Saccharin: A white crystalline powder, having a taste about 500 times sweeter than cane sugar, used as a calorie-free sweetener.
Saccharin's sweetness was accidentally discovered by Ira Remsen, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, and Constantin Fahlberg, a research fellow working in Remsen's lab. In 1879, while working with coal tar derivatives, Remsen discovered saccharin's sweetness at dinner. Remsen and Fahlberg jointly published their discovery in 1880. However, in 1884, Fahlberg went on to patent and mass-produce saccharin without ever mentioning Remsen. Fahlberg grew wealthy while Remsen remained sour.
A century and more down the line, it appears the Chinese are bent on stealing the sweetness from Indian saccharin industry by dumping the product in India. Our government would have nothing of it and so anti dumping duty is imposed on saccharin originating in or exported from China. The provisionally imposed duty is to be effective till 5th December 2006.
NOTIFICATION NO. 54/2006-Customs, Dated: June, 6 2006
Rathore’s missing gun – with Frankfurt Customs
Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore is a medalist at the world Cup shooting competition but lost his gun while traveling by Lufthansa from Cairo back home. When so much of hype is generated about security in airports especially after September 11, it is hilarious that the world champion should lose his gun in an international airport. And nobody had a clue where the gun was until it was found resting in the cool comforts of a customs warehouse. But how did it get to the customs warehouse? Nobody has a clue and the Airlines do not come out with any explanation as the matter is still under internal investigation. And this is not the only gun that is lost. Trap shooter Birendip Sodhi's gun was lost when the expert shooter was returning to India from the United States more than three weeks ago. A spokesperson said, “the possibilities of finding that gun were also bright”.
MRP on auto parts – paltry abatement?
Automobile parts recently brought under the MRP scheme, will see a changed market. The abatement allowed is 33.5% but it is well known in the spares market, the MRP is a big joke. You can get almost any spare for about 75% of the MRP printed on the package. So the dealer must be getting it for about 50% of the printed price. Now all this should change and may be the consumer will be the ultimate payer as in all cases.
Now forged PAN cards!
Why on earth should somebody forge a PAN card? May be with so many agencies insisting on a pan card, for those not wanting to be in the radar screen of the Income Tax department, a forged PAN is required. If there is a market, there will be production and that is exactly what the Chennai Income Tax found when they found a businessman having several forged PAN cards. To his credit, the PAN was not the only forged card he had; he had a forged driving licence and a voter identity card too.
The 2F Saral – bonanza for CAs
The Chartered Accountants can now open special counters. Soon you may see billboards and ads “form 2F – saral – filled here” It is now an accepted fact that no individual assessee will be able to fill in the new simple form without the assistance of an experienced CA. The salaried class is an anguished class. They cannot understand why they are singled out for bad treatment by the Income Tax department when they are the most honest (by compulsion if not choice) income tax payers in the world. CAs are already being approached with questions like how to account for cheque payment, cash transactions and provide details on a host of minor expenses in the form.
Meanwhile the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has planned a joint initiative with the IT department to assist small tax payers. Officers from the IT department would be available at the office of ICAI and guide the public in filing returns to any other queries. This mobile ITO at the CA’s institute is likely to be effective from 1st July.
The best test would be to call a press conference and have a few Secretaries to the Government and a few Income Tax Chief Commissioners to fill up the form.
The CA curriculum is all set for a change with reduced content and term. With so many new forms in the anvil, we need more CAs and fast.
The Income Tax press release says, The Income-tax Department would like to encourage taxpayers to use this Form so as to serve them better.
Mulayam Singh Yadav – tryst with Income Tax
While every body talks in hushed tones about the huge wealth our politicians have managed to generate - for themselves, the Supreme Court has taken note of this and has asked Mr. Yadav and his family to explain the source of their wealth and file Income Tax returns. The Apex Court has also given the green signal to the department to go ahead with its investigations. Most of the politicians have started with humble beginnings and have contributed enormously to national wealth by making themselves rich first. All this without really having any vocation, profession or business. They are all full time devotees to people’s welfare and have really no time to engage in any activity to produce wealth, but by some unexplained quirk of fate, the poor politicians find themselves stuck with a few hundreds or thousands of Crores at the end of their thankless career. And normally the IT department is nice to them, especially if they are in the ruling party. The Supreme Court was dealing with a PIL filed by Vishwanath Chaturvedi and the court has kept options open about verifying his credentials too. Meanwhile it seems the heat is on in Lucknow against Chaturvedi, who is accused of forging documents. Whistle blowers do face threats!
