India born British businessman Gulam Noon said on Friday that the Indian economy will gro-w despite the scandals which have hit the country.

The PSU oil marketing companies on Thursday hiked petrol prices by Rs 3.14 per litre in New Delhi to offset losses due to the rupee’s weakening against the dollar. Aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices were also hiked by 2.5 per cent.

The Union finance ministry is considering a proposal to come out with a Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme (VDIS) to deal with black money.
People who will disclose assets under this might have to pay tax of 30 per cent plus a penalty, according to sources. “Under the scheme the income-tax

India’s GDP grew slowest in the last six quarters at 7.7 per cent during the first quarter (Q1) of this fiscal — April-June 2011 — as high interest rates hit businesses.

In gross violations of the norms, Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its report has found that the department of fertilisers is yet to receive complete receipts for subsidy payment of `50,698 crores to companies for decontrolled fertilisers. This raises questions on how much of `50,000 crores was properly spent to benefit the farmers.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Friday approved Europe’s second largest oil company BP acquiring 30 per cent participating interest in 21 oil and gas blocks of Reliance Industries. The deal pegged at $7.2 billion, will be the single largest FDI into India.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Thursday gave conditional approval to Vedanta Resources to buy UK-based oil explorer Cairn Energy’s Indian business.

The high-level committee headed by Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) chairman to suggest ways to strengthen the country’s laws in order to curb the generation of black money discussed on Thursday the possibility of declaring tax evasion a criminal offence.

The government, which wants to prevent Baba Ramdev from going ahead with his fast on Saturday, said late Friday night that it is considering substantially increasing the maximum punishment for corruption.

The government is considering the possibility of merging BSNL and MTNL in an attempt to turn around their business. Telecom secretary R. Chandrashekhar said there are valid arguments in favouri of such a merger.