News Axis

 Courses Offered in this institute
Homoeopathic

Affiliated to:
Shivaji University

Location:
Kolhapur, India

SEZs to have duty-free shops

SPECIAL economic zones (SEZs) are getting another cap on their feather: Duty - free shopping. The government has agreed to allow duty-free outlets in SEZs and a dozen applications filed by Fiemin-go Duty free Shop Ltd which runs duty-free outlets across the country’s major international airports are under consideration now.

Since SEZs are still going through teething troubles, setting up duty-free outlets in these zones was a grey area till now and there was no clarity on allowing foreign investment in such out-lets. Therefore, the issue was discussed by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) recently and it has been decided that such outlets can be allowed with prior permission from the department of commerce.

It is understood that rules will be framed for such outlets by the department in consultation with revenue officials. To avoid confusion, the government would specify the categories of people who would be eligible for purchase from these outlets and the value ceiling on such transactions. SEZ units and SEZ developers are entitled to duty-free inputs but not all purchase of consumer goods might be covered by this concession.

Apart from SEZs, Flemingo had sought permission for opening duty-free outlets at Wagah border with Pakistan and the Paradeep port. The foreign investor had also suggested that an ‘omnibus’ clearance should be given instead of approving new outlets one by one.

After discussing the ‘omnibus’ clearance suggested by the foreign investor, FIPB decided that permission should be granted only with the approval of the nodal authorities — commerce & industry ministry in the case of SEZs, the civil aviation ministry in the case of airports and the ministry of shipping in the case of ports.

RITES: Common ticket for Delhi Metro and DTC

In a move to decongest the busy commercial area before the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the Rail India Technical and Economic Services (RITES) has suggested common ticket for both bus and Metro while visiting Connaught Place. The proposal also includes modification of bus routes to serve them as feeders for the Metro system and a shuttle service linking the Metro entry and exit points and parking points along the inner circle of CP with the bus stops on the Outer Circle. currently there are 450 DTC buses, playing on 88 routes, making 11,900 daily trips through Connaught Place. This sheer volume of bus traffic causes significant congestion and traffic conflicts in the area. With two Metro lines, Barakham-ba-Dwarka and Delhi University-Central Secretariat, passing through CP, RITES has suggested that many of the existing bus routes could be diverted away from CP’s outer circle.

The study suggests that wherever multiple routes overlap with the Metro service, the buses could be modified to terminate at a Metro station to serve as feeder. It also suggests that the existing bus routes can be diverted to roads with sufficient spare capacity to handle the additional bus traffic.

Now : Passports Processing to be fast for applicants

The Ministry of External affairs has asked state governments to send police verification reports of the passport applicants within two weeks. From next year, all applications received at missions abroad will be processed in Delhi on the basis of data fed into computers at the missions. The machine - readable passports will be issued in four days and dispatched by courier, for which a pact has been signed with Fedex. As part of other measures to reduce delays, the ministry has augmented staff at passport offices and enhanced output with the help of National Informatics Centre (NIC) by introducing machine printers for their preparation, an official said.