion market which was hit twice in the past. The third blast was at Dadar, in a street housing Muslim and Hindu shops in the centre of the coastal city.(Reuters)
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