TIOL-DDT 429 · the untouched capture
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<p ><font color="#663399"> <b><font size="3" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">TIOL-DDT
429</font></b></font><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><br>
17 08 2006<br>
Thursday</b></font></p>
<p align=center ><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><font color="#006600">The
Indian National Flag is excisable</font></strong></font></p>
<p align="justify" ><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Surprising,
but true! The Indian National Flag is excisable, but thankfully it is exempted.
<a href="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/inside2.php3?filename=wnew/not45-86ce.htm">Notification
No. 45/86-C.E., dated 10-2-1986</a>, exempted Indian National Flag falling under
heading 6301 from the whole of excise duty. While the exemption continued in
various forms till 1996, the Finance Act 1996 prescribed the tariff rate for
the National Flag as NIL. But with the introduction of the 8 digit tariff from
28.2.2005, the Flag did not find a specific mention, but obviously it was excisable
and so was again exempted by <a href="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/subCatDesc.php3?subCatDisp_Id=29&filename=notification/excise/2005/etariff05_003.htm"> Notification
No. 3/2005-C.E., dated 24-2-2005.</a> </font></p>
<p align=center ><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><font color="#006600">Indian
Customs Create Unnecessary problems</font></strong></font></p>
<p align="justify" ><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The vice-chairman
of Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) of Bangladesh, Mir Shahabuddin Mohammed is
unhappy with Indian Customs in the implementation of SAFTA. He, said the legal
procedures would not be a problem to complete but the problem lies with the
lower level of bureaucracy, particularly on Indian side.<br>
<br>
"Indian customs create unnecessary problems. They often do not clear our
goods at their ports intentionally although EPB issues the certificate of origin
genuinely," he said.<br>
<br>
“They raise various questions whether the certificate of origin was genuine
or not. This sort of non-tariff barriers are the main problems in making the
agreement effective," he added.</font></p>
<p align="justify" ><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Meanwhile
the President of FBCCI apprehended another dimension over the SAFTA fate-India
and Pakistan relations as "It threatens the whole SAFTA concept."</font></p>
<p align=center ><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><font color="#006600">VI
Pay Commission – pay the babus well but reduce the size</font></strong></font></p>
<p align="justify" ><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The government
servant in India is grossly underpaid. The top-most civil servant, the Cabinet
Secretary gets about Rs. 50,000/- a month and that is what an upstart fresh
graduate can earn. But can the government afford to pay so much to its employees?
In some states the entire revenue is spent on staff salaries. Is government
all about paying salaries? But low salaries and a great amount of discretionary
power can lead to undesirable results.</font></p>
<p align="justify" ><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">What is
the solution? Reducing the size of the government drastically may be one solution.
Look at a typical Central Excise zone. You have a Chief Commissioner, eight
to ten commissioners, 50 Additional Commissioners, 100 Assistant Commissioners,
600 Superintendents, 400 inspectors, 50 clerks and a large number of sepoys.
What do they all do? Where do they all sit? Half of them have no seats and those
who have really have no clue as to what to do with themselves. Inspectors and
Superintendents cannot visit factories; so what they really do is clerical work.
The closest they get to an executive work is protocol. Maybe the whole department
can be effectively managed by a Commissioner for the whole country and about
a hundred inspectors. Then the Commissioner can be paid a Crore of Rupees a
year and each inspector can be paid Rs. Ten lakhs per year. So the question
is whether the government should remain an employment agency giving low salaries
to a large number of employees or be a governing body with few well paid employees?
However much the government servants deserve a decent salary, the fact is that
the government cannot afford to pay huge salaries to an army of workforce. </font></p>
<p align=center ><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><font color="#006600">Mumbai
blasts – officers well taken care of</font></strong></font></p>
<p align="justify" ><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">We
received a mail from the Secretary General of the All India Federation of Central
Excise Executive Officers about their efforts to help the victims. The mail
reads as:- </font><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">“this
association has already extending help to the families of two deceased Inspectors
(Sashi Sekhar and Sanjay Samant) and other colleagues from the department through
its Mumbai Zone I & II Unit.For the purpose funds have been raised from
different parts of the country. This apart we have made an appeal to the Chairman,
CBEC to provide job to the bereaved widows on emergent basis.</font></p>
<p align="justify" ><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Unfortunately,
these efforts does not make a news.”</font></p>
<p align=center ><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><font color="#006600">Why
is the Government shy of publishing notifications?</font></b></font></p>
<p align="justify" ><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">After
the RTI Act has come into force, the government has gone into a shell. They
are not prepared to release even notifications and circulars. There used to
be a great intelligence officer who used to file newspaper clippings in the
“most confidential” file. But do they suppress information? The Secretary tells
the minister in, “yes minister” – “Suppression is the instrument of totalitarian
dictatorship, we don't talk of that sort of thing in a free country. We simply
take a democratic decision not to publish it."</font></p>
<p align="justify" ><font color="#FF6666" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Until
Tomorrow with more DDT </font></p>
<p align="justify" ><font color="#FF6666" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Have
a nice day. </font></p>
<p align="justify" ><font color="#FF6666" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Mail
your comments to</font> <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="mailto:vijaywrite@taxindiaonline.com">vijaywrite@taxindiaonline.com</a></font></p>
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