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TOI : PUNE: Judicial magistrate first class C.G. Saurkar, on Friday, sentenced Pune Municipal Corporation contractor Salim Shaikh (45) of Wadgaonsheri to six months simple imprisonment and ordered him to pay a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the complainant Hitesh Parmar of Shanti Traders in Gultekdi in a cheque bounce case.

Shaikh had made purchases of several construction materials like cement, iron and other goods from Shanti Traders in April, 2005.

Shaikh issued two cheques of Rs 3 lakh and Rs 2.7 lakh against the purchases.

However the cheques bounced due to insufficient balance following which the firm’s lawyer Milind Pawar filed a case against Shaikh under section 138 of the Negotiable Instrument Act.

When the case came up for hearing, Shaikh contended that the material required for the construction work was provided by the PMC and not by the firm.

However, Shaikh failed to explain as to how the cheques issued by him had come in possession of the firm.

Pawar furnished bills and other documents to prove that Shaikh had made various purchases from the firm.

The court considered Pawar’s arguments and held Shaikh guilty. Advocates Prashant Jadhav and Rahul Lonandkar appeared on behalf of Shaikh. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: In an attempt to resolve Pune’s traffic woes and improve transport system, municipal commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi has tabled a detailed transport policy report before the city improvement committee (CIC) on Friday.

The policy will be discussed by the CIC on Tuesday and forwarded to the general body for final approval. Speaking to TOI, Pardeshi said that it was an attempt to assess and evaluate city’s transport system to determine the bases for different modes of transport feasible for the city.

“The policy is based on the national urban transportation policy. It is a base document to set transport norms for the city.”Pardeshi said that one of the objectives of the policy was to enable movement of people instead of movement of vehicles.

“With abnormal growth of private vehicles, there are more vehicles on roads than people. Our focus is on improving footpath network and non-motorised transport.”

Pardeshi said that another area that needs attention is public transport. “We have tried to identify public transport corridors with higher flow of traffic and also which corridor should have what kind of transport.”

When asked what would be the difference between the transport policy and the comprehensive mobility plan, Pardeshi said the transport policy would be a base document concerning the objectives of PMC in terms of improving transport system in Pune.

Some of the important proposals tabled in the policy are increasing the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) bus fleet to 1,650 buses, which will include low floor, super fast and air-conditioned buses.

In order to improve the financial condition of PMPML, parking charges for personal vehicles are proposed to be increased and revenue would be generated from giving advertisement rights on PMPML buses.

It has also been proposed that every road should have footpaths. Print Save EMail Write…More

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TOI : The Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) on Friday expressed surprise as to why sectors such as IT, agro-products, hospitality, tourism and food processing were ignored in the Budget presented by finance minister P. Chidambaram on Friday.

Apart from loan waiver to farmers and marginal reduction in taxes to manufacturing sector and individual tax payers, there are no changes that will stimulate the economy, the MCCIA said in a reaction to the Budget.

Chairman Madhur Bajaj said, “Except man ufacturing and education sectors, the government has comfortably ignored other areas, such as IT, infrastructure and corporate taxes. There was much scope for the government through either reducing or restructuring the taxation system.”

He also expressed displeasure at the FM’s decision to waive loans to small and marginal farmers. “Such decisions will send a wrong signal. This was the last Budget of the UPA and that may have forced them to take such a populist decision,”he noted.

Bajaj also expressed surprise at the government’s decision to reduce excise duty on two- and three-wheelers and small cars by about 12 per cent, but not passing on the benefit to medium and large cars. “Such decisions should be left to the market.”

Chairman of MCCIA sub-committee for education, Ram Takavale, said, “Increased focus on secondary and higher secondary education should be welcomed. The creation of non-profit corporation to provide technically skilled labour is the need of the time.

Today, there is a dearth of skilled manpower and such initiatives will help the industry.”Increase in number of IIMs and IITs will help provide the much-needed high-skilled talent to the industry, he observed.

Commenting on the increase in individual tax limit, the chairman of sub-committee for direct taxation, MCCIA, Chandrashekhar Chitale, said, “The government has been doing so for the last few years.
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TOI : The increase in the threshold limit of service tax from Rs 8 lakh to Rs 10 lakh as proposed in the Budget has been welcomed by the service sector here.

However, service providers said that people will now have to pay service tax on services offered by stock and commodity exchanges, asset management firms offering unit-linked insurance plans, clearing houses and customised software makers under the levy.

Service providers from different sectors said that increase in the limit for tax will prove beneficial for thousands of small service providers.

The decision to maintain service tax status quo as last year, will be a relief for the common people.

However, the finance minister has clarified that money changers, people running games of chance and tour operators using contract carriage vehicles are liable to pay service tax.

Sales and service tax practitioner Govind Patwardhan said, “Increasing service tax limit by Rs 2 lakh is a welcome move. Thousands of small service providers will benefit. Moreover, to widen the service tax net, the finance minister has added four new services. The demand for separate structure of service tax has been ignored by the finance minister. This shows that the preparations have begun for goods and services tax, which is planned to be introduced in 2010,” he added.

Chartered accountant Nitin Parekh said, “Increase of limit and addition of four more services into tax net were pre-budget forecasts. Services like share market was on the radar of the finance ministry.

But addition of these new services into tax net will not affect the interest of common man”.

“The finance ministry has not extended the current service tax structure for software technology parks of India (STPI). This will have an impact on the IT sector in substantial way and can hamper the growth of…More