GORAKHPUR: Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik today said he has sought the sacking of cabinet minister Azam Khan for making comments against him in the state Assembly last month in which the latter had accused him of communally vitiating the atmosphere of the state at the behest of the Modi government.
“I have discussed with CM Akhilesh removal of Khan several times for his conduct and behaviour. When he returns from England we will talk again,” Naik told reporters here.
“The terminology used by Khan in the Assembly is condemnable. I’ve written to the CM for his removal from his ministry and informed Parliament. Doing this is my Constitutional right and duty also,” he said.
Earlier, the Governor had gone through the CD and script of Khan’s remarks on the floor of the House during discussions on March 8 and written to Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey.
@Agency report.
New Delhi : In yet another step aimed at reducing human interface between taxman and the taxpayer, the Income Tax department today operationalised a facility for e-filing of the first appeal before a tax officer.
The department said the facility of filing the appeal form, like filing Income Tax Returns (ITRs), can be done using a digital signature from now on, while the Electronic Verification (EVC) facility for the same using the Aadhaar, mobile number and email id will be activated soon on the official web portal of the tax department –http://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/.
The existing two-page document used for this, called ‘Form No. 35’, has been re-formatted by the department recently so that it can be electronically uploaded on the e-filing portal of the department.
In the new e-form, an applicant or taxpayer seeking appeal against an Assessing Officer’s order has been given an avenue to append ‘Statement of Facts’ in 1,000 words as also furnish the grounds of appeal in another 100 words.
Documentary evidence can also be appended to the new form by an assessee using the electronic internet-based facility.
The IT department has four stages of appeal mechanism for the assessees to put forth their grievance beginning with the Commissioner of IT (Appeals), the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), the High Court and finally the Supreme Court.
The new form is applicable for the CIT (Appeal) fora and those taxpayers who file e-returns will be eligible to use this new facility.
In view of launch of this facility and activation of a select category of ITRs today, the taxman has asked filers to “update their profile and select higher security option to secure their e-filing account” created over the portal.
The systems wing of the department will soon roll out detailed procedures for taxpayers to begin using this facility, a senior official said.
“Electronic filing of appeal along with the documents relied upon before CIT (Appeals) will remove human interface, reduce paperwork and decrease the transaction cost for the taxpayer. It would ensure consistent and error-free service as validations will be in-built, resulting in fewer deficient appeals. Online filing will also facilitate fixation of hearing of appeals electronically.
“The new format for filing of appeals is more structured, objective, systematic and aligned with the current provisions of the Income Tax Act,” the Central Board of Direct Taxes had earlier said.
With these changes, it had said, the “burden of compliance on the taxpayers in appellate proceedings will be significantly reduced.
@ Agency report.
London, Apr 2,2016 : The beleaguered Tata Steel may shut its British plants in six weeks if it does not find a buyer soon even as it is in talks to buy steel assets of one of German’s largest producers.
The Indian steel giant is only “going through the motions” of a sale and has privately given up hope of finding a white knight to rescue the loss-making unit and save 15,000 jobs, the Financial Times reported today, citing people familiar with the company’s internal plans.
“Tata Steel could mothball plants in as little as six weeks. They have to go through the motions. But if they have not found a buyer by the next board meeting at the end of April, they will close it and they are not expecting anyone to come forward now,” it said, citing a person.
The company is likely to appoint bankers to run through the sale process in the next few days.
The Daily Telegraph said Tata is in talks to buy the steel assets of one of Germany’s largest producers after quitting its operations in the UK. It has entered into discussions to merge its European business with ThyssenKrupp, to create one of Europe’s biggest industrial companies.
Tata Steel had in January announced laying off 750 workers in a desperate bid to salvage its ailing Port Talbot steel plant in South Wales – the UK’s biggest.
This week, Tata Steel announced plans to sell its entire UK business as the company battles to control its “deteriorating financial performance”, nine years after it had acquired Corus to become Europe’s second-largest steel maker.
The board of one of the world’s largest steelmakers met earlier this week to decide on the future course of action in a bid to steer its embattled operations in Europe out of the rut, which face supply glut, increase in cheap imports amid a continued weakness in demand in European markets.
The board noted with “deep concern the deteriorating financial performance of the UK subsidiary in the last 12 months”.
Tata acquired Corus, now Tata Steel Europe, in April 2007. The European behemoth was formed by a merger of British Steel and Dutch firm Koninklijke Hoogovens in 1999.
In its 2007-08 annual report, Tata Steel said it has completed the long-term financing programme for Corus acquisition.
Of the total enterprise value of USD 14.2 billion, at the close of Corus acquisition process on April 2, 2007, the financing included about USD 10.5 billion as bridge funding, the balance being applied out of Tata Steel’s own cash and borrowings.
However, shortly after the deal, an economic slowdown and continued weakness in European markets hit the company’s sales, from which the steel maker is still trying to recover.
While the global steel demand, especially in developed markets like Europe remained muted following the financial crisis of 2008, trading conditions in the UK and Europe have rapidly deteriorated more recently.
This is mostly due to structural factors such as global oversupply of steel, increase in third-country exports into Europe, high manufacturing cost, continued weakness in domestic steel demand and a volatile currency.
@ Agency report.
Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan jumped the gun with the announcement to create “a ministry of happiness”, with no groundwork for its implementation.
Inspired by Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness index — which calculates happiness based on ecology, health, time use, education, living standards, cultural diversity, communal vitality and psychological well-being — Chouhan made the announcement of this first of its kind ministry in the country during the BJP’s executive meet on Thursday.
He said worldly possessions and development through statistics were not the only measure of happiness, and that the ministry would work towards keeping people “genuinely happy”. But other than the inspiration, there is little in terms of foundation.
“We will work on the announcement now,” said a high-ranking government official, who did not want to be named.
The announcement comes at a time when the state is facing agrarian and financial crises, with reports of farmer suicides making headlines. In addition, at least 27 students killed themselves this year under the pressure of exams.
The 2014 National Crime Records Bureau report shows that Madhya Pradesh had the highest number of rapes at 5,076, and also topped the chart in terms of crimes against children — 16.9% of all crimes reported. Malnutrition, Infant Mortality Rate and Maternal Mortality Rate also remain alarming high.
In fact, India ranked a dismal 117th for 2012-14 in the World Happiness Report 2015, a report published by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
Even when implemented, India will not be the first to have such a ministry. Bhutan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Venezuela among others have similar ministries.
The UAE appointed its first minister of state for happiness in February. Media reports said its Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum underlined his vision in his tweet: “A new post, minister of state for happiness will align and drive government policy to create social good and satisfaction”.
“The (MP) government will study workings of the ministry in different countries and create its own model,” a source said.
State BJP vice-president Vijesh Lunawat touted it as another step to make the people of the state happier — after achieving “tremendous growth” and recording the highest agriculture growth rate in the country, winning the Centre’s Krishi Karman award four years in a row.
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Mexico City, Apr 2 ,2016: Experts have found evidence of a large fire in which at least 17 bodies were burned at a dump in southern Mexico, a member of the investigating team said, in the latest twist in the case of 43 missing teachers’ college students.
Ricardo Damian Torres, speaking from the offices of Mexico’s attorney general, said tests would be conducted in the coming weeks to determine whether it would have been possible to burn all 43 at the dump in the town of Cocula in Guerrero state, where the government has said the students’ bodies ended up after disappearing in nearby Iguala on Sept.26, 2014.
Relatives of the missing students have fiercely disputed the government’s version of events and multiple investigations by other teams of experts have concluded they could not have all been burned at the Cocula dump. The government’s perceived mishandling of the symbolic human rights case has dogged the administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto.
In yesterday’s brief press conference, Torres did not say when such a fire occurred or offer any explanation as to how the team conducted its research and reached its conclusion.
“There is sufficient evidence, including physically observable, to affirm that there was a controlled fire event of great dimensions in the place called the Cocula dump,” he said, speaking for the six-member fire-expert team and sitting beside Mexico’s deputy attorney general for human rights, Eber Betanzos. He took no questions.
In an interview with Milenio TV, Vidulfo Rosales, a lawyer representing the families, said they had not reviewed the experts’ report and could not discuss it. However, he expressed concern about the way the attorney general’s office was handling the investigation.
@ Agency report.
According to a notification, public institutions like post offices, employees provident fund organisation (EPFO) will be required to assess the unclaimed amounts and transfer them to ‘Senior Citizens Welfare Fund’ before March 1 every year.
The money will be utilised to promote financial security of senior citizens, old age pension, healthcare, health insurance and welfare of elderly widows. It will also fund schemes related to old-age homes, day care of senior citizens and research activities related with ageing.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Budget 2015-16 had announced creation of a fund using unclaimed deposits of about Rs 3,000 crore in the PPF, and Rs 6,000 crore in the EPF corpus.
The Fund, he said, “will be used to subsidise the premiums of vulnerable groups such as old age pensioners, BPL card-holders, small and marginal farmers and others”.
The number of senior citizens in the country is over 10.5 crore, out of which over one crore are above the age of 80 years. 70 per cent live in rural areas and a large number are in the BPL category.
As per the notification, the unclaimed amounts will be transferred from small savings and other savings schemes of the central government including the Post Office Savings Accounts, Recurring Deposit Accounts, Time Deposit Accounts, Monthly Income scheme, Senior Citizens’ Savings Scheme Accounts, Kisan Vikas Patra, National Savings Certificates, Sukanya Samriddhi Accounts and discontinued Small Savings Schemes.
Besides, unclaimed deposits in Public Provident Fund (PPF) and accounts of Employees Provident Fund will also be transferred to the newly created Fund.
However, before transferring the Fund, the institutions will try to contact each of the account holder of the unclaimed amount, including by way of written notice, e-mail and telephone, twice within a period of 60 days.
The institution will display the list prepared for the general information of the public, on the notice boards of the relevant offices and on the website of the Institution concerned for at least a period of 60 days, inviting claims, if any, the notification said.
The Fund, to be set up under the aegis of Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, will be managed by a committee headed by the Secretary of the Ministry. It will have representatives from Ministries of finance, labour, health, rural development and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation. The Committee will meet at least twice a year.
@ Agency report.
New Delhi, 2016 ,Apr 1 : Consumer loans today became cheaper with banks moving to a new way of setting lending rates following RBIs diktat to ensure faster and effective transmission of its policy rate cuts to borrowers. A number of banks, yesterday said that they would move to new methodology for setting lending rates from April 1.
RBI had asked banks to price fixed rate loans of up to three years based on marginal cost of funds from April 1. The lending rate based on marginal cost of funds is lower than base rate in some cases resulting in lower EMIs for borrowers. Most of the banks were deciding lending rates based on their average cost of funds. Experts have said implementation of Marginal Cost of Funds-based Lending Rate (MCLR) would bring down lending rate by up to 1 per cent in some cases. ICICI Bank in a statement said that it has fixed lending rate of 9.10 per cent for three-month loan, 9.15 per cent for six months and 9.20 per cent for one year loan. The base rate or the minimum lending rate of ICICI Bank is 9.35 per cent. Similarly, after implementing MCLR, Kotak Mahindra pegged lending rate at 9.60 per cent for one-year loan and for 3 years at 9.65 per cent. Kotak Mahindra Bank has fixed its base rate at 9.50 per cent. The MCLR is expected to address the RBIs primary objective of expediting monetary policy transmission along with augmenting uniformity and transparency in the calculation methodology of lending rates, ratings agency Ind-Ra has said.
@ Agency report.