Mumbai: The Direct Taxes Code (DTC) Bill, which aims to overhaul the over 50-year-old I-T Act, is almost ready and will be taken up in the Monsoon session of Parliament, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Friday. "I am just writing the Direct Taxes Code. We will introduce it in the Monsoon session. We have another week's work on that," he said.
The Finance Minister was in Mumbai to attend the Silver Jubilee celebrations of market regulator SEBI.
The DTC Bill was introduced in Parliament in 2010 and was referred to the Standing Committee on Finance headed by senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha.
Among other things, the Committee had suggested raising the income tax exemption limit to Rs 3 lakh as against Rs 2 lakh proposed in the original DTC Bill. On corporate tax, it recommended that the rate be retained at 30 per cent....
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08:38 PM, May 24, 2013
Thiruvananthapuram: In a bid to resolve the rift between Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and KPCC Chief Ramesh Chennithala in the Kerala unit of Congress, CWC member and Defence Minister AK Antony held talks with supporters of Chandy and Chennithala at Kannur on Friday. The rift between Chandy and Chennithala following the confusion over non-induction of the latter into the cabinet snowballed into a crisis in Congress in the last few...
08:30 PM, May 24, 2013
New Delhi: Seeking to provide opportunities to orphan youth to join its ranks, the Indian Army has relaxed its recruitment rules to allow them to join the force. Army Chief General Bikram Singh has taken a decision to relax the rules for recruitment for orphan youth which will help them to join the force, Army officials said on Friday. Earlier, such youth faced problems in providing their exact date of...
08:29 PM, May 24, 2013
A Bollywood film by Nikhil Advani that makes its way to Pakistan, on the lines of Oscar-winning film 'Zero Dark Thirty', is scheduled to release on July 19. Starring Rishi Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, Irrfan Khan and Huma Quereshi, D-Day is about the mission to capture India's most wanted man from Pakistan. ...
02:34 PM, May 24, 2013
Cave HilL, Barbados: West Indies vice-captain Denesh Ramdin has backed his team to make a smooth transition to the 50-over format when they open their campaign in the ICC Champions Trophy starting next month. Several leading members of the squad have been campaigning in the Indian Premier League over the last six weeks but Ramdin said Thursday he expected no fallout from this. In fact, he contended that the IPL...
02:24 PM, May 24, 2013
Thiruvananthapuram: As the Congress led-UDF government completes three years in Kerala, there are more reasons to worry than cheer. The simmering rivalry between Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and state Congress President Ramesh Chennithala has now become an open conflict. An interview given to the New Indian Express has now openly pitted Chennithala against Chandy. A key bone of contention has been Chandy's failure to induct Chennithala into the Cabinet. After...
10:10 AM, May 24, 2013
New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will on Friday attend the silver jubilee celebrations of market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in Mumbai. A commemorative postage stamp and a book on the history of the Indian securities market will be released on the occasion. Singapore Deputy Prime Minister T Shanmugaratnam, who also holds the finance portfolio, will be the guest of honour. He is scheduled to deliver...
06:23 AM, May 24, 2013
New Delhi: The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) on Thursday opposed scrapping of the provision which requires the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to seek government's permission for probing bureaucrats in corruption cases. The DoPT raised the issue during a power-point presentation at the maiden meeting of the Group of Minister headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram which discussed the issue of giving greater autonomy and more financial powers...
10:44 PM, May 23, 2013
New Delhi: Faced with the Supreme Court rap on the independent functioning of CBI, the Group of Ministers headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday discussed ways to give greater autonomy and more financial powers to the agency. The GoM, at its first meeting, was given a power-point presentation by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) in which it opposed scrapping of the provision which requires CBI to...
09:24 PM, May 23, 2013
New Delhi: Malayalam will soon be granted the status of a classical language. The Union Cabinet, at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, on Thursday approved classifying Malayalam as a 'Classical Language', Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters. The benefits extended to Classical Languages include, two major annual international awards for scholars of eminence and setting up of a Centre of Excellence for Studies in Classical Languages. Other...
08:50 PM, May 23, 2013
New Delhi: Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday sought to assuage the stock market, after it declined by over 350 points, by asserting that there was no need for any "nervousness" and the participants should read the situation correctly rather than be influenced by external developments. "There is no need for any kind of nervousness. I am looking forward to June and the second quarter with much greater confidence. I...
08:41 PM, May 23, 2013
Chennai: Days after the Supreme Court's interim relief to Tamil Nadu Cricket Association expired on May 14, Chennai Corporation officials on Thursday sealed three stands at the MA Chidambaram stadium here. On a petition by the TNCA after I, J and K stands were sealed by the Chennai Corporation, the Supreme Court had directed the civic body to de-seal three stands. The Chennai Corporation had, on May 12, sealed the...
07:29 PM, May 23, 2013
The rupee recovered from a more than 8-month low hit earlier on Thursday, as exporters took advantage of a spike in the dollar to sell the greenback and on fears the central bank would intervene to stabilise the local currency. The rupee still posted a fifth day of falls to mark its longest losing streak in over three months as worries about a potential pullback in the US monetary stimulus...
06:39 PM, May 23, 2013
Mumbai: Shruti Hassan is yet to find success in Bollywood but the actress, who will be next seen in Prabhudeva's 'Ramaiya Vastavaiya', says she is not disheartened by failures. Shruti made her debut in Hindi films with a cameo appearance in her father Kamal Hassan's 'Hey Ram' in 2000. Later, she was seen in a full-fledged role in 'Luck' (2009) and then in Madhur Bhandarkar's 'Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji'...
05:20 PM, May 23, 2013
New Delhi: The Group of Ministers formed by the PM to review the SC observations on the CBI met for the first time on Thursday in New Delhi. Union Ministers P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, Salman Khurshid and MoS PMO V Narayanasamy were in attendance. However, CBI Director Ranjit Sinha, who was one of the special invitees to the meeting, did not attend it. Coming out of the meeting, Sibal said...
05:11 PM, May 23, 2013
Hyderabad: An Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer in Hyderabad allegedly barged into the house of a girl and beat her up. The IRS officer identified as Veerbhadram forcibly entered the girl's house and assaulted her after coming to know that she was about to get married to some one else. A 2011 batch IRS officer, Veerbhadram reached the girl's house with his friend and started assaulting her. The assault was...
03:40 PM, May 23, 2013
Superstar Rajinikanth is not only a style icon but has always entralled his fans with his performances. While he is known for his iconic voice it is surprising to note that Rajinikanth however, has never sung for Hindi audience. This is for the first time that Rajinikanth will surprise his fans as he will render his voice in the Hindi version of a song for his much awaited film 'Kochadaiyaan'....
03:33 PM, May 23, 2013
New Delhi: The first meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) to ensure greater independence for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will take place on Thursday in the Finance Minister's office. The government had set up the GoM after the Supreme Court had pulled it over the lack of functional autonomy to the CBI. The Supreme Court in its order has asked the government to bring a law which...
02:20 PM, May 23, 2013
