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Tax benefits for salaried people, concessions to small traders planned

Delhi unveils fresh plans to boost economy
NEW DELHI. May 3: Prime Minister PV Naraalmha Raos government has unveiled fresh plana to revitalise India s sag glng economy and give a respite to a teeming middleclass struggling with a double digit inflation, reports AFP.
The 1992-93 Finance Bill Amendments, unveiled yesterday. require parliamentary approval before tax benefits arc extended to millions of salaried people, and concessions to small traders and the export Industry. officials said.
Finance Minister Manmohan Singh suggested slashing taxes on gold Imports by half and planned a hefty cut tn export duty on some products to ensure that they were not priced out of the International market. the officials said
The series of amendments to the Finance Bill, released tn February, suggested conces sions for Industries such as electronics, pharmaceuticals, engineering, chemical and garment and recommended a reduction In duty on certain goods imported by export -generating industries. Mon-mohan Singh's latest blueprint plans to remove stifling wealth taxes on vehicles and real estate in a bid to assuage the rich who were stung by Raos radical 1992 1993 budget.
The latest largesse, seen by many as a 'summer gift" to
Indians, will reduce earnings of federal and slate govern ment exchequers by six billion rupee (231 million dollar), the bill saki.
It is a summer gift to the people, specially to the petty traders, businessmen and the middle-class.' an MP was quoted as saying In parliament
The amendments plan to cut duty from 17.30 dollar to 8.46 dollar on each 10 grams of gold imported by Indians tn line with government plans to end smuggling.
The 1992 1993 budget al lowed Indians living abroad for more than st* months to bring back up to five kilograms of gold
Manmohan Singh. who In his budgetary speech February 29 had warned he wbuki with draw Income tax concessions, reversed his decision and said tax shelters for the salaried class would continue to exist.
He also raised income tax rebates for Indias middleclass. and said he planned to simplify red tape Involved tn the present system so that "people would get over theft psychological hesitation tn dealing with Income-tax authorities."
Rao's fiscal 1992 1993 (April-March) 43.9 billion dol lar-budget won accolades as it made the rupee parity convertible. cut Import duty on many
items, legalised gold imports and ordered wide ranging tax reforms.
The budget opened the doors further for foreign In vestment and introduced mar ket principles Into Indias four decades of quasi socialist fiscal policies
Wheat import hah«i
Reuter adds. India will not Import wheat until It finishes Its annual grain purchases from focal farmers In the next few months. Food Minister Tarun Gogol said here
Delhi would not need Im ports If It bought a targeted nine million tonnes of wheat from Indian farmers, compared with 7 7 million last year. Gogol was quoted by the United News of India (UNI) as saying on a visit to his home state. Assam
India said In January It In tended to import one million tonnes of wheat to bolster de dining buffer stocks and dampen rising grain prices In the domestic market
Food ministry officials vis Itcd western Europe and the United Slates in February and March looking for concessional prices on a wheat deal but came away empty handed
Gogol said in an interview in March he had hoped the
United Slates would sell wheat at cut-rate prices under its Export Enhancement Programme (EEP). Washington later said India did not qualify for EEP since II was not a regular buyer of US wheat.
India's foodgrain production tn the 1991/92 agricultural year ending in June is likely to fall to between 171 and 173 million tonnes, about four million less than a year ago. gov ernment officials said on Friday.
The main reason for the shortfall was a lower winter crop. UNI quoted the officials as saying al an agriculture conference
Foodgrain production is crucial to the economy of India, where about 70 per ceni of the population of 850 million depend on agriculture for a living. The rise tn foodgrain prices has helped push Inflation to about 13 per cent a year
Latest estimates pul the 1991 winter crop at 94.2 mil lion tonnes compared with 99.7 million in the 1990 winter. the news agency quoted the officials as saying
Indias 1990/91 grain pro duction was a record 176 mil lion tonnes. Government officials had earlier estimated 1991/92 output at 182.5 million.
India's farms arc mostly rain-fed and a good summer monsoon Is essential
The Indian Meteorological Department tn a preliminary forecast said the monsoon, due in June, could be slow in de veloping after four good monsoons In a row.
Drug export* upby20pc
Xinhua reports: India's drugs and pharmaceutical ex ports increased by more than 20 per cent tn the 1991-92 year ending last March.
The estimated exports in this sector during the year was about 11,430 million rupees (439 million US dollar), ac cording to the annual report of the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals available '"day
Many of the basic drugs were exported to developed countries, the report said
The increase tn exports was matched by an increase tn production of drugs and phar maceuttcal during the period.
Bulk drugs produced were worth 7.900 million rupees (303 million US dollar) and the formulations 42.000 mil Ifon rupees (1,615 million US dollar), growing at a rate of 8.21 per cent and 9.8 per cent respectively, over the previous year.