Sunday, Mar 06, 2005
Sunday, Mar 06, 2005 |
| Business | ||||
|
News:
Front Page |
National |
Tamil Nadu |
Andhra Pradesh |
Karnataka |
Kerala |
New Delhi |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
Engagements |
Entertainment |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Business
By Our Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI, MARCH 5. The Centre will, starting with the current budget session, will introduce two new bills in Parliament to revamp the administration of direct and indirect taxes, the Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, said here today. The relevance of these pieces of legislation will be for a minimum period of five years or even more to ensure stability in the taxation regime so as to facilitate long-term planning by industry. At an interactive session — the last in the series on budget issues — organised by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), Mr. Chidambaram said one of the bills would be for a "brand new" Income-tax Act. This would be ready by December or by January 2006 and would be "Simple and understandable by a common man and contain minimum numbers of clauses and sections.'' These two laws apart, a separate bill on non-revenue tax administration issues would be introduced in the current session itself. This bill, the minister said, would include provisions on mergers and acquisitions and aim at removing the maze of unnecessary provisions that acted as a hindrance to taxpayers and business. He reiterated that the `Special Purpose Vehicle' (SPV) for long-gestation infrastructure projects, as announced in the budget 2005-06, would kick-off in about four to six weeks with a "viability gap" funding provision of Rs.1,500 crores wherein the SPV would raise Rs.10,000 crores from banks and financial institutions as lendable resources for the longer term. The Government had already identified projects in sectors such as roads, ports, airports and tourism that were to be funded through the SPV route, he said, and invited industry to forward viable projects for funding through this route. In a bid to be transparent and take India Inc. into confidence as partners in the nation-building process, Mr. Chidambaram urged industry magnates to take up post-budget "issues of concern" with the Government in sectors such as textiles, leather, banking, engineering, manufacturing and gems and jewellery for redressal. "If issues are found to be genuine, the concerns will be addressed with priority," the Minister said. Mr. Chidambaram also assured the corporates that if any of the measures as announced in the budget were seen as a hindrance to achieving higher growth, the Government would have an "open mind" to remove them. In his address, the Assocham President, Mahendra K. Sanghi, said the changes in the depreciation rates might prove to be a disincentive for industry, particularly capital-intensive industries and urged the Government to revisit the issue.
Printer friendly
page
News:
Front Page |
National |
Tamil Nadu |
Andhra Pradesh |
Karnataka |
Kerala |
New Delhi |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
Engagements |
Entertainment |
|
|
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | The Hindu eBooks | The Hindu Images | Home |
Copyright © 2005, The
Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu
|
