New Delhi, September 21
Top corporates and banks, including Bharti Airtel, Maruti Suzuki, SAIL and SBI, have paid lower advance taxes during the July-September quarter reflecting the impact of slowdown.

The other large companies which have paid lower taxes during the second quarter include Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum, National Aluminium, Hyundai Motors, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam and Bosch. ICICI Bank paid the same amount as last year.

However, on account of increased advance tax payment by certain companies like ONGC, Reliance Industries and Tata Steel, the overall collection from top 100 corporates during the July-September quarter was up by 9.86 per cent as compared to corresponding period last fiscal.

The increase in advance tax realisation during April- September works out to be 12.02 per cent, according to the data on top 100 companies tabulated by the I-T Department.

The data reveals a sharp decline in payment of advance taxes by state-owned petroleum companies which are hit by rising prices of crude in the international market.

While Indian Oil paid no advance tax during the quarter as against Rs 351 crore during the corresponding period last fiscal, payment by Bharat Petroleum declined by 83 per cent to Rs 35 crore during the period.

The slowdown was also witnessed in the auto sector, with Maruti Suzuki paying Rs 120 crore during the second quarter, down 55.88 per cent over last year's. Similarly, advance tax payment by Hyundai declined by 13.52 per cent to Rs 81 crore.

Tata Motors showed no increase in payment of advance tax during the second quarter.

As per the CBDT data, the net advance tax collection in the first six months of the fiscal stood at Rs 1.8 lakh crore, up 6.6 per cent year-on-year.

In the banking sector, SBI and Oriental Bank of Commerce paid lesser tax in the second quarter of the fiscal over July-September 2010.

On the other hand, tax contribution by Punjab National Bank, HDFC Bank and Canara Bank showed an increase. Advance tax payment by India's largest private lender ICICI Bank, however, remained flat at Rs 650 crore.

In the power sector, NTPC's payment increased of 42.49 per cent at Rs 721 crore in the period under review, while that of Neyveli Lignite Corporation was down 50.19 per cent.

Media house Bennett Coleman & Co paid Rs 80 crore towards advance tax in the second quarter. It had paid Rs 130 crore in the same quarter last year.

The reduction in payment of advance tax by corporates comes at a time when the industrial growth fell to meagre 3.3 per cent in July amidst high interest rates. Factory output measured on Index of Industrial Production (IIP) 9.9 per cent in July last year.

Besides, there is also slowdown in GDP growth. The economy grew by 7.7 per cent in the April-June period, the slowest in six quarters. — PTI

Chandigarh, September 21
The bicycle industry expects the recent sharp fall of the rupee against US dollar to discourage and restrict ‘large scale’ import of bicycles from China. This is likely to prove to be a boon for domestic cycle makers.

“Definitely, because of rising US dollar, import of bicycle will come down as, now, it will be costlier for local importers to source bicycles from China,” All India Bicycle Manufacturers Association, President, Satish Dhanda said.

Dhanda said in the wake of sharp currency exchange fluctuations, imported Chinese bicycle will turn costlier by Rs 150 and kid bicycle by Rs 60 per unit.

According to Dhanda, out of total bicycle market size of 1.5 crore, Chinese bicycles constitute about 20 lakh units.

The rupee touched a new two-year low at Rs 48.23 against US dollar yesterday because of Euro zone debt crisis. Rising US dollar against rupee makes import costlier as an importer has to pay more on buying from other countries.

Industry analysts say that import of bicycles from China shot up from Rs 300 crore in 2008-09 to Rs 1,600 crore till last fiscal, severely impacting the domestic production of bicycle items.

Besides fully assembled bicycles, several bicycle components including caliber plates, gear shift, speed chain, aluminum rim, hub cone, steel balls, free wheel etc are imported from China for being cheaper by local traders and bicycle makers.

Those who import bicycles or parts will now look for sourcing these items from domestic bicycle manufacturers which will give a boost to the industry,” he asserted. The industry has been demanding the Ministry of Commerce to impose anti-dumping duty on the "unchecked" import of bicycle items from China to protect the domestic sector. — PTI

New Delhi, September 21
In a big relief to policyholders, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) today asked insurance companies not to mechanically reject claims on technical grounds, like delay in filing claim documents.

IRDA has issued these directives following complaints that claims are being rejected on grounds of delay in intimation and submission of documents to insurers.

“Rejection of claims on purely technical grounds in a mechanical fashion will result in policy holders losing confidence in the insurance industry, giving rise to excessive litigation,” the regulator said in a communication to life and non-life insurance companies.

Although the policyholders are required to file claims within a prescribed time frame, IRDA said, “This condition should not prevent settlement of genuine claims, particularly when there is delay in intimation or in submission of documents due to unavoidable circumstances.”

The regulatory direction is likely to benefit lakhs of policy holders, who face either rejection or delayed settlement of their claims on technical grounds. — PTI

Chandigarh, September 21
Chandigarh has emerged as the biggest centre of software exports amongst Tier-II cities. With software exports from Chandigarh crossing Rs 1,500 crore in the 2010-11, the growth in the city is because of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the information technology (IT) sector.

Over the last year, software exports have risen by over 30 per cent. Data provided by Software Technology Park of India (STPI) shows that exports from the Chandigarh region (comprising Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula) were to the tune of Rs 1565.33 crore in 2010-11. Exports in 2009-10 were around Rs 1,196.58 crore.

Maximum software exports were from Chandigarh (Rs 1,235 crore, including Rs 990 crore from Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology Park), followed by Mohali (Rs 300 crore).

Though the national capital region of Haryana is amongst the top software export regions, exports from Panchkula were not as encouraging, at around Rs 30 crore.

Ajay P Srivastava, joint director and centre head of STPI, Mohali, said that of the total exports, exports worth Rs 852 crore were registered by units registered with STPI.

“Infosys Ltd, Dell, IDS Infotech, Nvish Solutions and Emerson Design Engineering Centre have been the top five companies that performed well in terms of exports,” he said.

Infosys accounted for almost 50 per cent of software exports from here, the remaining came from IT SMEs, he added

He added that STPI wassetting up a new office in Mohali with an investment of Rs 40 crore, which will have an incubation centre to allow start-up companies in the IT space to launch operations.

Chandigarh, September 21
Frequent hike in petrol prices in the past one year may be casting a dent in household budgets. However, it is surely filling up the near- empty coffers of Punjab government. With petrol prices having gone up by Rs 19 per litre since March 2010, the state government is set to earn an additional Rs 300 crore through Value-added Tax (VAT), octroi and cess on the fuel.

VAT collection from petrol is expected to go up to Rs Rs 2,150 crore this year compared with Rs 1,840 crore in 2010-11. the The recent price hike of Rs 3.14 per litre on petrol is expected to contribute between Rs 35-40 crore to the state’s VAT kitty.

Taxes on petroleum products in Punjab are amongst the highest in the country.

In Punjab, petrol is priced at Rs 74.38- Rs 74.50 per litre (price variation is because of variation in octroi imposed by local bodies), which is the highest in North India.

The Punjab government charges VAT at the rate of 27.5 per cent, 10 per cent surcharge; octroi; 10 per cent octroi and a cess of Re 1 per litre on petrol

Officials in the state Excise and Taxation department said there was no plan to bring down tax rate. “Though the hike in petrol prices will help us increase our VAT collections, there is no move to reduce the taxes. We had recently reduced VAT on diesel from 8.8 per cent to 8.25 per cent to help reduce common man’s burden,” said state excise and taxation commissioner, A Venu Prasad.

He added that this year the state was looking at good VAT collections— not just from sale of fuels, but also through sale of food grains, iron and steel, FMCG goods and white goods. “We expect that the total VAT collection would go up from Rs 11,000 crore in 2010-2011 to Rs 12,500 crore to Rs 13,000 crore this year,” he said.

Ludhiana, September 21
With export of wool and wool blended items from the country dropping 12 per cent (in rupee terms) in 2010-11, the Wool and Woollens Export Promotion Council (WWEPC) has requested to the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Textiles to fextend the duty exemption pass book (DEPB) scheme. The scheme is due to expire on September 30.

WWEPC chairman Ashok Jaidka said the industry had also sought support from the government till demand improves in the US, Europe, West Asia and African countries by way of revision of rates (of duty exemption) to promote exports and compensate the exporters.

Jaidka, who had presided over the annual general body meeting of the council in New Delhi on September 16, said that woollen industry was in dire straits due to fragile economic conditions.

He said the target of 100 per cent increase in woollen exports was a far-fetched idea in the absence of incentives like DEPB scheme and revision of rates. He added export during the last financial year had come down to Rs 1955.31 crore from Rs 2222.14 crore in 2009-10.

The export target of $ 700 million for the year 2011-12 as against $630 million for the previous year was unattainable without total support from the government to the industry.

New Delhi, September 21
The slowdown in the telecom sector continued last month, with GSM operators adding just about 5.33 million (subscribers in August, compared to 7.65 million in the earlier month.

The GSM subscriber base, thus, stood at 611.75 million at the end of last month.

For the fourth month in a row, subscriber additions continued to decline. Bharti Airtel, the largest GSM player, added 1.15 million users in August, taking its total subscriber base to 171.84 million, data released by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) showed. Vodafone Essar, with a 23.56 per cent market share, notched up 1.13 million new subscribers. Idea Cellular added 2.33 million users. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Anti-dumping duty on chemical import
New Delhi: India has imposed anti-dumping duty of up to $0.81 per kg on imports of a chemical, used in several industries including rubber and drugs, to protect domestic players from cheap shipments from China, the US and European Union. The restrictive duty on the import of ‘morpholine’ would be imposed for a period of six months, the Department of Revenue said. — PTI