The police arrested more than 100 workers of the Akali Dal, led by Parkash Singh Badal, on the eve of the party’s protest day. The arrests were made throughout Punjab to ensure peace during Independence Day celebrations in the state, official sources said.

Reforms proposed in tax laws

Acceptance of self-assessed income-tax returns, increase in the basic general exemption for wealth tax from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh and extension of benefit of deduction from taxable income to payments made towards cost of new residential property, including repayment of loan and interest, are among the major proposals for simplification and rationalisation of direct tax laws. The Finance Ministry has also proposed exemption from tax on capital gains from transfer of agricultural land and from shifting of industrial undertakings from congested areas. Existing provisions resulting in computation of artificial or notional income are proposed to be deleted to get a new concept of the real income.

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President’s warning

The President, Zail Singh, asked India to be vigilant over the known efforts by some external powers to take advantage of the situation for disrupting the unity of the country.

SAARC call to fight terrorism

The two-day meeting of the SAARC foreign ministers in Dhaka ended with condemnation of the act of terrorism and calling for concrete measures to fight the menace. The SAARC council of ministers in its first meeting since the launching of the forum in December last year accepted undisclosed recommendations of the study group on terrorism and asked the experts to report on measures of implementation to identify the offences which are to be regarded as terroristic and which, for purposes of extradition, are not to be regarded as political.