| Chidambaram to hard sell India to domestic, foreign investors |
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New Delhi, 4 March Three days after the Budget, Finance Minister P Chidambaram today outlined his agenda for action: Get public sector and private companies to invest, ask foreign investors to pump money into India, and address the widening current account deficit ( CAD). In the short run, he said the government's priority was to get foreign investments to fund the CAD. In the medium term, it was to increase exports to pay for the import bill. At a customary post- Budget interaction with industry chambers and netizens on social media platform Google+ Hangout, Chidambaram said he would visit Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad and the National Capital Region to urge companies for capital expenditure (capex). He would also visit the US, Japan, Canada and West Asia to woo foreign investors. Saying the CAD was a bigger worry than the fiscal deficit, Chidambaram said until he raised the issue in the Budget, the matter was seldom raised by the government and industrialists. " CAD has not been in focus till recently. It is anumber in the books of RBI ( the Reserve Bank of India) and in the papers of the Department of Economic Affairs. We have never debated CAD in the manner we debated the fiscal deficit or the revenue deficit," he said. India's CAD reached an all- time high of 4.2 per cent of gross domestic product ( GDP) in 2011- 12 and was set to be higher in the current financial year. In the first half of the current financial year, it was 4.6 per cent, against four per cent in the corresponding period of 2011- 12. The minister said export of manufactured products and services was the way to pay for rising imports. However, he said, his job in the immediate future was to ensure foreign inflows were adequate and robust. The Securities and Exchange Board of India ( Sebi) will convene a meeting of foreign institutional investors ( FIIs) to address their outstanding concerns, he said. Sebi, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority and RBI will take follow- up action on the Budget announcements, he said. The finance ministry was examining rationalising the withholding tax on foreign investors in various instruments, doing away with sub- limits on FII debt investments and if the sub- limits could be made fungible, he said. Wondering why India Inc was not investing, Chidambaram said industry was better placed to tell him the reasons. " PSUs ( public sector undertakings) are sitting on piles of cash, private business houses are also sitting on piles of cash. I am in constant touch with bankers. While some enquiries have begun to come to bankers, I am told there is not a flood of enquiries." The finance minister said he would hold PSU chairmen and managing directors accountable to their capex plans for the next financial year. He also said he would meet business houses to ask them about capex plans. Chidambaram reminded the chambers that the Budget had proposed to restore the investment allowance to push up the investment rate. In 2007- 08, a year before the global financial crisis, the investment rate in India stood at 38.1 per cent of the GDP. It stood at just 34.7 per cent in 2011- 12 and was projected to rise to 35.3 per cent in the current financial year. The minister disclosed he had sent a note to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for inter- ministerial meetings in some areas. Says current account deficit is bigger worry than fiscal deficit FINANCE 4 > >Moody's gives a thumbs up to Budget fiscal plan ECONOMY 6 > >Chidambaram to approach Parliament after resolving Vodafone row >Budget not a sizzler but a sumptuous meal, says Arvind Mayaram |Rules out rolling back a three percentage hike in excise duty on sports utility vehicles; SUVs get huge advantage of subsidised diesel |Auto industry sales numbers are down because of high interest rates |Hopes lower interest rates will prevail; to meet Reserve Bank board on March 8 |To inaugurate all- women bank in November; there will be six branches in as many regions |Three issues for disinvestment to come in March; one issue in April |To visit six Indian cities and go abroad to woo investors |Sebi to meet foreign institutional investors to address concerns |Looking at rationalising withholding tax for foreign investors |Will hold PSU chiefs accountable to their capex plans for next financial year; to meet business houses to ask about capex plans |Not for reopening debate on Minimum Alternate Tax |
| FinBill keeps provision of arrests for tax evasion |
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New Delhi, 4 March Failure to pay excise duty and service tax could lead to arrest of defaulters, going by the provisions under the Finance Bill 2013, introduced by Finance Minister P Chidambaram in the Lok Sabha. Offences relating to excise and customs duty evasion of over ₹ 50 lakh would be made cognisable and non- bailable, stresses the provisions. The failure to deposit service tax exceeding ₹ 50 lakh would result in imprisonment up to seven years. The Bill has proposed to introduce Section 91 to provide for power to arrest a person for specified offences, particularly non- payment of collected service tax, by an officer not below the rank of Superintendent of Central Excise. It has also proposed to make at least four offences non- bailable under Section 135 of the Customs Act. This would include import or export of any goods which have not been declared in accordance with the provisions of this Act and the market price of which exceeds ₹ 1 crore. |
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Company Secretary, Chennai
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