PAN Card mandatory in Northeast India to buy Jewellery

PAN card or Permanent Account Details is mandatory to be flourished under section 114(B) of the Income Tax Act when one is purchasing jewellery valued more than Rs 50000/-(five lacs). Recently the Government of India has made it mandatory to seek the details of PAN cards for customers buying jewellery valued at Rs 20000/-(two lacs) or more.

Interestingly only 23 crore PAN cards have been issued in the country till date. Less than 20% of the country’s population has registered to have PAN card. The Indian Gems and Jewellery industry has a 29% of total global gold share. The decision of mandatory PAN cards is hampering the business of the jewelers. The All India Gems & Jewellery Trade Federation Zonal Chairman,(East), Sankar Sen has said ” We feel there is misunderstanding regarding gold/bullion is an investment product for which we will not object to the PAN mandate”.  The North East India market is pegged at Rs 500 Crore. Earlier in 30th March 2015 the Jewellers in Bengal had gone to strike to protest the Centre’s plan to make PAN card mandatory for any transaction above Rs 1 lakh.

Somnath Temple to invest in Gold Monetisation Scheme

The Somnath Temple Trust is all set to become Gujarat’s first temple to deposit its idle gold in the Gold Monetisation Scheme as its trustees including Prime Minister Narendra Modi have given their nod to invest the yellow metal reserves in the scheme. The trust has around 35 kg of gold and will deposit the gold which is not in day-to-day use of the temple. The management will segregate the pure gold from the whole lot to finalise the quantum of gold which can be deposited. Other trustees of the Somnath Temple trust include former Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel, who is also the chairman of the trust, veteran BJP leader L K Advani, Harshvardhan Neotia, P.K.Lahiti and JD Parmar. Recently, BJP president Amit Shah has also been appointed as the seventh trustee.

Assam boy builds own Helicopter

Sagar Prasad Sharma of Dimow village under Dhemaji district in Assam has succeeded to build a “Helicopter”. It took class-3 pass Sagar Prasad three years to complete his dream project (of making a helicopter) with local technology. He worked in a closed room in the last three years assisted by his wife Jonmony Mayank. Prasad, a welder by profession working in Ruksin town of East Siang district, initially used a diesel engine of a vehicle in his helicopter. He made public of about his doing so after completion of 90 per cent of the aircraft. Sharma has so far spent more than Rs 10 lakhs for his helicopter. He expressed that his dream would have not come true if he was not assisted financially by his friend Toopan Gimere.

Meghalaya pays double then it earns

A recent study by Brickworks Ratings India (BRI) has rated Meghalaya as the ‘worst of all states’ whose expenditure is exorbitantly higher than the revenue it generates. Meghalaya has to pay double of what it earns in terms of revenue from all its available resources in the state. With this burgeoning debt repayment burden, Meghalaya (200%) tops the study chart along with other regional states like Assam (160%) besides Bihar (180%) and West Bengal (150%) in Eastern India. The study reveals that in order to meet their expenses, states have to depend mainly on grants from the union government.

Narendra Modi layed foundation stone of Triple IIT

Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi layed the foundation Stone of Triple IIT at Indian Institute of Technology in the presence of Hon’ble Governor of Assam, Chief Minister of Assam, Union Minister of HRD Smt Ismiti Irani ,Union Minister of DoNER Dr. Jitendra Singh and Union Minister of State for Youth & Sports Shri Sarbananda Sonowal in Guwahati.