The criminal complaint filed today against Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich contains a remarkable section detailing the Democratic politician's alleged attempt to cash in on his ability to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama. Attached to the U.S. District Court complaint is an FBI affidavit, excerpted below, alleging that Blagojevich was caught on wiretaps noting that the Senate seat "is a fucking valuable thing, you just don't give it away for nothing." He was also recorded saying that unless "I get something real good," he would appoint himself to the vacancy. "I'm going to keep this Senate option for me a real possibility, you know, and therefore I can drive a hard bargain. You hear what I'm saying. And if I don't get what I want and I'm not satisfied with it, then I'll just take the Senate seat myself." According to surreptitiously recorded conversations, Blagojevich spoke with associates about the possibility of trading the Senate post for either an ambassadorship or a Cabinet post. The politician, according to the affidavit sworn by FBI Agent Daniel Cain, "analogized his situation to that of a sports agent shopping a potential free agent to various teams." During a wiretapped November 10 call, a frustrated and financially strapped Blagojevich referred to Obama as a "motherfucker" and said that he would not appoint an ally of the President-elect to the Senate vacancy if "I don't get anything." Referring to Obama, Blagojevich exclaimed, "Fuck him. For nothing? Fuck him." In a November 11 conversation, Blagojevich remarked that he knew Obama wanted Valerie Jarrett, a longtime confidante, to succeed him, "but they're not willing to give me anything except appreciation. Fuck them." Blagojevich, 51, and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested this morning on political corruption charges. While the affidavit does not specifically name the six prospective Senate candidates discussed by Blagojevic, Harris, and the governor's aides, it appears that several are easily identified. "Senate Candidate 1" is Jarrett. "Senate Candidate 2" is Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. Emil Jones, an Illinois state legislator, is "Senate Candidate 5." [The Chicago Tribune and ABC News are reporting that "Senate Candidate 5" is Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.] And "Senate Candidate 6" appears to be J.P. Pritzker, a wealthy Chicago businessman. Additionally, Rahm Emanuel, the incoming White House chief of staff, is referred to in the affidavit as "President-elect Advisor." (21 pages)
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Total income during the period was Rs. 2,206 crore with exports contributing a lion’s share of Rs. 2,194 crore.
The company posted an income of Rs. 681 crore during January this year and Rs. 676 crore in February with a net profit of Rs. 4 crore and Rs. 52 crore, respectively in the two months.
For the first time after the domestic IT giant ran into controversies following the disclosure by its chairman B. Ramalinga Raju, the company released information pertaining to its performance to select bidders including its acquirer Venturbay Consultants Pvt Ltd and Person Acting in Concert, Tech Mahindra Limited. The disclosure of certain non-public information was to facilitate price discovery as the “publicly available information about the company was tainted,” according to information available with the Bombay Stock Exchange.
The company reported a bank balance of Rs. 373 crore against an outstanding balance of Rs. 469 crore in addition to Rs. 169-crore corporate guarantee from BNP Paribas for Satyam BPO.
The company lost 23 customers accounting for $70 million business during the quarter ended December 31, 2008, and 19 customers accounting for $22 million withdrew business while 24 others withdrew purchase orders valued at $91 million, spread over the next 12 months.
It had, however, received new business orders from 215 mostly existing customers with contract values totalling to $380 million.
The company had an undrawn loan of Rs. 316 crore and outstanding forward/options contracts of about $164 million with marked-to-market losses estimated at Rs. 110 crore.
PS: The company claimed that the information was not audited and there could be no assurance that any such information was accurate. “The actual results may be materially higher or lower than projected”. The company said, in its filing, that the information was prepared with data collected using the internal management information system and the estimations, assumptions and approximations used were the best efforts of the management.
*Courtsey: The Hindu
Unlike the major currencies of the world like the dollar, the pound, the yen and the euro, the rupee does not have a globally recognised symbol.
The new symbol would be the "identity of the Indian currency," says a finance ministry official.
The contest, which closed on 15 April, is open only to resident Indians, a release on the ministry website says.
The rupee is generally shortened to Rs or sometimes the currency is described as INR (Indian rupee).
But, the government says, these are not symbols, they are mere abbreviations for rupee.
To get an internationally-accepted symbol, the finance ministry has invited entries from the public.
the INDIAn Rupee notes
"The symbol should represent the historical and cultural ethos of India," says the deputy secretary in the finance ministry's coin and currency department, BS Rawat,.
"The entries can be in any of the Indian languages. They can even be in English which is also an accepted language of use by the government," Mr Rawat said.
Each entry has to be accompanied by a fee of 500 rupees ($10) and a participant can send a maximum of two entries.
The rules also say that the "symbol should be applicable to the standard [computer] keyboard".
Officials say the winning entry will be chosen by a seven-member jury of experts drawn from various art institutes, the government and India's central bank, the Reserve Bank of India.
Five shortlisted entries for the final selection were to be awarded a prize of 25,000 rupees ($500) and the winner will take 250,000 rupees ($5,000).
"The final selected symbol were to become the property of the government and the designer will have no rights over it any more," Mr Rawat said.
Experts say implementing a new currency symbol can be an expensive exercise.
According to one estimate, when the euro was introduced in 1999 it cost Europe's biggest companies more than $50bn to update their computer systems to deal with the changeover.
"We have not thought about the costs yet," Mr Rawat said. "First, we'll select a symbol and then we'll do the costing," he added.
The contest closed on 15 April at 1300 local time (0730G).
Detailed guidelines on how to prepare the entries have been put up on the Indian finance ministry's website.India's income tax payments are at an all time high and the country is experiencing what analysts call a bonanza of tax payments. From just 1.8 per cent of the GDP in the late 70s, tax collection today stands at Rs 3 lakh crore or seven per cent of the GDP. Indians are paying their taxes like never before and this time around, the I-T department expects three crore people to file their returns – a jump of 10 per cent from last year.
The question that was being debated on Face The Nation was - Are Indians coming to terms with paying income tax?
On the panel to discuss the issue were social activist Alyque Padamsee; tax consultant Subhash Lakhotia; and Hon Director, School of Convergence Paranjoy Guha Thakurta.
At the beginning of the discussion, 76 per cent people who voted in on the show said that Indians no longer evaded taxes, while 24 per cent said India had not yet come to terms with paying taxes.
How is it that India is suddenly seeing a rise in the number of people coming forward and paying their income tax? This is a trend that has never been seen before, so why has this happened suddenly? For the first time, direct tax collections are more than indirect tax collections.
Subhash Lakhotia said that these are not people who have come forward on their own. He said they came forward because salaries were good, income was great and so they were being called upon by the Government to pay taxes.
"It's not that one wants to pay income tax at a higher rate, but they are being made to do so because their salaries have gone up," he said.
"The inflation and the present income and the unprecedented growth in the salary structure is responsible for this high turnout for people wanting to pay taxes. This coupled with lower tax rates from the 1970s has brought people forward," he added.
He said it was a much easier process to file taxes now and that the new generation preferred to pay off their taxes and have an easier life.
However, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta was not convinced and said that the numbers told only a part of the truth.
"Six per cent of this country of over a billion people are income tax assesses. That is 60 million people. Of these, 30 million actually pay the tax, that is three per cent of the world's largest democracy pays taxes. Out of this, two out of three people don't have a choice because their salaries get deducted at source," he said.
He concurred with Lakhotia over the fact that it had become easier to pay taxes and that the system was more transparent, but said that it was important to put things in a certain perspective.
Thakurta said that farmers in Punjab who made lakhs cultivating strawberries and gherkins did not pay anything in taxes including the "gentlemen farmers" who had huge houses in big cities.
Subhash Lakhotia agreed saying that the Government should tax rich farmers so that the tax burden on the common man comes down some.
Cultural Change
There is a change in our culture and the way we behave these days. It has almost become a prestige issue to say that we pay our taxes.
Alyque Padamsee joined the debate at this point saying that that it was wonderful that so many people were paying taxes. However, he added, "What bothers me is where is the tax money going? Why don't we have accountability? After collection, the Government should announce to the public how it plans to utilise the taxes. Are we paying money for filthy hospitals and unmanned schools?"
He said that the younger generation which is paying taxes should demand to know where the tax money is going.
Thakurta jumped into the debate at this point saying that Mr Padamsee as a concerned citizen had every right to ask where his money was being used and that it does not disappear into that "big black hole called the consolidated fund of India".
"However, the fact of the matter is that if you look at the Budget papers, you will find how much is coming from where. There are tax revenues and there are non tax revenues," he said.
Wealth Tax
In 1993, the gift tax was abolished and with this it became possible to declare good profits. But with the boom in the stock markets and the IPOs, a company that honestly declared profits could have a higher share value. There was a business incentive to be honest.
Subhash Lakhotia said that all these things are now irrelevant because under the wealth tax law, productive assets are completely exempt from wealth tax and the sky is the limit.
"This means even if I possess shares worth Rs 100 crore, I will not have to pay wealth tax at all. And with this, there is no need to hide your money and you can show your profits in your books. All this is due to the wealth tax regime being easier and exemptions being granted to productive assets one finds no problem in declaring their correct white income," he explained.
"I still feel though that the tax payers would be happy to higher to pay more taxes provided that retirement benefits are available. If the Government assures care in old age, then the revenue will increase manifold. I also feel the Government should stop scruitinising tax returns of existing tax payers and instead catch those who are not paying their income tax. Then the Government can reduce the income tax burden on existing tax payers of the country," he added.
Black Money Factor
More and more Indians were coming out into the open and filing their taxes simply because the process is easier, and beneficial even in some cases. So did this mean that the black money factor in the economy is lessening?
Subhash Lakhotia agreed saying that the component of black money had indeed decreased.
"I presonally feel that 90 per cent transactions these days are done under white money, especially residential transactions, because with black money, there was no chance of getting a loan," he said.
Thakurta disagreed saying that it was all about numbers. "Our tax paying population is much less than in those of capitalist countries. It is one-third of US' and half of Scandanavia's. We are a long way off from getting everyone to pay tax."
Lakhotia shot back saying that stamp duty rates have gone down and that was the reason for more turnout as well as more transactions in white money.
Alyque Padamsee stepped in at this point and said, "We have to understand that 50 per cent of the population of India is under the age of 25. As these people come into the work place and start to pay taxes, they have a differnt attitude to work to what their fathers had. He said that the only reason these people would keep black money would be because they have no idea where their money goes once it reaches the Government."
He said we needed to start a tax-payers' union which could go on strike whenever it felt that the Government was misusing tax money.
Subhash Lakhotia agreed with Padamsee. He went on to add that for the first time in 50 years, tax rates were reduced in India and this will help the revenue go up.
Final SMS Poll - Last date of filing I-T: Are Indians coming to terms with paying income tax?
Yes: 75 per cent
No: 25 per cent
