|
|
|
|
Recessionary trend to continue: Montek
Coal Minister blames PSUs for crisis
Merger with Star Alliance to benefit AI
Tea export hit by meltdown
|
|
Gold up by Rs 285 on overseas trend
Vodafone announces new economy plan
Satyam postpones board meeting
Aviation Notes
Investor Guidance
|
|
Recessionary trend to continue: Montek
Jaipur, December 27 Although he did not specify what the broad plan was, Ahluwalia said implementation of this plan would not only insulate the economy but also help it grow stronger than other economies by 2010. He said India has foreign reserves that were enough to weather any kind of crisis for the next three years even if foreign investment flows were affected. The impact on investment flows would be temporary and the flows would eventually increase once again, he said addressing the 91st National Conference of the Indian Economic Association here. India’s foreign exchange reserves, made up of foreign currency remittances and bullion assets among others, stood at about $250 billion as of mid-December. Even as economists the world over are struggling to say if the world has seen the worst of the crisis, Ahluwalia said the global recession would last for the next 18 months. He said the union government has already announced several monetary and fiscal measures to tide over the immediate impact of crisis, but did not say what the “broad plan” was. Ahluwalia was confident that the economic growth would not dip below 7 per cent under any circumstance. Meanwhile, expressing confidence that India would achieve a nine per cent growth rate during the second half of the next fiscal, Home Minister P Chidambaram, who till very recently was at the helm of the finance ministry, today said the country escaped global economic crisis due to strong banking institutions and firm policies the government pursued. Chidambaram said one could rest assured that the country would score 9 per cent growth during the second half of the next fiscal. “India escaped the impact of the global economic crisis due to its strong banking institutions and also the firm policies they pursued,” he said. “This achievement was not anything magical or accidental, but was a successful accomplishment for hard work.” Agriculture, service and industrial sectors and certain other areas had made stupendous and impressive progress during the last four years. The human resource, sustained hard work had also been instrumental for the achievement in economic growth, Chidambaram said.
— PTI |
|
Coal Minister blames PSUs for crisis
‘No dearth of
coal’ Optimistic of a 9 per cent growth in Coal India Ltd
(CIL) despite recession, the Centre today said there would be no shortage of coal for any industry, including small and medium scale
units. Claiming that Coal India has already recorded a growth rate of 7 per cent, he said it would reach 9 per cent by the end of this fiscal. “The company had never crossed its growth rate above 5.5 per cent earlier,” he said. Coal India, which had a stock of 47 MT of coal at the beginning of this fiscal, now has only 32 MT of the
fuel. “We expect that the stock would further come down to 20 MT by the end of the year. This indicate that lifting of coal has not declined due to international economic crisis,” the minister said.
— PTI
Bhubaneswar, December 27 “NTPC was allocated 106 per cent of its required coal while Nalco got 16,000 million tonne so far,” Union Minister Of State For Coal, Santosh Bagrodia told reporters here. He said while Nalco was “unable” to lift coal from the CIL subsidiary Mahanadi Coalfield Limited (MCL) in Orissa, NTPC faced problems of transporation. “These were their fault, not of CIL,” the minister said. Asking NTPC to set up its merry-go-round railway transportation system in order, he said coal lifting might have been hindered due to local problems or law and order issues. “From our side, both NTPC and Nalco were given adequate delivery of coal. There is adequate supply of coal to the CPSUs,” he said. On Nalco that often complained against the MCL of not supplying coal as per requirement, Bagrodia said while Nalco required 10,000 mt of coal to run its smelter, CPP had received 16,000 to 17,000 tonne of coal so far. The minister also said adequate raw material linkage had been allocated to different independent power producers (IPPs) for generating thermal electricity, as the country required it most. Bagrodia, who also held meeting with the chief ministers of coal bearing states, today met Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here after holding discussions with Jharkhand Chief Minister Shibu Soren. He is likely to meet the Chhatishgarh chief minister tomorrow, sources said. “I am holding discussions with the Chief Ministers on different issues relating to coal production,” he said. |
|
Merger with Star Alliance to benefit AI
New Delhi, December 27 Air India executive director Jitender Bhargava said AI was invited to join the alliance in December 2007 and as per normal procedure, it would be completed by May-June 2009. “The process generally takes about 12-18 months depending upon the airline’s state of readiness,” he said. Prior to its entry into the Star alliance, AI will have to comply with the minimum joining requirements (MJRs) stipulated by the Star Alliance. To achieve compliance with these, AI will have to raise standards of its product and service to levels comparable with those of other Star carriers. AI will benefit from its participation in the Star Alliance by way of network expansion and increased traffic feed through commercial cooperation arrangements like code sharing, network connectivity, schedule coordination, special prorate agreements (SPAs). AI will be able to improve connectivity between AI/Star Carrier networks and improved and expanded SPAs are expected to result in increased traffic and revenue feed on AI’s flights. Officials say financial benefits to AI from its participation in the Star Alliance cannot be quantified at this stage since these would depend on terms and conditions of the commercial co-operation Arrangements negotiated/concluded by AI with the other Star carriers. However, experts say at maturity, which is 3-4 years after entry, by participating in a global alliance like Star an airline can be expected to generate incremental revenues equivalent to 2-3 per cent of its international passenger revenues. 2008 has been particularly bad for the airline industry due to several factors, including high ATF costs followed by global financial meltdown. Another reason, experts say has been the reckless way carriers were allowed to increase capacity in India. Presently, most airlines are operating with 30 to 40 per cent surplus capacity. |
|
Tea export hit by meltdown
Guwahati, December 27 President of Tea Association of India (TAI) Shashank Prasad today raised concern informing that upward trend of tea export from the country had been stemmed during the last two months because of the global economic recession. Addressing a meeting of tea planters at Gymkhana Club in Jorhat in eastern Assam, the TAI chief said: “Through the tea export till October this year reached 156 million kg, a little higher than comparative figure for the year 2007, the trend has hit the plateau in the last two months due to global meltdown that has reduced exports to the UK, other European countries and Russia.” “Since the domestic tea prices remained under pressure as an obvious fall out of declining exports in the recent past, there was oversupply in the domestic market, which created a glut. Revival of the fortune of Indian tea and specially of Assam tea depend a lot on our export performance, for which we must free ourselves from the shackles of complacency acquired during our hay days,” he added. The planters are concerned that oversupply of tea has outstripped the demand in the global market that stands in the way of realisation of remunerative price for Indian tea. The Indian tea production in 2008 is expected to reach 965 million kilogram, a little higher than the last year’s production. The TAI official said due to negative demand –supply ratio, it would be prudent for the government not to allow expansion of tea plantation area in the country. The planters view the increasing demand for Orthodox tea in West Asian and Russian markets as the silver lining and consider the recent grant of geographical indication (GI) to Assam Orthodox Tea will be a major boost for efforts to build and popularise it in the global market. The TAI president called upon the planters to take advantage of the Tea Board’s Orthodox production subsidy scheme. |
|
|
Gold up by Rs 285 on overseas trend
New Delhi, December 27 Marketmen said the buying activity picked up on reports of the precious metal rising in the US, the highest in a week as mounting tensions in West Asia and South Asia, boosted the appeal of the precious metal as a haven. The falling dollar and equity markets also helped push gold further as an alternate investment, they added. Standard gold and ornaments, which normally move in tandem with the global trend, shot up by Rs 285 each to Rs 13,465 and Rs 13,315 per 10 gram respectively. Sovereign also shot up by Rs 100 to Rs 10,700 per piece of eight gram.
— PTI |
|
Vodafone announces new economy plan
Mumbai, December 27 For this, post-paid customers need to pay a monthly rental of Rs 15 per number per month, while pre-paid customers need to pay a rental of Rs 50 per day per number. Vodafone director (marketing and new business) Harit Nagpal said: “We have seen that the bulk of a customer’s calls are made to a handful of numbers. This offer helps customers economise on their monthly mobile phone bills.”
— UNI |
|
Satyam postpones board meeting Hyderabad, December 27 “The next date of the board meeting is not clear,” an official of the country's fourth largest IT services company said on the condition of anonymity, but the indications are that the meeting was deferred due to division among directors and resignation of one independent director. The board meeting originally was also scheduled to discuss a share buyback programme to mollify investors who were livid at the company's move to acquire firms - Maytas Properties and Maytas Infrastructure. — PTI
|
|
|
Aviation Notes The new chairman of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), Vijai Prakash Agarwal, takes over on January 1, 2009, as Dr K.Ramalingam’s five-year none too vibrant innings comes to an end. Ramalingam had promised much but did not achieve enough because he slipped into playing a second fiddle. Had he taken his own decisions, the AAI’s achievements would have been far more than has been the case so far. Agarwal is fully aware of “wheels within wheels” that exist in the department. He, like his predecessor, is in the know of things that mere efficiency and competence are not enough in the AAI. He has to play the role of “thrust and penetration” and take prompt decisions to provide new and vibrant look to several airports, like Amritsar, Jaipur, Lucknow, Kolkata that are lagging behind in every sphere The AAI's role, as envisaged at the time of its establishment, was to provide service to operators, passengers and visitors. Unfortunately, it has been made a “money-making machine” instead of catering to the needs of operators and passengers. Take the case of the utilisation of category IIIB ILS (instrument landing system). Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport is among the world’s few airports to have two runways — main and new — equipped with the highly sophisticated and ultra-modern ILS. Yet, frequently flights are disrupted, delayed and even diverted. This is because the twin problems of snags in the functioning of the ILS and indiscipline continue to plague the airlines. Half the foggy season is over and disruptions in the remaining half will continue to occur because of the lax functioning of the authorities. Each ultra-modern ILS costs about Rs 1,000 crore and another few crores are spent on the maintenance. Indiscipline in government units like the AAI and the ATC is hurting the growth of the aviation sector. Now, it has spread to private airlines. Some carriers have reduced fares as fuel prices have been slashed but some refuse to do so. The same private carriers are defaulters owing crores of rupees to the AAI and oil firms. In the topsy-turvy weather, many private operators do not operate their flights on schedule. They delay them and even cancel them without informing passengers. It is time the government takes action against such erring private carriers which, among several other misdeeds, continue to hire foreign pilots who report on flying duties while being “drunk”. One such pilot was off-loaded at the Heathrow airport causing problems to the passengers and bringing negative publicity to the Indian aviation sector.
|
|
Investor Guidance Q: I wanted to know if as an individual, I prepare my profit & loss and balance sheet, then how should I treat the accruals in schemes such as PF, PPF and post office recurring deposit in my P&L and balance sheet. In other words, whether I should add the interest accrual (which is not paid) as profit and simultaneously add the same amount to the investment on the asset side. — Rajesh Bhura A: It is assumed that you are asking this query from an accounting perspective. In this regard, note that you can either include the interest as income in the P&L account or add it to the investment on the asset side of the balance sheet. But you cannot do both as that would mean double counting. Including the interest as income in the P&L account will be the correct way to represent the interest. This way, it would automatically be included in your total profit for the year. From a tax perspective, the interest from PF and PPF is exempt. The interest from RD account is taxable as income on accrual basis. Mediclaim policy
Q: Recently I read that by buying a mediclaim policy, we can get tax deduction of Rs. 15,000.. Currently, our office gives us Rs. 15,000 per annum under medical benefit. If we produce bills, no tax will be levied. Else the amount is paid to us at the end of the year after deducting tax. My question is: If I take a mediclaim now for premium of Rs. 15,000 will I be able to avail the above benefit as well or is it only one? Or is it that as far as the total amount doesn’t exceed Rs. 15,000, I can get tax rebate? — Bindu A:
The mediclaim deduction under Section 80D is over and above the Rs. 15,000 offered to you by your company as reimbursement of medical expenses. The Rs. 15,000 that you pay is the premium for medical expenses that one may incur if one requires hospitalisation etc. Whereas, the Rs. 15,000 payable by the employer is against day to day medical expenses of the employee. Fixed deposit
Q: I have some queries for tax saving fixed deposit for five years. 1) Is the tax saving from the FD under Section 80CC where we can invest upto Rs. 1 lakh? 2) After completion of five years, will I get the total amount nontaxable? — Ashok Kumar Shah A: 1) Yes, it is covered under Section 80C. 2) The interest earned will be fully taxable. The principal amount is not taxable as of today. Tata Teleservices
Q: I have a query about Tata Teleservices. I am having 10,000 shares that I have pledged with a bank. Kindly guide me regarding the open offer from DoCoMo. What strategy should I adopt and what will be the tax implications for me were I to accept the offer? — Sameer Chouhan A:
NTT DoCoMo Inc., has bought a 26 per cent stake in Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) by paying $2.7 billion (Rs13,176 crore), becoming the sixth global phone firm to invest in the Indian mobile phone services market in the last 18 months. The offer price being higher than the market price, a shareholder will do well by opting for selling the shares to the acquirer. Since this is not a transaction that is taking place on a recognised stock exchange in India, the long-term capital gains are not tax-free. These will be charged to tax at the rate of 20 per cent with indexation or 10 per cent without indexation. The short-term gains will not carry the concessional tax of 10 per cent but will be treated as normal income of the shareholder. NRO account
Q: I am working with an Indian IT company and moved to UK in March 2008 to work at client’s site. I have been receiving salary both in India and UK. TDS is deducted on my Indian salary and am paying UK tax on UK salary. Last month, I had transferred some amount to my Indian normal saving account from UK account as I don’t declare myself as NRI yet and don’t have NRO account. My queries are: 1) Do I have to pay tax on transferred amount? If yes, then how much? Is there any way to save tax on this amount? 2) When can I declare myself as NRI as per the financial year? 3) If I open NRO account and transferred fund in NRO, then it is taxable or not? — Barma A: Your status as NRI or resident flows out of your number of days stay in India and abroad. For persons going abroad, if their stay in India is less than 182 days in any financial year, automatically they become NRI. In your case, if you spend less than 182 days in India from April 2008 to March 2009, you will be an NRI. You do not have any discretion in that regard. On becoming an NRI, you are required get your resident savings accounts redesignated as NRO. You can use this account the same way as you used it before becoming an NRI. For any transfers to your NRO account, there is no tax payable. The authors may be contacted at
wonderlandconsultants@yahoo.com |
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Guwahati, December 27
