Thursday, July 19, 2012

HEADLINES

• Revenue department threatens action against Kingfisher Airlines for recovery of service tax dues; the airline has been collecting service tax from customers but not depositing the same with the Govt
• The Orient Cement factory at Devapur in Adilabad has won the prestigious national-level Golden Peacock award this year for its contribution towards occupational health, safety and environment

NATIONAL NEWS

• Tax info rules relaxed to tackle black money menace
  • In a major easing of disclosure norms to help nab tax evaders and stub the black money menace across the world, the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Wednesday amended its rules on obtaining classified tax information by partner-countries;
  • By updating Article 26 of the model tax convention, which stands for the international standard on exchange of information related to financial data, including instances of black money and money laundering, the OECD has sought to allow the member-countries to obtain information about a group of tax payers from another country, without verifying their identities separately;
  • While Switzerland has been the first to respond, a significant beneficiary of this relaxation in regulation, among other nations, would be India as the measure seeks to increase tax transparency between nations. This is because India also deploys the OECD model convention to elicit and obtain classified tax information from foreign nations;
  • This means tax authorities are able to ask for information on a group of taxpayers, without naming them individually, as long as the request is not a ‘fishing expedition’. This update represents a step forward towards more transparency.
• IGI Airport, Delhi, gets credit for cutting carbon emissions
  • After Bangalore airport, Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi has become the second airport in the country to get accreditation for its “efforts in managing and reducing” carbon emissions;
  • The Airport Council International (ACI), a global body of airports, has accredited the IGI airport, which is run by Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), at Level 2 “reduction” under the Airport Carbon Accreditation programme;
  • Airport Carbon Accreditation is an institutionally endorsed programme that assesses and recognises airports’ efforts to manage and reduce their carbon emissions. The participating airports can be certified at four progressive levels of accreditation -- mapping, reduction, optimisation and neutrality.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• Russia ratifies World Trade Organisation entry
  • Russia’s Upper House of Parliament has ratified the agreement to join the World Trade Organisation despite widespread opposition inside the country. The Federation Council voted 144 to four on Wednesday to approve the protocol on WTO entry, which took Russia 18 years to negotiate;
  • The State Duma, the Lower House, endorsed the document last week after a fierce debate, with all the three opposition parties voting against the bill. They argued that membership in the WTO would kill Russia’s manufacturing industries and agriculture;
  • Russia’s apex Constitutional Court had earlier rejected a petition against the WTO entry filed by more than 130 opposition MPs who claimed the terms on which Russia was entering the WTO would undermine its economic security;
  • Critics said Russia was entering the WTO on significantly worse terms than other emerging economies did. For instance, India has the average import tariff of 13.7%, whereas Russia has agreed to cut its import tariffs from an average 9.5% now to 6% by 2015.
• Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday expressed the hope that resumption of cricketing ties with India would prove to be a formidable confidence building measure and a way forward to encouraging people-to-people contact
• Congress is stepping up the pressure on the Obama administration to slap the terrorist label on the Haqqani network, a militant group responsible for plotting and launching attacks from Pakistan against U.S.—led forces in Afghanistan
• WikiLeaks on Wednesday announced a “new payment gateway” for donors through a non-profit French group Carte Bleue to beat a financial blockade imposed by leading western financial institutions, including VISA, MasterCard, PayPal and Western Union, shortly after it started publishing secret American diplomatic cables in 2010

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS & COLUMNS

• Read this article which discusses the importance of India-Myanmar relations
• Read this article about R.Gopalakrishnan, who was the architect of the Bharat Nirman program, who recently passed away