19.02.2008

• “Treaty shopping” and “round tripping” revisited
• Remember these concepts that we noted about in our blogs? Worth a revisit in view of the recent developments happening with Mauritius.
• We all know that we have a DTAA (Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement) with Mauritius. Because of this, at present Indian tax authorities can only call for reports from their Mauritius counterparts if they suspect treaty abuse by a company.
• India has long been suspecting that treaty shopping and round tripping are being resorted to through this DTAA. In treaty shopping what happens is investors from third countries route their investments through Mauritius into our country to avail of capital gains exemption. In round tripping, domestic funds/companies go out and come back again through circuitous routes from Mauritius, to save taxes.
• Now the visiting Mauritius PM has assured India of full support in checking treaty shopping and round tripping. Our tax sleuths can visit Mauritius and gain full cooperation from the tax authorities there.
• BTW who is the Mauritius PM? Navinchandra Ramgoolam.
• VI Pay Commission report to see light?
• Looks like the ground is being prepared to make the pay commission submit its report soon.
• The commission is understood to have submitted lot of relevant information in the run up to the budget making process.
• In the current fiscal, the outgo on account of pay and allowances for the central government – with an employee strength of over 3 lakh – has been pegged at Rs. 46,379 crores.
• The commission is headed by Justice B. Srikrishna.
• Budget Glossary updated
• See the updated budget glossary here.
• Police-people ratio
• In the context of the recent Maoist depredations in Orissa, this issue again comes to the fore.
• The UN recommended peace time norm for this ratio is stated to be 222 per lakh of population.
• But our country has this ratio at 122 per lakh of population.
• In Orissa it is even worse with just 99 cops per one lakh citizens.
• Coir Board Chairman
• Mr. AC Jose
• About tiger population
• India has now a total of 1411 tiger in six pockets. This estimate is made by National Tiger Conservation Authority and Wildlife Institute of India.
• This estimate is considered to be more accurate because instead of relying on the pugmark method, it adopted scientific sampling techniques such as mark-recapture and distance sampling of tigers.
• European SEPA
• SEPA stands for Single Euro Payments Area. This agreement aims to remove the economic disincentives to the execution of cross-border non-cash transactions. It has come into force throughout the EU’s 27 member states and 4 neighbouring countries.
• A natural progression from the adoption of the euro common currency in 1999, this development represents an advance in the realisation of the single market for EU.
• In its first phase, it stipulates a maximum of three business days for the settlement of cross-border credit transfers of unlimited value. It will extend to direct debits by late 2009 and eventually replace all national means of payment by 2012. Once it is fully operational, corporations and consumers will be able to conduct domestic as well as cross-border transactions in euros using a single bank account and retail businesses can process different card transactions through single machines.
• India tops in area under Bt cotton
• India had the largest area under Bt cotton in 2007 with the crop planted in 6.2 mn hectares of land.
• India is the 5^th largest grower of GM (Genetically Modified) crops by area.
• This is according to a report “Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops 2007” prepared by ISAAA – International Service for Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications.
• Chairperson of ISAAA is Clive James.
• World Carrom champion
• India’s I. Ilavazhagi bagged her maiden women’s title in the 5^th World Carrom Championship at Palais Des Festivals, Cannes, France.
• She defeated P. Nirmala, also of India in the final.
• India’s men’s team lost to Sri Lanka in the final.
• Federer wins Laureus award again
• Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award for 2008. This is the 4^th straight time that he is winning the award.
• The World Sportswoman of the Year award was won by Justin Henin of Belgium. This is the first time that she won this award. In 2007 she won the US and French Open tournaments.
• The world team award went to South Africa’s rugby union team.
• World Breakthrough of the Year was won by Lewis Hamilton of UK, the formula one racer.