With reference to the editorial “The power of pragmatism” (February 25), the CERI allowing compensatory tariff for imported coal-based power plants is the right move at this juncture when we face Indonesian regulations on coal.

India should augment coal production by allowing public-private partnership in coal mining and to break the monopoly of Coal India Ltd which is often under scrutiny for its inability to reach targets in spite of huge untapped resources.

The Cabinet Committee on Investment should clear the platform for this kind of investment by removing ministerial hindrances. Don’t search for ghee when you have butter in the hand.

NR Nagarajan

Sivakasi

Made in India

The Indian government must allow all international brands to manufacture, especially in electronics, automobiles, textiles and so on. Then we will have cheaper goods and more scope for employment. We will also be able to export to other countries.

Government jobs encourage lethargy even as they are secure and highly paid. The tax-payers’ money is only going toward supporting the salary, expenses and lethargic lifestyle of government employees.

Govind Das

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Ready for polls

That Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa has announced her candidates for the 40 Lok Sabha seats (in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry) without any sort of vacillation is commendable. Her alliance partners, the CPI, CPM and others must now decide on the few seats/constituencies they wish to contest as Jayalalithaa has put the ball in their court.

As things stand today, the AIADMK’s fortunes are brighter than that of the other parties, which seem to be totally unprepared.

S Ramakrishnasayee

Ranipet

Scramble for allies

The desertion of some MLAs from Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal to join Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United), Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Jan Shakti Party’s overtures to the BJP, and the Telangana Rahstra Samiti-Congress alliance in the making are making headlines.

These developments have more to do with the twists and turns of leaders’ political careers and add colour to Indian politics.

They do not alter the fact that both the Congress and the BJP are left without major allies. It is simplistic to say that the yet-to-materialise LJP-BJP tie-up is indicative of Narendra Modi’s growing acceptability. Regional parties headed by strong leaders have their committed vote banks which are not easily swayed by an induced opinion poll result or a contrived wave. For this reason they are under no compulsion to be part of either the UPA or the NDA.

A few psephologists and TV anchors don’t make the Indian electorate. Given the peculiarities of our vast and diverse country, we have to wait till the poll results for parties to form an depending on the number of seats each party wins.

G David Milton

Maruthancode, Kerala

No precise answer

I’m afraid that your columnist has to revisit his answer to query 2 (Portfolio, “Your Taxes” by Sanjiv Chaudhary, February 24). To recap, a brother gifted some shares to his sister. The brother wants to know the tax implication if his sister sells the gifted shares.

In my view, there was no precise answer to the brother on his specific query.

Coming to the selling of shares, a question arises as to the intent of the sister and also depends on whether the brother had held the gifted shares as an investment.

Presuming the brother held it as investment and the sister has no intention of trading in shares, the next question is how long did the brother hold the shares prior to gifting. If he had held it for more than 12 months and the sister sells it in a stock exchange through a broker, the resulting capital gain is completely tax free.

If the brother had held it under investment portfolio for a period less than 12 months and gifted the same, the sister would have to pay short-term capital gain at the rate 15 per cent plus education cess of 3 per cent on this tax.

RM Subramanian

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