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Ichiban to set up
plant by next year Bank union seeks
ban on defaulting politicians Submit expenses
estimate, ministries told More hi-tech jobs
to shift to India Tips on tax
planning for women
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Ichiban to set up plant by next year
This includes setting up the company’s own manufacturing facility in the country by next year Managing Director of Ichiban Appliances India Sandeep Sethi said in an interview. “By middle of the next year, we should have the manufacturing facility in place. The total investment involved in setting up the plant will be to the extent of Rs 20 crore”, Mr Sethi said. Ichiban India is a 50:50 joint venture between the $95 million Singapore-based Ichiban Asia and Allied Trans Atlantic, a subsidiary of the Rs 1,500 crore Kalinga group. Mr Sethi said the company is at present importing the entire range. “Our plant will have the capacity of rolling out 25,000 colour televisions, 5,000 washing machines, 5,000 micro-wave ovens and 2,000 refrigerators per month”, he said. “Ichiban appliances are conceptualised and developed in Singapore, marketed extensively around the world and now being launched in India”, he said. Mr Sethi said the company was working on a distinct positioning strategy in the market which is dominated by Korean manufacturers. “We would like to groom our brand as a brand from Singapore — a country characterised by perfection in everything”, he said. Globally, Ichiban has a total product range of 178 spread across the seven product categories. In India the company had so far launched nine models of colour televisions, four refrigerators, five washing machines and some models of micro-wave ovens. Besides, it has also launched products such as “oil radiators” for the winter season along with other products such as “deep-friers”. The MD said there was enough space in the Indian consumer durables industry despite the apparent cut-throat competition among a few major companies. “Every company claims that its products are exclusive. Nothing in this world is exclusive in nature”, Mr Sethi said. On the price positioning strategy, he said the Ichiban products were priced competitively and in a way that “the dealer can earn from our brand”. Mr Sethi believes that the brand acceptability among Indian consumers is beginning to show. “This shows at the pace at which Ichiban is spreading its wings to different states. We now have distributors and dealers in Delhi, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Punjab-Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh,
Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Gujarat, some states in the South”, he said. Nationally, the company has 80 authorised service centres spread across several states. Elaborating on the brand positioning strategy, Mr Sethi said Ichiban India wanted to establish the brand presence first and not promise and disappear as had been seen in the case of some consumer durables company. “Our brand tag line is Perfect Home Maker. Be it perfect cooking, effortless ironing, or a perfect entertainment series and 3D suave cool series. Name it and we are ready with a perfect package for the discerning homemaker”, he said. The company expects the prices of products to come down by 7 to 8 per cent after the manufacturing facility is set up here. “We are considering various locations in the country. These are Gujarat, Uttaranchal and Himachal Pradesh. Besides, it also depends on the tax incentive structure of various states that are on offer”, he said. Mr Sethi, however, refused to be drawn into any numbers game of market share of various companies. The market share projections cannot always be the correct indicator. “Having said, we are, however, looking at overall share perhaps in the range of 5 to 8 per cent”, he added. The company’s primary region of focus is the North and areas coming under “Greater Punjab”. “We are looking at areas in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir and Rajasthan”, he said. Mr Sethi believed freebie campaigns do not really help in the shoring up the sales of any product even though Ichiban India offered special customer packages on Divali, like free gifts and combo offers. “This was more to establish a the brand equity”, he explained. The company may also consider getting into event sponsorship in the near future. “Two things that the people of this country are mad about are Bollywood and cricket and these are the areas where the maximum brand presence in form of sponsorship is observed”, he said.
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Bank union seeks ban on defaulting politicians Chandigarh, January 4 The association has claimed that despite provisions of the Securitisation Act, the banks had failed to recover huge loans from the companies promoted by the politicians and their family members. It pointed out that if countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh could debar defaulter politicians from contesting elections, why India could not make such a provision through enacting a suitable law. Talking to the mediapersons before the general body meeting, Mr K.D. Khera, general secretary of the association, said, "The banks have written off a large amount of bad loans to cut down the NPAs. Indeed, the Securitisation Act has helped the bank, but the banks do not have expertise to handle the seized properties. So, the government should empower the banks to attach the properties of the defaulters like in the UK and other European countries."
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Submit expenses estimate, ministries told
New Delhi, January 4 The Financial Advisers in all the ministries have begun work on estimating the expenditure of their respective ministries and will forward their reports to the Finance Ministry this week itself, official sources said today. The Finance Ministry has decided to be ready with a vote-on-account as well in view of the possibility of the government going for early Lok Sabha polls in April-May. At the same time, the Budget exercise will also continue until the official announcement of the early polls, a decision on which will be taken only after consultations with all allies of the NDA. A final decision on the poll date is expected during the BJP National Executive meeting in Hyderabad on January 11 and 12 which will subsequently be approved by the Cabinet. According to political circles, Parliament is likely to be convened for a one-day sitting on January 21 for approving the vote-on-account to sanction funds.
— UNI
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More hi-tech jobs to shift to India
Toronto, January 4 “In the next decade, as many as six million jobs might be sent to India and other nations by US companies in search of lower costs and a tech-savvy, English-speaking workforce,” Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said in a recent report. “The shift of North American technology jobs to low wage countries like India cannot be stopped because not only are Indian companies a third of the cost, but they actually are better” said Pradeep Sood, President of the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce. Indian workers earn as little as one-tenth of their North American counterparts, and India produces 67 per cent more engineers and computer scientists each year than the US, said Sood, suggesting that India should take full advantage of its low salaries and skilled work force. A number of multinational corporations like Microsoft, Intel, Accenture Ltd and GM Motors have already started taking advantage of cheaper costs in India. Microsoft, that employs 250 workers in India, is on track to double its workforce to 500 by 2005. Intel, US chip making company, has invested $ 20 million dollars in an Indian customer service centre of Satyam Computer Services Ltd, one of the biggest software makers in the country. Intel employs about 1,000 persons in India and has its largest non-US chip design centre in Bangalore. Accenture Ltd, which manages business computer systems for clients including AT&T company, plans to double its workforce in India to as many as 10,000 by the end of this year. General Motors Corporation, the world’s known auto maker, plans to hire 100 researchers in Bangalore to develop lightweight material and conduct crash tests, according to economic experts in Toronto.
— PTI
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Tips on tax planning for women Income tax can be saved through tax planning not only by men but by women as well. Unfortunately, women are often not aware about their rights and duties in the matter of income tax saving in a legal manner. The following are practical tips on tax planning. Gifts Women very often receive gifts from their relatives and friends but they do not know as to how to make proper use of those gifts for claiming Income Tax benefits. Under the Income Tax Act, 1961, a woman is treated as an independent assessee and normally her income is taxable in her hands as an independent tax payer. It is not to be clubbed with the income of the husband or the parents. If proper care is taken in the matter of tax planning of gifts, a woman can so plan her gifts that the income from the gifts is taxable in her hands only. Under the provisions of the Gift Tax Act, 1958, no gift tax is payable on the amount of gifts from 1.10.1998 made by one donor to one or several donees during one previous year which, in most cases, means the financial year. The gift received by a woman is not treated as her income. Further, the income from the gifts received by a woman from anyone except from the following three persons is treated as belonging to her so that the income is not clubbed with the income of any other person: (1) Husband, (2) father-in-law, and (3) mother-in-law. Thus, the husband should never make any gift to the wife. If the husband gives some small gifts to the wife and the wife earns some income on the investment of those gifts or the savings out of those gifts, then the income,
there from, is treated as the taxable income of her husband. Hence, gifts from husband to wife should be avoided. However, gifts received by a woman any time before her marriage from her would-be husband is treated separately and the income,
there from, is not to be clubbed with the income of her husband, after marriage. This is as per a Supreme Court judgement. Thus, a woman can receive gifts from her parents, brother, sister, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, aunty, major son, etc without attracting the provisions of clubbing of her income with the income of the donor as contained in Section 64(1) of the Income Tax Act. However, cross-gifts must be avoided. Likewise, proper tax planning is required in the matter of making gifts by a woman. A woman should not give any gift to her minor children or minor relatives or daughter-in-law. If she does so, the income from such gifts will not be considered as the independent income of the donee concerned but will be treated as the income of the woman making the gift or the parent in case of minor donees. However, a woman can settle some amount on a Trust for the would-be husband of her daughter so as to create an independent fund or file for the Trust of such would-be husband of the daughter. Likewise, a Hindu woman can set apart by way of endowment for her personal deity or God an amount so that the income of the deity is separately assessible to income tax like an individual and is eligible to get the initial exemption of Rs 50,000 income.
Loans A woman can give loans to any member of the family, including husband. However, a reasonable rate of interest should be charged on such loans. Likewise, she can also receive loans from her husband at a reasonable rate of interest. Interest-free loan from husband to wife should be avoided because there is a risk of the amount being considered as indirect gift from the husband to the wife. Loans of Rs 20,000 or more should always be taken by A/C payee cheque/bank draft. Salary Where a woman is employed by an outside agency, the salary income is treated as her own independent income assessible in her own hands. However, where she is employed in a business belonging to her husband or a partnership firm in which the husband is a substantial partner, the salary received by her will be considered as the income of her husband. In the case of professional firm, the salary of the wife having a recognised degree or diploma of a university is not so clubbed. Partnership A woman can enter into partnership in business with any one, including her own husband. Both of them can be partners in a professional firm without attracting the provisions of clubbing the income. Jewellery One of the important areas of planning to be adopted by women is in respect of jewellery. A woman should procure a certificate from the person giving the jewellery to her as gift. Likewise, any jewellery purchased by a woman should come out of proven sources of wealth or income, otherwise the value of the jewellery can be treated as the income of the woman in her individual income tax assessment. Family photographs and other records for proper tax planning can help a woman in proving old jewellery received on marriage and other ceremonial occasions as gift. Investments The investment planning of women is just like men. Hence, the usual tax planning for securing exemption up to Rs. 15,000 in the matter of interest on bank deposits and government securities should be adopted. Tax Rebate A
woman below 65 years is eligible to an income tax rebate of Rs 5,000 under Section 88C. A senior woman, 65 years or more, is eligible, like a senior man, to an income tax rebate of Rs 20,000 from the tax-payable.
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Invest at your risk The mood of utmost euphoria and optimism gripped the bourses last week, as the Sensex hit 6,000 mark on Friday. Good second quarter GDP growth rate of 8.4 per cent and expectations of good quarter results augured well for the markets. As the markets move towards their new highs, the risks of investing in them at higher levels are increasing as well. Earning expectations have been rising each day with every risk in the market. In the eventuality of earnings growth not meeting these expectations in the future, there could be a sharp correction in valuations. Investors, in this context, should take the risk-return perspective into consideration before investing in equities at the current levels. Reliance Reliance was the smart gainer among the stocks this week. The stock gained 10.4 per cent for the week on heavy volumes to a lifetime high of Rs 585.70. Heavy buying from foreign institutional investors (FIIs) led to a sharp surge in the counter. Merrill Lynch, which has assigned a ‘buy’ rating of the RIL stock, attributed the positive outlook to the upturn in the petrochemicals cycle, and good prospects for RIL’s oil exploration business. But looking at the current valuations of RIL, the stock seems to have little steam left in it now and any new investment in the stock should be contemplated only after the third quarter results later this month. FMCG FMCG stocks, which have been laggards in the current bull run, caught the fancy of the investors this week. These stocks will be major gainers of a strong expanding economy, as any increase in disposable income will result in a spurt in the demand of FMCG goods. Hindustan Lever made a smart move up this week with a weekly gain of over 7 per cent at Rs 214. ITC, Dabur India and Tata Tea were other major gainers last week. Long-term investors can selectively buy into these stocks which are also of defensive nature and will not correct much in case the market moves southwards. Oil & gas The ONCG and GAIL India got a boost with the government stepping up divestment of 10 per cent stake in these two oil PSUs. The strong listing of Indraprastha Gas (IGL) also boosted the whole oil and gas sector. The government has an intention of floating an IPO, which will be the biggest in the Indian corporate history. Both offers will use the book-building route and will be made in the domestic market.
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FII net inflows at $ 7.59 b J&K export ONGC project Xansa to hire Bids for RCF NCDEX plan |
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New Delhi, January 4