4% farm growth crucial

Mangalore, March 12: Union finance minister P. Chidambaram today said if India wants to achieve a 10 per cent GDP growth rate, the farm sector should clock a 4 per cent rate of growth. The ministry has convened a meeting of all chairmen and managing directors of banks and Nabard in New Delhi on March 22. ?The government has decided to provide agricultural loan to farmers at 7 per cent interest rate through commercial banks,? he said.

CST deadline

New Delhi, March 12: The empowered committee on value-added tax may ask the government to phase out central sales tax in four years, instead of two years, to reduce the burden on the Centre, which has to compensate states for a cut in the CST. The panel may propose to go for just one per cent cut in the CST for each of the next four fiscals.

Advance tax

New Delhi, March 12: The last date for making advance payment of corporation tax, income tax, fringe benefit tax and banking cash transaction tax has been extended by a day to March 16 due to a public holiday on March 15.

Eicher guilty

New Delhi, March 12: The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission has held Eicher Motors Ltd guilty of discriminating between its small and big dealers in awarding incentives based on sales targets.

Emami move

Calcutta, March 12: Emami Paper Mills Limited has planned to acquire two mills in Maharashtra and earmarked an investment of about Rs 500 crore for the purpose. The company has recently undertaken a greenfield project at Balasore in Orissa .