The Hindu Business Line : Thursday, January 26, 2006

Reforms at the periphery
THE GOVERNMENT HAS done its reformist credentials, such as they are, no harm with its announcement on Tuesday of a further liberalisation of foreign direct investment norms across a range of sectors. With cabinet ministers, state chief ministers ... More

ACCOUNTANCY

Officers told the court what they thought it should know, and not the truth
IN A REPORT dated January 19, AccountingWeb reports, `Investigation launched into HMRC VAT trial fiasco'. The abbreviation, apart from the one about value-added tax, is of HM Revenue & Customs, "formed on the 18 ... More

Cross-border comparability
Mohan R. Lavi on the efforts by the FASB and the IASB to improve financial reporting by eliminating certain narrow differences in their accounting standards More

Decoding a demerger
S. Murlidharan on whether the reorganisation exercise by RIL culminates in demerger More

TAXATION

Deciding the tax rate — Factor in the bribe rate too
An informal survey conducted over the past three years revealed that the revenue generated in one city on account of `bribe taxes' (`charges' collected by government employees) is Rs 3-5 crore a day. At the national level, this adds up annually to a whopping Rs 50,000 crore. Extrapolating this in combination with the under-collected taxes, our tax-GDP ratio is highly comparable to many developed economies, says R. Vaidyanathan, adding that the Finance Minister must recognise the bribe tax and reduce regular taxes so that the misery index of citizens is minimised. More

RADIO/TV

Laudable legislation
CABLE TV subscribers all over Tamil Nadu, and certainly within the Chennai city, must have felt overjoyed by the prospect of being rescued from the clutches of private multi-system operators (MSOs). The State Government's Bill to take over those ... More

RETAILING

Making IT work for retail
ON NEW Year's eve and amid my hectic business activities, I had to ensure that my shopping was completed in time. Impressed with the discounts offered in the newly opened mall in my neighbourhood, I decided to shop ... More

BOOKS

CSR is not just a nice-to-do add-on
CSR or corporate social responsibility is no longer defined by how much money a business gives away. It hinges more on how that business makes money in the first place, writes Mallen Baker in Strategic Corporate ... More

LETTERS

IIM controversy

National mission on bio-diesel

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