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Posts tagged Pranab Mukherjee
Excise duty & service tax reduces: Govt
Feb 25th
Giving break to the industry reeling under the blow of slowdown, the government today reduced the rates of excise duty and service tax.
As the general excise duty has been reduced from 10 per cent to 8 per cent, the rate of service tax has been cut from 12 per cent to 10 per cent.
Four per cent excise cut announced prior in the incentive package in December will continue beyond March 31, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said while winding up the debate on the Interim Budget in the Lok Sabha today.
The Lok Sabha later accepted the Interim Budget by voice vote, amidst a walkout by the Opposition BJP and erstwhile supporters Left parties.
Mukherjee said that duty on bulk cement has been reduced from 10 per cent to 8 per cent.
Mukherjee further said that excise duty on bulk cement which was 10 per cent (or Rs 290 per tonne, whichever is higher) has been reduced to 8 per cent (or Rs 230).
The duty allowance on naphtha for manufacture of power sector, he said, will persist beyond March 31, 2009.
The anomalies faced by suppliers to Special Economic Zone with regard to treatment of export profits will be addressed in the regular budget, he said.
As regards the states, Mukherjee said as part of the stimulus package they have been permitted to borrow an extra 0.5 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP). The exception, he added, will persist in the next fiscal.
Brushing aside the disapproval that government had not done adequate for the industry, Mukherjee said it was vital to stick to Parliamentary norms and constitutional propriety at a time when the term of the present government was about to end.
“It is not possible for me to indulge into financial profligacy without adequate resources”, he said.
Though, he added, dissimilar measures taken by the government and the Reserve Bank must be given time to have an impact on the economy.
Sufficient liquidity has been pumped into the system to allow banks to regulate their interest rates, he said.
Since September, RBI has injected about Rs 4 lakh crore into the system and abridged a variety of key policy rates following which several banks have started reducing interest rates.
More steps to protect jobs, Govt assures
Feb 11th
The UPA government will take more steps, as well as announcing new motivation packages, to stem job losses arising out of global recession, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said on Tuesday.
“The government is committed to ensure whatever stimulus is needed to see that there is no loss of jobs in some sectors which are taking a hit,” Nath said in New Delhi.
On elevated cost of borrowing impeding the industrial growth, Nath said, “RBI is looking into it… my own view is that interest rates are very high; need to be reduced.”
Sectors like steel and automobile, after slowing down in November, are on their way to revival, he said.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who also holds charge of the finance portfolio, Minister of State for Industry Ashwani Kumar and a number of secretaries of the key economic ministries have already indicated the government may show significant fiscal measures to arouse the economy reeling under the global slowdown.
According to the government’s own estimates, over 10 lakh jobs have been lost since mid-September in exporting units and sectors like textile, automobile and leather.
Nevertheless, Nath said there was a edge to the government involvement so far as the harms are arising from corrosion of require in the developed countries. “The government cannot resolve the global economic problem,” he said.
Today Manmohan goes through bypass surgery
Jan 24th
NEW DELHI: On Saturday Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is planned to go through a “coronary artery bypass graft” at the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS). He is expected to stay in the hospital for a week after the surgery and, according to prime ministerial aides, must take one more week before he resumes official duties.According to a report issued by the Prime Minister’s Office, the surgery would be performed by a team of doctors from the AIIMS and the Asian Heart Institute, Mumbai.
Dr. Singh’s choice to let the doctors to complete the heart surgery as early as Saturday formed substantial confusion and concern in the political and official circles. The main center of interest was as to who would “officiate” for the duration of his hospitalisation.
In his absence, as per “the standing orders” functioning during the Prime Minister’s absence or unavailability, the decision-making will devolve on the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, to be chaired by the senior-most Minister.
Pranab Mukherjee is the senior-most member of the Cabinet as also in the CCPA. Besides Mr. Mukherjee, the CCPA consists of HRD Minister Arjun Singh, Home Minister P. Chidambram, Defence Minister A.K.Antony, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and Transport Minister T.R. Baalu.
As per the standing orders, Mr. Mukherjee, as the senior most Minister, has been normally chairing the Cabinet meetings during the Prime Minister’s absence from the capital.
As the Prime Minister was also looking after the Finance Ministry (since Mr. Chidambram’s departure for the Ministry of Home Affairs), that duty has also devolved on Mr. Mukherjee.
According to a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique, the President, on the Prime Minister’s advice, has “assigned extra charge of the Ministry of Finance” to Mr. Mukherjee “from January 24, 2009 until the healing of the Prime Minister from medical treatment.”
Though there will be no official announcement, it is authoritatively learnt that an “alternate” arrangement has been put in place concerning the Prime Minister’s duty in the nuclear command authority.
Before the Prime Minister got admitted to the AIIMS on Friday afternoon, Congress president Sonia Gandhi called on him. The two are said to have discussed the implications of Dr. Singh’s absence. Later, Mr. Mukhjerjee met Ms Gandhi, as also the Prime Minister.
After his conference with Ms Gandhi, Mr. Mukherjee told reporters that there was no need for any “re-designation” [as “officiating Prime Minister”].
He said, “These are theoretical questions. We do not know how long it would take or what would happen. This is normal, the government is there.”
President Pratibha Patil spoke to the Prime Minister on Friday night and wished him well, a Rashtrapati Bhawan spokesperson said.
Pak govt was not involved in 26/11: UK
Jan 13th
On Tuesday Britain differed with India’s vision that Pakistan’s official agencies might include a role in Mumbai attacks even as it underlined that Islamabad has the “fundamental” duty to aim the “roots” of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) which was behind the Terror strike.
India hoped that Pakistan would hand over the “fugitives of Indian law”, despite Islamabad’s denial to do so, and asked the world community to make pressure on Pakistan in a “concerted” way to make sure that perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks are brought to justice.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who held “exhaustive” discussion with his British counterpart David Miliband, apprised him of facts of the Mumbai attacks and its links in Pakistan.
“It is clear where the responsibility lies for Mumbai attacks, it is with the LeT,” Miliband said at a joint press conference with Mukherjee after their meeting.
“Pakistan government, Pakistani state has the primary responsibility, fundamental responsibility to tackle the roots of this organisation,” the British Foreign Minister said.
On Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s view that official agencies of Pakistan could have been involved in the Mumbai strikes, Miliband said “we do not believe the attacks were directed by Pakistani state”.
He, though, said it is vital to watch what is the “approach of Pakistani state towards LeT organisation and the way Pakistani state takes on the LeT.”
