The Hindu Business Line : President's nod for Finance Bill

THE President, Mr K.R. Narayanan, has given his assent to the Finance Bill 2002 which was passed by Parliament last week. The assent to the Bill paves the way for incorporating all the taxation proposals - including the official amendments - in the statute book.

The Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, who is now under pressure from Opposition parties to quit his portfolio, had substantially diluted his Budget proposals regarding pruning of tax rebates on savings and taxing dividends at the hands of shareholders in the official amendments to the Finance Bill.

Mr Sinha had also to yield ground on his proposed five per cent service tax on life insurance, which would be confined only to the risk premium component and not the entire premium sum paid by the insurance holder.

The partial rollback of the service tax proposal, however, does not form part of the official amendments to the Finance Bill and would be notified sometime next month by the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC).

The farming community was also given sops in the official amendments through a 10 per cent increase in the import duty on dairy products, including butter and butter oil.

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