TIOL-DDT 198 · the untouched capture
Rendered as it looked. Links and images are disabled in this view; the file itself is untouched.
<html>
<head>
<title>TIOL-DDT 198</title>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" link=blue vlink=purple lang=EN-US>
<div class=Section1>
<p><b><font color="#663399" size="3" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">TIOL-DDT
198</font><font color="#0000FF" size="3" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br>
</font></b><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>09
09 2005<br>
</b></font><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Friday</b></font></p>
<p align="center"><font color="#006600" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>“The
True Furqan - The 21st Century Quran” – banned in India.</strong></font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>You
know who decides what foreign books you should read in India? Surprisingly,
it is the serious officers of the Finance ministry who decide about your reading
choice. And they in their wisdom have banned the import of the American book
“</strong><b>The True Furqan”</b>. Under Section 11 of the Customs
Act, the Government has the power to absolutely prohibit the import goods
and using this power the Government generally bans import of books. Some of
the interesting banned books with the year when they were banned are:- </font></p>
<table width="450" border=1 align="center" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 >
<tr>
<td width=247 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Title
of the book </b></font></p></td>
<td width=48 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Year
of ban</b></font></p></td>
<td width=228 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Title
of the book </b></font></p></td>
<td width=68 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Year
of ban</b></font></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width=247 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Hindu
Heaven</b> by Max Wylie</font></p></td>
<td width=48 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">1934</font></p></td>
<td width=228 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>The
Face of Mother India</b> by Katherine Mayo</font></p></td>
<td width=68 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">1936</font></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width=247 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Old
Soldier Sahib</font></p></td>
<td width=48 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">1936</font></p></td>
<td width=228 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>The
Land of the Lingams</b> by Arthur Miles</font></p></td>
<td width=68 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">1937</font></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width=247 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Scented
Garden – Anthropology of Sex life in the Levant</font></p></td>
<td width=48 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">1945</font></p></td>
<td width=228 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Britannia
and Eve</font></p></td>
<td width=68 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">1946</font></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width=247 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Behind
the Iron Curtain of Kashmir</font></p></td>
<td width=48 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">1949</font></p></td>
<td width=228 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Khak
aur Khoon</font></p></td>
<td width=68 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">1950</font></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width=247 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Chandramohini</font></p></td>
<td width=48 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">1952</font></p></td>
<td width=228 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Bhupat
Singh , a Gujarathi book</font></p></td>
<td width=68 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">1954</font></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width=247 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hamara
Kashmir</font></p></td>
<td width=48 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">1954</font></p></td>
<td width=228 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">American
Military aid to Pakistan</font></p></td>
<td width=68 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">1954</font></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width=247 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">What
has religion done for mankind</font></p></td>
<td width=48 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">1955</font></p></td>
<td width=228 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Ram
Retold</font></p></td>
<td width=68 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">1955</font></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width=247 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Bhupat
Singh</font></p></td>
<td width=48 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">1955</font></p></td>
<td width=228 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>The
Ramayana</b> by Aubrey Menon</font></p></td>
<td width=68 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">1956</font></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width=247 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Nine
Hours to Rama</font></p></td>
<td width=48 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">1962</font></p></td>
<td width=228 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Desabhimani
– a Tamil weekly</font></p></td>
<td width=68 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">1963</font></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width=247 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Goan
Voice</font></p></td>
<td width=48 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">1964</font></p></td>
<td width=228 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The
Jewel in the Lotus</font></p></td>
<td width=68 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">1968</font></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width=247 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Man
from Moscow</font></p></td>
<td width=48 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">1970</font></p></td>
<td width=228 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Early
Islam</font></p></td>
<td width=68 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">1975</font></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width=247 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Nehru,
a Political biography</font></p></td>
<td width=48 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">1975</font></p></td>
<td width=228 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Who
killed Gandhi?</font></p></td>
<td width=68 valign=top > <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">1979</font></p></td>
</tr>
</table>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>And
they are still banned!</b></font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The
latest ban is on the book <b>The True Furqan. </b> This<b> </b>is a book published
in the United States in 1999 and is almost unknown in India. Now the Finance
Ministry’s ban is going to make this book quite popular. <i>The True
Furqan</i> is a private attempt by evangelical Christian Arabs to convert
Muslims to Christianity. It is seen as “a tool to evangelize Muslims”.
It was written in Arabic and translated into English. </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Does
banning a book have any impact in these days of internet explosion? If the
book was not banned, in the whole country about 30 copies would have been
sold and nobody would have known anything about this. Now the Government’s
ban gives so much publicity to the book that people will be tempted to go
to the net and find out all about the book. So the effect of the ban will
exactly be the opposite of the intention. More people will read the book now
than before the ban, more so when the entire text of the book is available
on the net – absolutely free! When technology rules, Law should stand in attention
and obey – otherwise it will simply be brushed aside.</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The
import of the book is prohibited to <b>maintain the security of India </b>and
the import of any extract, any reprint or translation or any document reproducing
any matter contained in the book are also prohibited. Does it include internet?
Does downloading the book from internet amount to an offence? And what happens
if somebody sends you the copy of the book by e mail? Who is the offender?
The sender or the receiver? If it is the receiver, when is he the offender?
When he opens the mail or when he reads it? What will happen to his offence
if he deletes the message after reading it? </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Or
is the whole purpose of the ban to stop those thirty copies which would have
been imported into India and which for all that you know have already been
imported. After all, the book was available for the last six years and nobody
simply noticed it. </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The
ban on the import of the book is effective from 7<sup>th</sup> September 2005.
<b>DDT</b> telephoned a few of Air Customs offices to find out if they were
aware of the ban. None claimed any knowledge and like the rest of us they
did not know what Furqan was all about and when it was banned. And so if any
copies were imported into India in the last two days they would have been
happily cleared by Customs!</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">A
friend in Customs asked me for a copy of the notification. I agreed to barter
it for a couple of Scotch bottles. “Is there no cheaper way of getting it?’,
he asked me. “ It is available absolutely free in our ‘What’s New’ section”,
I had to honestly admit to him and losing my scotch! </font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><a href="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/subCatDesc.php3?subCatDisp_Id=24&filename=notification/custom/2005/cnt05_078.htm">NOTIFICATION
NO. 78/2005-Cus (NT), Dated: September 7, 2005</a></b></font></p>
<p align="center"><font color="#006600" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Items
used for power generation projects – Customs duty exemption</strong></font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The
Government has fixed an effective rate of customs duty of 5% for all items
of machinery, including prime movers, instruments, apparatus and appliances,
control gear and transmission equipment, and auxiliary equipment (including
those required for testing and quality control) and components, required for
initial setting up of a project for generation of power using non-conventional
materials, namely, agricultural, forestry, agro-industrial, industrial, <b>municipal
and urban waste</b>, bio waste or poultry litter</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">This
of course is subject to the conditions that </font></p>
<ol>
<li ><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">A
certificate is produced to the effect that the goods are required for initial
setting up of a project for the generation of power using non-conventional
materials.</font></li>
<li ><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">there
is a valid power purchase agreement between the importer and the purchaser,
for the sale and purchase of electricity generated from the non-conventional
materials, for a period of not less than ten years from the date of commissioning
of the project</font></li>
<li ><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">the
importer furnishes an undertaking that such imported goods will be used
for the purpose specified and in the event of his failure to comply with
this condition, he shall be liable to pay, the differential duty.</font></li>
</ol>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">But
why the restriction on <b>municipal and urban waste? </b>Why is the benefit
not available to Panchayat and rural waste? Why is urban s..t more valuable
than rural one?</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><u><a href="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/subCatDesc.php3?subCatDisp_Id=23&filename=notification/custom/2005/ctariff05_081.htm">NOTIFICATION.
No. 81/2005-Customs dated the 8th September, 2005</a></u></b></font></p>
<p align="center"><font color="#006600" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Same
exemption for excise – but ‘cut and paste’ plays havoc.</strong></font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">In
a similar exemption to the one described above, the Government has granted
full exemption from excise duty for the indigenous goods used for the same
purpose but the Government has again bungled with the “cut and paste” technology.
The Central Excise notification is worded almost identically as the Customs
notification and is almost cut and pasted but that has created a problem.
The second condition to the excise notification reads as follows,</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">the
manufacturer proves to the satisfaction of the Deputy Commissioner of Central
Excise or the Assistant Commissioner of Central Excise, as the case may be,
that there is a valid power purchase agreement between the <b>importer</b>
and the purchaser, for the sale and purchase of electricity generated using
non-conventional materials, for a period of not less than ten years from the
date of commissioning of the project.</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Who
is the <b>importer</b> here? The notification is for a manufacturer and not
an importer, but this is what happens when notifications are cut and pasted!
DDT hopes the Board will come up with a corrigendum soon.</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><u><a href="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/subCatDesc.php3?subCatDisp_Id=30&filename=notification/excise/2005/etariff05_033.htm">NOTIFICATION
No. 33/ 2005-Central Excise dated the 8th September, 2005</a></u></b></font></p>
<p align="center"><font color="#006600" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Anju
Bobby George – The elusive promotion</strong></font></p>
<p align="justify"> <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><img src="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/image/stories/anju_bobby.jpg" alt="Anju still to make that elusive jump!" width="200" height="215" hspace="3" align="left">
Anju is able to jump her way into international fame but not with the babus
in the CBEC. Even two years after she made us all proud by winning the first
medal for India in a World Athletics Championship, she is yet to get the promised
promotion in the Customs department. She might have jumped great lengths,
but for Customs, she is still the Preventive officer – the same post
she joined in after a stint with the Police and Railways. The Nation has honoured
this ‘one among the top ten in the world’ athlete with the Arjuna
and Khel Ratna award but her promotion in the Customs department is tied up
in bureaucratic red tape in North Block. Anju is the pride of Indian Customs
and it’s time the President makes her at least a Commissioner. </font></p>
<p>
<p>
<p><font color="#FF0000" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><br>
<br>
<font color="#FF6666">Until Monday with more DDT <br>
<br>
</font></b></font><font color="#FF6666" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Have
a nice Weekend.<br>
<br>
Mail your comments to</b></font><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>
</b><a
href="mailto:vijaywrite@taxindiaonline.com">vijaywrite@taxindiaonline.com</a>
</font></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>