The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Telangana stir has industry jittery Suresh Dharur Tribune News Service Hyderabad, December 13 Apart from triggering political crisis, the move to create separate Telangana state has set off alarm bells in the industry and business circles in the IT-savvy Hyderabad, which has built a global image over the years. The cosmopolitan city of 70 lakh population has become a major bone of contention between supporters and opponents of the Telangana statehood. Though the city is part of the Telangana region, there have been demands that it should be made a joint capital, on the lines of Chandigarh, in the event of the division of Andhra Pradesh. The uncertainty over the city’s future has sent jitters among the industry, particularly the IT, real estate, infrastructure and pharmaceutical sectors which have grown phenomenally over the years. There is an overwhelming feeling that the brand image of Hyderabad will suffer a dent and investments will cease if the state is bifurcated. With over 2.50 lakh employees, Hyderabad is now one of the top five IT-ITES hubs in the country and is home to over 1,000 IT firms. “We could lose the advantage of being a favoured destination. The uncertainty could impact the expansion or new investments,” said an IT professional. “There is apprehension of violence affecting business and industry," a CII member, Andhra Pradesh, Harishchandra Prasad, said. “For a sector which has already taken a hit because of recession, the move for the separate Telangana state could force builders to re-strategise their plans,” C Shekhar Reddy, president of the AP Builders Forum, said. “The industry only wants peaceful atmosphere, a stable government, manpower and good infrastructure," said JA Chowdary, president of The Indus Entrepreneurs and a former president of the Hyderabad Software Exporters Association. The Telangana turmoil is likely to hit the cement industry very hard as political instability and continued agitation across the state will have an adverse impact on the infrastructure projects.
	Price war in air as SpiceJet eyes Nepal Kathmandu, December 13 A new price war is in the offing with Air India and Jet Airways keeping their fingers crossed as low-cost SpiceJet announced its plans to start flights to Kathmandu from 2010. The Delhi-based airline, India's second-largest low-cost airline in terms of market share, has plans to start flights from Delhi and Bangalore to Kathmandu when it completes five years in May, 2010, and is eligible to get the nod from India's aviation authorities to begin international flights. SpiceJet's vice-president for sales Kamal Hingorani was in Kathmandu to scout the terrain. Hingorani told the media that his company would seek the approval of Nepal's Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation to start the international flights from around June, 2010. The new Indian carrier's entry in Nepal will be facilitated due to the revised Air Service Agreement signed between India and Nepal this year that has increased five-fold the number of air seats between the two neighbouring countries. According to Hingorani, SpiceJet is also planning flights to the West Asia, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Currently, Air India and Jet Airways are the most sought-after airlines for flying to Indian cities from Kathmandu, especially as some of the cities they fly to do not have any other competitor. SpiceJet's advent will trigger a price war among the Indian carriers just as Nepali airline Cosmic Airlines' entry in the international market four years ago had. — IANS
	Rel Infra top bidder for NHAI project Mumbai, December 13 Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) company Reliance Infra has quoted the highest premium of Rs 42 crore under the negative viability gap funding for the Rs 1,000-crore Kandla-Mundra road project of the NHAI, a company source said today. Under the negative viability gap funding, promoters of an infrastructure project offer a premium to the government, unlike viability gap funding wherein the government gives a grant to promoters of a project which is considered unviable. The source said Reliance Infra had quoted the maximum premium amount (negative viability gap funding) worth Rs 42 crore among the five other contestants. Last week, the company had won the 1,725 crore Pune-Satara highway project from the NHAI. The Kandla-Mundra project is scheduled to be completed by December 2012.— PTI
	BHEL to revive off-shore oil rig business New Delhi, December 13 BHEL is in talks with Larsen & Toubro and Pipavav Shipyard to jointly build off-shore oil rigs, a business proposition it had shelved earlier, says a company official. "We are talking to various private players for manufacturing (off-shore) oil rigs... we are talking to L&T and Pipavav," the official said. The company had earlier decided to quit its deep water oil rig business as it was unable to find a suitable partner due to investment constraints. The plan to revive the business follows the revival in oil prices on the back of signs of the improving economic scenario which in turn has revived exploration business and the resultant increase in demand for oil rigs. The Navratna power equipment major would soon start talks with the upstream oil companies like the ONGC and Oil India for supplying deep sea oil rigs. "We will be approaching the oil companies for supplying the components," the official said. BHEL is currently engaged in on-shore oil rigs business and has plans to expand it further. In 2004, BHEL signed an MoU with Oil India to refurbish and upgrade the land rigs. The company has so far manufactured and supplied over 80 drilling and well-servicing rigs to both ONGC and Oil India. — PTI
	Airtel biggest gainer in m-cap Mumbai, December 13 Six out of the top 10 companies added over Rs 24,000 crore to their market capitalisation last week with Bharti Airtel alone contributing one-third of the gain. However, the country's most valued firm, Reliance Industries, saw its market capitalisation dipping by over Rs 6,000 crore. On Friday, the valuation of the Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate stood at Rs 3,51,319 crore. During the week, RIL shares lost nearly 2 per cent to close at Rs 1,068.95 on the BSE on Friday. Bharti Airtel emerged as the biggest gainer during the week adding Rs 8,163 crore to its m-cap. In the elite top 10 club, Bharti Airtel stood at the ninth spot at the end of the trade on Friday when its valuation stood at Rs 1,25,808 crore. The week has been one of the best for the Bharti counter after being battered for more than two months on the markets. ONGC, the second most valued firm in the premier club, gained Rs 1,900 crore during the week to take its market valuation to Rs 2,54,504 crore. Other major gainers include NMDC, Infosys Technologies, TCS and BHEL, which together added Rs 14,538 crore to their market valuation for the week ended December 12. NMDC and Infosys remained at the fifth and seventh spots with market capitalisation of Rs 1,65,705 crore and 140,736 crore, respectively. TCS and BHEL occupied the 8th and 10th positions, respectively, with a market capitalisation of Rs 1,37,816.24 crore and Rs 1,15,722.53 crore. However, the club of top 10 companies saw four entities-- RIL, NTPC, MMTC and SBI--losing a combined Rs 12,355 crore from their valuation during the week. NTPC, the country's second most valued PSU after ONGC, lost about Rs 500 crore from its valuation to Rs 1,72,371 crore. Also, SBI and NTPC lost Rs 3,930 crore and Rs 1,324 crore, respectively, from their market capitalisation during the week. The following is the ranking of the top 10 club: RIL, the numero uno on the list is followed by ONGC (Rs 2,54,504 crore), NTPC (Rs 1,72,371 crore), MMTC (Rs 1,68,947 crore), NMDC (Rs 1,65,705 crore), SBI (Rs 1,43,848 crore), Infosys (Rs 1,40,736 crore), TCS (Rs 1,37,816 crore), Airtel (Rs 1,25,808 crore), and BHEL (Rs 1,15,723 crore). — PTI
	Tax Advice Long-term gain on jewellery sale taxable by S.C. Vasudeva Que. I sold my gold/silver ornaments one-and-a-half years back and proceeds fetched me about Rs 4 lakh. No receipts were obtained since shopkeepers hesitate to issue. This was done to consider some business and marry my child. I did not know if it is my income since I traded my gold ornaments for some cash. Have I to file my own IT return now retrospectively with any penalty? I am given to understand that women are legally allowed their istridhan up to certain quantity. My husband has not shown in his return since it was not his property, being my own istridhan. Please let me know whether the position as stated by me is correct? — Meenakshi A. On the basis of the facts in the query, it seems the gold/silver ornaments belonged to you and did not belong to your husband. If that be so, no liability can come upon your husband. If the jewellery held by you is more than three-year old, the gain arising on sale would be a long term capital gain. The reply to your query is based on the presumption that the jewellery was more than three-year old. Such long-term capital gain arising on the sale of gold/silver ornaments is taxable. However, such gain will be taxable only if the same exceeds the maximum amount up to which no tax is payable by an assessee. Further, the capital gain will have to be computed by deducting the indexed cost of such gold/silver ornaments from the sale price. The cost price would be indexed with reference to the notified index for the year of acquisition of such jewellery to the year of sale. The net amount will be the capital gain. In case such ornaments were held by you prior to April 1,1981, the fair market value as on April 1,1981 will have to be ascertained. Such fair market value will be indexed with reference to the notified index to arrive at the indexed fair value for the year of sale. The balance amount, if any, will be taxable if it exceeds the maximum amount up to which tax is not chargeable in your case. Since you sold the ornaments one-and-a-half-year back, the sale should have taken place somewhere in 2008. The maximum amount up to which tax was not payable by women below the age of 65 years as applicable to financial year 2008-2009 was Rs 2,25,000. In case you had no other income and the capital gain is more than the said amount, such gain would have been taxable for the assessment year 2009-2010 @ 20 per cent plus education cess @ 3 per cent thereon. The concept of istridhan is an accepted position under Hindu law as well as under the tax laws. There is a circular of the CBDT which provides that ornaments weighting up to 500 grams should not be seized at the time of raids in case of ladies. I am not aware of any other circular in this regard. Reimbursement Q. I am a govt bank employee with 32 years of service and fall under 30 per cent Income Tax bracket. My wife underwent heart surgery in October, 2009, and 75 per cent expenses were reimbursed by the bank as per rules. But now the bank has specified that Rs 15,000 to be deducted from the reimbursement amount given and then TDS to be deducted on the balance amount of reimbursement amount. This reimbursement amount is not a part of income then as to why the TDS should be deducted in this regard? Kindly clarify as to the Income tax rules in this regard. Please also make it clear whether I am eligible for claiming any refund after filing return? — Yash Paul Sharma A. Section 17(2) of the Income-Tax Act 1961 defines the term ‘perquisite’ which are taxable as part of the salary of an employee. A proviso in the sub-section clarifies that the following amounts shall not be treated as a perquisite: The value of any medical treatment provided to an employee or any member of his family in any hospital maintained by the employer; any sum paid by the employer in respect of any expenditure actually incurred by the employee on his medical treatment or treatment of any member of his family in any hospital maintained by the government or any local authority or any other hospital approved by the government for the purposes of medical treatment of its employees; in respect of the prescribed diseases or ailments, in any hospital approved by the Chief Commissioner having regard to the prescribed guidelines. Provided that, in a case falling in sub-clause (b), the employee shall attach with his return of income a certificate from the hospital specifying the disease or ailment for which medical treatment was required and the receipt for the amount paid to the hospital. It will thus be observed that the expenditure incurred for the treatment of prescribed diseases in any hospital approved by the Chief Commissioner is not covered within the term perquisite. In case the expenditure was incurred towards the heart surgery, (the same being covered under Rule 3A(2) as a prescribed disease) 75 per cent of the expenditure reimbursed to you by the bank should not have been included for the purposes of deducting tax at source. It seems the bank has deducted tax on account of the fact that the expenditure as reimbursed had not been paid to a hospital duly approved by the Chief Commissioner. Retiree’s income Q I have given tax last year as taxable income exceeded the limit. But in this year (FY-2009-2010), my income will be far below the taxable limit of income. I am a retired person having Rs 11 lakh in SBI. Is it advisable to submit form 15G/15H for this financial year? — Goutam A. In case the interest income earned on the deposit of Rs 11 lakh in SBI is below the taxable limit, you can file Form 15G with the bank. In case you are a senior citizen, it will be advisable to file Form 15H with the bank as the income, according to the facts given in the query, would be below taxable limit and Form 15H would be the appropriate form in such a case.