Aug. 4 – A recent Supreme Court decision has ruled that payment made in kind will also be subject to taxes in India.
This was based on an appeal made in court by local company Kanchanganga Sea Foods regarding its payment in kind to Hong Kong-based company Eastwide Shipping for lending the use of vessels and personnel. The Indian company gave Eastwide 85 percent of fish catch as payment. It was able to get its foreign partner official permission to fish in an Indian economic zone. Read the rest of this entry »
Jul. 8 – Authorities will soon begin talks on possibly raising foreign direct investment in local carriers to push New Delhi’s recently opened Terminal 3 into becoming an international aviation hub.
“This issue would be discussed in coming few days. A final view may be taken shortly,” Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said in a statement. Foreign investors are technically allowed to invest as much as 49 percent in local carriers but the government has been hesitant to allow this over security concerns. Read the rest of this entry »
NEW DELHI, Apr. 27 - As the city prepares for the Commonwealth Games in October, the impact of the huge international athletics event on its infrastructure is already taking effect as it readies the launch of its new airport express.
Next month, the government will test the first set of trains purchased from Spanish-based rail equipment manufacturer CAF and is scheduling the launch of the Airport Express Line connecting Connaught Place with Delhi International Airport in September. Read the rest of this entry »
Mar. 19 - The Indian government has extended the five-year tax holiday for hotel projects from March 31 to July 31 in an effort to stimulate development in the industry prior to the Commonwealth Games in October.
The five-year tax holiday previously applied to hotels finished and operational from April 1, 2007 to March 31, 2010 covering two, three and four-star category hotels and convention centers in the National Capital Territory of Delhi and the districts of Faridabad, Gurgaon, Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad. The new extended tax holiday scheme will continue to offer the special tax discount rates in the next five years for hotels finished by the July 31 deadline under Section 80-ID of the Income Tax Act.
Read the rest of this entry »
Mar. 9 - The Confederation of Indian Industries has ranked New Delhi as having the best quality of life for its residents among all cities in the India based on their latest “Liveability Index.”
After New Delhi, the next best cities to live in are Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore. The survey looked at 37 Indian cities in over a decade to compute for a quality of life index. It also used hard data collected from reliable sources to eliminate the possibility of personal bias or a sampling error obscuring the reality. Read the rest of this entry »
Feb. 3 - India is set to increase property tax rates in New Delhi starting April 2010.
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s (MCD) has proposed higher tax rates for residential properties in the A to H category. A two percent increased for categories A and B, three percent in categories C and D with the highest hike in property tax rate proposed for category E increasing from 6 to 12 percent and a one percent increase for category F and H. Read the rest of this entry »
Jan. 27 - To encourage more hotels to open prior to the Commonwealth Games, India is giving a five-year tax holiday for new hotels completed in the national capital region before March 31.
The rule will apply to 2, 3 and 4 star hotels and exclude 5 star hotels. An estimated 100,000 tourists are expected to arrive in New Delhi when the Commonwealth Games start on October 3. Currently, the city only has 10,000 hotel rooms and will need 30,000 more for the games. Read the rest of this entry »
Jan. 5 - A recently approved industrial policy for New Delhi aims to consolidate business in the capital to turn it into a high-tech, knowledge-based service sector and IT hub.
Two special economic zones will initially be set up in Baprola, one for gems and jewelery and the other for IT and information technology enabled services (ITES) says The Economic Times. The plan is applicable from 2010 to 2021 and is only the second of its kind to be implemented in the city. Read the rest of this entry »
Dec. 10 - India has successfully decoded the human genome locally making it part of the only six countries in the world to do so.
Other countries who have been able to accomplish the feat are the United States, United Kingdom, China, Canada and South Korea. India’s Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) says the breakthrough will allow pharmaceutical companies to produce drugs more attuned with Indian physiology. Read the rest of this entry »
Nov. 13 - India’s Foreign Ministry has announced that stapled Chinese visas for Indian travelers will not be allowed to exit the country and advises applicants to verify how their visas will be attached.
Some Chinese embassies and consulates have continued to issue stapled visas for Indians coming from Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir despite Indian government protests. The practice is China’s way of not recognizing the territories as a part of India.
“It has come to the attention of government of India that the embassy of the People’s Republic of China in New Delhi and the Chinese consulates in Mumbai and Kolkata are issuing visas on a separate piece of paper ’stapled’ to the passport (rather than pasted as is the usual practice), to certain categories of Indian nationals on the basis of their domicile, ethnicity and/or place of issue of the passport. Such paper visas stapled to the passport are not considered valid for travel out of the country,” said the ministry advisory. Read the rest of this entry »
