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Inflation takes a breather
CRR Hike |
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NELP-VII bid likely on May 9
Small IT Cos may get tax holiday
Indirect Tax Collections
BSNL to appoint pvt recovery agents
Gender discrimination
Corporate Results
IOC refinery to lose tax rebate benefits
R-Power Shares
Rise in export of engineering goods
BPL families to get edible oil on discounted price
Scanning All Imports
Thomson acquires Reuters
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Inflation takes a breather
New Delhi, April 17 The wholesale price-based inflation declined by 0.27 per cent for the week ended April 5 on account of a decline in prices of fruits, gur, and certain edible oils, says a government release. In the non-food category, prices of steel alloys and aviation turbine fuel, too, remained firm. This being largely due to high international prices of these commodities. Crude oil has touched nearly $114 per barrel mark. Economists say the problem is just abetted and inflation will again rise in the coming months because international crude oil prices are firm and at home summer is approaching making availability of essential items scarce. Inflation declined in the first week of the current fiscal after touching a 40-month high of 7.41 per cent for the week ended March 29. Vegetables have turned costlier by a whopping 10 per cent, tea prices rose by four per cent, moong and oil cakes by two per cent each and coconut oil urad, milk, masur, gram and by one per cent each. There is little relief as fruits have become cheaper by 4.1 per cent, condiments and spices by 3.2 per cent, gur by three per cent and edible oils by two to one per cent. PTI adds: HDFC Bank chief economist Abheek Barua attributed the decline to “direct fiscal steps taken by the government to check prices...rate of increase in prices in a number of food and manufactured items like edible oil, iron and steel have come down.” Part of the decline, he added, could be attributed to base effect as the annual rate of inflation for the corresponding week last year was quite high at 6.44 per cent. The RBI is slated to announce its annual credit policy on April 29 amid assurance by finance minister P. Chidambaram in the Lok Sabha that central bank will assess the situation and take appropriate steps to control money supply. |
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CRR Hike Mumbai, April 17 The CRR, amount of funds banks are required to park with the apex bank, has been raised to 8 per cent to suck out Rs 18,500-crore liquidity from the system. Since banks would be left with less cash to lend and have to source funds at a higher cost, including by raising deposit rates, they may increase lending rates that would in turn temper demand and cool inflation that is at a three-year high of 7.14 per cent. Bankers said the move was expected but would wait and watch the credit policy to be unveiled on April 29 before taking a call on interest rates. However, some of them felt they were left with very little option but to hike their rates with the cost of funds going up following the CRR increase. — PTI
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NELP-VII bid likely on May 9
New Delhi, April 17 The last date for bidding is being pushed back from April 25 to May 9 to allow Finance Minister P Chidambaram to clear the air on the seven-year income tax holiday for oil and gas production, when he replies to Finance Bill in Parliament in next couple of week, officials said. “There is no formal decision yet, but this is the line of thinking and an announcement is likely soon,” an official said. Chidambaram in his Budget for 2008-09 had announced end of income tax holidays for refineries commissioning after April 1, 2009. Alongside, it also mentioned that tax breaks under section 80-IB(9) would be available for production of ‘mineral oil’, which was defined as not to include petroleum and natural gas. This created a lot of confusion among the investors and a fear of poor response took Petroleum Minister Murli Deora to Chidambaram earlier this week. Finance Minister is believed to have assured Deora that tax break for oil and gas production would be restored as it was a sovereign commitment to companies investing in the nascent sector. Excluding petroleum (oil) and natural gas from the ambit of mineral oil would leave only water for availing tax breaks. Mumbai: The seventh round of the National Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP VII) has received good encouragement from foreign companies, Director General for Hydrocarbons V K Sibal said. Participating in a video conference from New Delhi at a function to announce the country's first level one training programme for drilling and well services technology, he said more than ten dockets had been provided to the bidders for each of the 57 blocks that would be made available in the seventh round. He said India has generated a lot of interest in the oil and gas exploration field, in view of the successes in locating reserves that had now gone up substantially. — PTI |
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Small IT Cos may get tax holiday
New Delhi, April 17 Replying to question during the Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha, the minister said that he had met the Prime Minister on the issue and he is inclined to give some relief. “We are of the view that small and marginal enterprises should not suffer. The matter is under consideration,” he said. Exemption from paying income tax for IT companies is slated to end in 2009. Raja said he had also met Finance Minister P Chidambaram on extending tax break for another 10 years but the “Finance Minister had some reservations.” The extended tax breaks should not go to big and flourishing companies, who have already utilised the previous tax breaks, he said, but did not specify when a decision on would be taken. The minister said the slowdown in the US economy has so far not had any overall significant direct impact on the growth of the Indian IT-BPO sector. However, the share depreciation of the US dollar over the past year has added significant margin pressure on the IT industry. Raja claimed NASSCOM did not have any information on reduction in salaries in IT industry but there had been indications that the annual increments to employees may be slightly lower. The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) has indicated that the data on salary cuts, if any, would be available only after the analysis of the annual results to be announced by the companies. It is estimated that the IT exports will be around US $ 40.3 billion in 2007-08 as against US $ 31.3 billion 2006-07, however, the outlook for business in the coming year is still cautious as US clients appear to be delaying their IT-BPO budget decisions, he said. Further direct employment is expected to grow by 23 per cent to reach around two million in 2007-08. This is an increase of about 3.75 lakh professionals over 2006-07. |
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Indirect Tax Collections
New Delhi, April 17 “We have crossed the revised estimates of about 2,79,000 crore indirect tax collections for 2007-08,” Central Board of Excise and Customs Chairman P C Jha told reporters here. The Centre has already achieved the direct tax collections of about Rs 3,12,000 crore for 2007-08, surpassing the revised target of about Rs 3,05,000 crore, and the total tax collections stood at around Rs 5,91,000 crore for the fiscal. Total indirect tax collections included customs collections of around Rs 1,04,000 crore, excise collections of around 1,25,000 crore and service tax amounting to over Rs 50,000 crore as on March 31, 2008, he said. Referring to the budget estimates of about Rs 3,22,000 crore indirect tax collection for 2008-09, Jha said, “We are hopeful to achieve the target considering the continuing high growth of the economy.” He said final figures of service tax collections are still to come as data for about 5.5 lakh tax payers is being collected but the targets have been achieved. It is despite cut in excise duty from 16 to 14 per cent in the Budget 2008-09, and reduction in customs duty on various item after the Budget. CBEC Chairman admitted that there was a minor shortfall in excise duty collections against the revised target of Rs 1,27,947 crore for 2007-08, but it was more than met by the increase in customs and service tax collections. The government had fixed a revised target of Rs 100,766 crore for customs and Rs 50,603 crore for service tax in 2007-08. When asked whether targets could be revised after cut in customs duty on various items and further proposed duty cuts, he said at present there was no such proposal. He, however, added “It is a simple arithmetic that tax cuts will have impact on revenue collections but targets are fixed while accepting duty cuts during the year.” He further said during the current financial year, the board would emphasise on “audit and anti-evasion” measures for better tax collections. Referring to large scale duty tax evasion by the pan-gutka manufacturers, he said, there is a proposal to introduce production-based levy to contain tax evasion. The decision would be taken once the Finance Bill is passed by the Parliament. — PTI
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BSNL to appoint pvt recovery agents
New Delhi, April 17 Besides this, circles have also been asked to utilise the services of state government departments in recovery of outstanding dues, Communication and IT Minister A Raja said in a reply to a question in Rajya Sabha. “The total outstanding dues of BSNL against subscribers and private operators as on January 31, 2008 are Rs 5,488.04 crore,” the minister said. The outstanding dues have been created as many customers do not pay the bills on time, change their premises and after defaulting, move to other new operators without paying their dues. Instructions have been issued to circles to ensure timely issue of telephone bills and to effect disconnection of telephones for non-payment promptly. The company has fixed a 35-day deadline for disconnection due to non-payment of bills, the reply said. Hitherto, banks and credit card companies favoured recovery agents, whose more often than not high-handed methods of recovering dues came for flak from the RBI last year. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT and Communication had also expressed concern over BSNL’s functioning as it was losing nearly 8 per cent of its market share to private operators due to delays in adding GSM capacity last year. BSNL, MTNL lose 46 lakh clients
BSNL and MTNL lost about 46 lakh landline connections in 2007-08, Rajya Sabha was informed today. While 43.8 lakh BSNL lines were surrendered in the year, its sister concern MTNL lost 2.1 lakh connections, Minister of State for Communications and IT Jyotiraditya Scindia said. The reasons included preference for mobiles, move to private operator, disconnections due to non-payment of dues and surrendering of second telephone taken for get Internet connection due to availability of broadband.
— PTI |
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Gender discrimination
New Delhi, April 17 A Bench headed by Justice B N Agarwal issued notice to the US-based Coca Cola Company and its Indian subsidiary Coca-Cola India on a petition filed by Payal Chawla Singh, who was working as assistant legal counsel in the company. Chawla alleged that she was harassed at workplace by her seniors during her pregnancy, deliberately downgrading her performance and favouring her male colleagues and ultimately coercing her to leave her job. “The applicant during her employment with the respondents (Coca Cola India) was grossly discriminated against on account of her gender, harassed, retaliated against for making a complaint and was coerced into leaving her gainful employment with the respondents and further she has been even pursued at her new workplace maliciously forcing the applicant to resign again,” the petition stated. Chawla had sought appointment of a sole arbitrator to adjudicate claims and damages. She has also sought unconditional apology from the company. Payal in her petition contended that she was employed by Coca Cola India in October 1995 as assistant legal counsel and remained in its employment till July 2004. She stated that the problems started in 1999 after she disclosed about her pregnancy and claimed that stress at the workplace caused ‘pre-eclampsia’, a serious pregnancy condition.
— PTI |
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Corporate Results
New York, April 17 CMC dividend
Tata group company CMC Ltd on Thursday announced a consolidated net profit of Rs 24.02 crore for the quarter ended March 31, an increase of 10 per cent over the corresponding period a year ago. The company had a net profit of Rs 21.91 crore in the year-ago period, CMC said. CMC had a consolidated profit after tax of Rs 92.35 crore for the year ended March 31, a 33 per cent growth over the corresponding period a year ago. The company had a consolidated profit after tax of Rs 69.32 crore in the previous year’s period. Nokia profit in line
Nokia expects the mobile market to fall in euro terms this year, it said on Thursday, knocking nearly 10 per cent off its shares. The company reported underlying first-quarter profit rose as expected, but a bigger-than-expected fall in its average selling price for phones also weighed on the stock. Hindustan Copper
Hindustan Copper, country’s only vertically integrated producer of refined copper, has posted a net profit before tax of Rs 302 crore and a sales turnover of Rs 1,828 crore this fiscal. A company release said the company has registered a record growth of 36 per cent in wire rod production, 13 per cent increase in refined cathode production and seven per cent rise in sales volume. Power Grid Corp
Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) on Thursday said its revenue increased by 62 per cent to Rs 125 crore from its telecommunication business during FY08. “The company is serving major telecom players in mobile and national long distance operator segment and is also planning to tap customers in the entertainment and broadcasting industry,” PGCIL chief R.P Singh said.
— Agencies |
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IOC refinery to lose tax rebate benefits
New Delhi, April 17 At present, Section 80-IB(9) provides exemption from payment of income tax for seven years to refineries. However, with the introduction of the proposed Sunset Clause in the Budget 2008-09, the tax holiday will stand withdrawn if refining of mineral oil begins after April 1, 2009, minister of state for petroleum and natural gas Dinsha Patel said in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha here. “IOC has informed that due to withdrawal of the tax rebate, there would be financial implications for its Paradeep refinery and it would adversely impact the project's internal rate of return," he said. The 15-million ton refinery together with a petrochem plant is to commission in October 2011. Patel said IOC has made representation for withdrawal of the proposed amendment.
— PTI |
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R-Power Shares
Mumbai, April 17 Announcing the results of a postal ballot, the company said the shareholders had also approved waiving off its entitlement to Reliance Power’s bonus shares issue, a name change to Reliance Infrastructure and a stock buy-back offer worth up to Rs 2,000 crore. The shareholders have approved the proposals by a large majority to waive the company’s entitlement to receive bonus shares proposed by Reliance Power and to “accept gift of 2.57 per cent shares of Reliance Power from Anil Ambani.” Reliance Power was listed on the bourses in February, where it raised Rs 11,560 crore and after which REL’s holding stood at 45 per cent in the company. However, a disastrous debut saw the Reliance Power shares closing below the issue price of Rs 450 on the first day of trading. Anil had announced a 5:3 bonus issue for non-promoter shareholders. To protect REL from suffering shareholding dilution in Reliance Power due to leaving its right to bonus shares, AAA Project Ventures, fully controlled by Anil Ambani and a group promoter, had offered to contribute “by way of gift” 2.57 per cent of its post-bonus issue Reliance Power shareholding, or 6.15 crore shares, to Reliance Energy. Based on the current market price of Rs 383.55 a piece, these shares are worth about Rs 2,359 crore.
— PTI |
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Rise in export of engineering goods
Chandigarh, April 17 The Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) data says the engineering sector has retained its share of over 20 per cent in the overall exports from the country, which is maximum in terms of sectoral contribution. The data for the period from April 2007 - January 2008, shows that India’s growth of engineering goods and services are valued at Rs 105024.60 crore, which is 13.04 per cent higher than the value of export of Rs 92906.44 crore in 2006-07. While the export of ferro alloys has shown the highest increase (169 per cent), followed by aluminum (95.62 per cent) and iron and steel (77.84 per cent), exports of primary and semi-finished iron and steel and non-ferrous metals have declined. Interestingly, the maximum exports from the country are still to the USA. EEPC officials said that there was however, a heavy decline in growth of primary and semi-finished iron and steel and non-ferrous metals. In fact export of non-ferrous metals have declined even to other top destinations for Indian exporters like UAE, Singapore and UK. Also maximum decline in exports was in bicycle, bicycle components and accessories, followed by two wheelers and hand tools, it added. |
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BPL families to get edible oil on discounted price
New Delhi, April 17 Each BPL family and those covered under Antoday Anna Yojana will be eligible to get edible oil at a discount of Rs 15 per litre, a source familiar with the decision making process said. Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar had yesterday announced a subsidy on edible oil, which would now be sold through PDS, besides the decision to import one million tons of cooking medium to improve the supply situation as parts of efforts to fight inflation. As it battles rising prices, the UPA government has repeatedly described inflation as an "iniquitous tax" on the poor and has said it was willing to forego revenue to contain prices.
— PTI |
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Scanning All Imports
New Delhi, April 17 “We have decided to raise the issue at the next meeting of the World Customs Organisation (WCO) scheduled to held in Brussles in February next year," Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) chairman P C said Jha told reporters after the 12th World Customs Organisation’s (Asia-Pacific) meeting. The US legislation stipulates that by 2012 every container on a ship destined for a US port from any foreign country must be scanned by imaging equipment. However, the law does not require containers on ships leaving the US going to other country to be scanned in the same way. India is the current vice-chair of the region. Jha said at the meeting it has been decided to protest through WCO against the US legislation that would result in additional costs to install scanners and other infrastructure at the ports, besides hassles for the customs and companies exporting to the US.
— PTI |
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Following the completion of the deal, shares of the combined entity, named Thomson Reuters, today began trading on Toronto, New York and London. The two companies together have over 50,000 employees with operations in 93 countries and collectively had a revenue of $12.4 billion in 2007. — PTI
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Accentia Tech bags $ 4.5m US order GMR Energy stake Wipro-Microsoft plans Stake in Benaka Sponge General Motors outlets Corpn Bank scheme
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New York, April 17
