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MSME
- The Sector through more than 6,000 products contributes about 8% to GDP besides 45% to the total manufacturing output and 40% to the exports from the country. The Sector is expected to perform an equal important role during the 12th Five Year Plan Period (2012-13 to 2016-17) in enabling the country to achieve the envisaged overall growth rate of 9% during the Plan.
- National Innovation Council has been constituted by the Prime Minister to encourage and promote innovation in every sector of the economy and MSME sector has got a special emphasis under this Innovation Council and a Sectoral Council has been constituted for the MSME sector and has started functioning under the Chairmanship of Secretary (MSME).
- Stating that the Ministry of MSME is implementing the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Programme (NMCP), Government has set up a Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro & Small Enterprise (CGFTMSE).
‘9,900 pieces of information on black money obtained'
- Having impressed upon the G-20 nations the need to adopt automatic sharing of banking and tax-related information at the Paris Ministerial meeting last weekend, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday sought to highlight the “noteworthy” achievements and the progress made back home in unearthing unaccounted income.
- a huge information network had been created through amended DTAAs (double taxation avoidance agreements) with 81 nations and four TIEAs (tax information exchange agreements) with four tax havens
- Specific requests in 333 cases (220 by Foreign Tax Division of the Central Board of Direct Taxes and 113 by the Financial Intelligence Unit) have been made by Indian authorities for obtaining information from foreign jurisdictions. Over 9,900 pieces of information regarding suspicious transactions by Indian citizens from several countries have been obtained which are now under different stages of investigation
- The revised DTAA with Switzerland, the Minister said, would allow India to obtain banking information from the European nation in specific cases for a period starting from April 1, 2011. India is also “constructively” engaged with Mauritius to update the tax avoidance treaty in line with international practices.
- The investigation wing of the CBDT has also unearthed concealed income worth Rs.18,750 crore during the last two fiscals while over 30,700 pieces of domestic information on suspicious transactions are under investigation by various agencies
- The Directorate of Transfer Pricing had detected mispricing of Rs.34,145 crore in the past two fiscal years and thereby prevented the outflow of this amount, while the Directorate of International Taxation has collected taxes of Rs.33,784 crore from cross-border transactions in the last two financial years
SAIL not to issue fresh equity
- Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) has decided not to issue any fresh equity and instead go ahead with its proposal to offload 5 per cent stake in the premium company.
- The government holds 85.82 per cent stake in the Maharatna company. The 5 per cent stake sale in SAIL is likely to fetch the government over Rs.2,000 crore at current market prices.
- On the ONGC disinvestment issue, he said the government would try to complete it by December end.The government plans to offload 5 per cent stake in the company, which would fetch it around Rs.12,000 crore, nearly one-third of the budget disinvestment target of Rs.40,000 crore.
Global turmoil will impact growth: Pranab
- Mr. Mukherjee admitted that the ongoing global turmoil and consequent slowdown would impact the country's growth, thwart measures to control inflation and thereby pose a challenge to adhering to the fiscal deficit target.
- Mr. Mukherjee attributed the domestic slowdown and rising inflation to the global problems, especially the rising crude oil and commodity prices in international markets which cast a huge economic burden and consequent near double-digit inflation which called for monetary tightening and rise in interest rates lead to a fall in fresh investments.
- Mr. Mukherjee said that while WPI based inflation had remained sticky at around 9 per cent during the first half this fiscal owing to a variety of reasons, he hoped that it would ease to about seven per cent by the end of March next year.
- Mr. Mukherjee referred to the Direct Taxes Code and legislations on the Goods and Services Tax, insurance and pension reforms bill were before the Standing Committee which required support from the entire opposition.
