4000 Indian government officers to be trained on PPP in German bank KfW-supported programme

ABOUT 4000 Indian government officials will be imparted special trainingns on public private partnership (PPP) as a part of the government's newly designed National PPP Capacity Building Programme with funding from German government's development bank KfW. Officials from state government and local bodies level will also be benefitted as the trainings will be delivered through state administrative training Institutes and central training institutes. The KfW and the India PPP Capacity Building Trust (I-Cap), signed an agreement on November 23, 2009 to develop the Programme, a government release said. The German government through KfW will provide a grant of Euro 700,000 (approx Rs 5 cr) to support the programme. The agreement was signed in the ministry of finance on Friday in the presence of Govind Mohan, joint secretary, department of economic affairs (DEA) under ministry of finance. The national PPP capacity development programme will be implemented in two phases and is expected to be completed at the end of 2012.

Action & Appointments Saroj Bala, a retired Indian Revenue Service (IRS) official and former Member (Revenue) Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), has joined Board for Industrial & Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) as a Member. The BIFR, which was set up in 1987, has K Cherian Varghese as chairman with five members including Ms Bala. Ms Bala had earlier served as the Director General of National Academy of Direct Taxes at Nagpur. During her tenure at Board in North Block, she was instrumental in initiating the process of making IPL (Indian Premier League), the 20:20 version of cricket, a money spinner for the department. Saroj Bala's Contact No: (91) 011-23701029

The taxman in Budget team to retire on May 31

THE taxman who has been deeply involved in the preparation of the forthcoming general Budget scheduled to be presented in the first week of July this year will retire by the end of this month. And there is no replacement till now as there has been no approved panel of successors. Member of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Ajay Singh, a 1972 batch Indian Revenue Services (IRS) officer, looking after legislation and computerization in the North Block office will retire on May 31, 2009, at least a month before the Budget preparation ends. He is also involved in matters relating to tax planning and legislation of various direct tax issues and Benami Transaction (Prohibition) Act, 1988. In fact, CBDT’s one wicket is already down as member, revenue Saroj Bala, also an IRS officer of 1972 batch retired, but the government has so far failed to get her successor. A member of the CBDT has the rank of an additional secretary to the government of India with a monthly salary of Rs 80,000. The new members in place of Mr Singh and Ms Bala would be chosen from 116 chief commissioners of income tax posted in various places across the country.