|
|
|
|
|
Bullion traders end 21-day strike on assurance by FM
Punjab suffers Rs 4,675 crore revenue loss
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Equity mutual funds drop
in March; outlook hazy
ANALYSIS
India, China, US to lead global urban growth: UN
Google CEO betting big on social networking, mobile
Yahoo calls revamp meeting on April 10
US employment gains slow
BHEL Hyderabad unit’s turnover up 13% at
Rs 7k crore
Walmart training 60,000 women workers in
India, China
|
|
Bullion traders end 21-day strike on assurance by FM
New Delhi, April 6 Since the minister can only announce changes in his budget proposals on the floor of Parliament, the government has announced no decision but the jewellers associations have been given adequate assurances to conditionally end the 21-day strike. Jewellers who have been involved in the negotiations said at today’s meeting Mukherjee assured positive steps would be taken to address the issue of levying 1% excise duty and also on the issue of 1% tax deduction at source on purchase of jewellery above Rs 2 lakh for which a PAN card had been made mandatory. Indications are that the rollback could be announced on April 24. However, it appears Mukherjee is sticking to the proposal to double import duty on gold to 4% and has not promised anything in the matter. The budget measures were intended to check tax evasion and “black” (unaccounted for) money and to discourage gold imports which as an asset class is unproductive and puts pressure on the balance of payments. Sources close to the trade said the strike had been called off conditionally and may resume on May 11 if follow through action is not taken. Rakesh Saraf, part of the jewellers bodies that have been agitating, said they were ending the strike after positive assurances from the government. Mukherjee’s decision to meet the traders before the Finance Bill is passed was enough indication that a review is likely. The Congress party has also asked the government to consider the demands sympathetically. Several chief ministers have also demanded a rollback of these provisions. Several representations have been received in the finance ministry on behalf of the manufacturers of jewellery including artisans and goldsmiths seeking reconsideration of this proposal on the ground that the industry is unorganized and fragmented and would find it difficult to comply with central excise norms. Jewellers claim the bullion sector is getting a rough deal as customs duty on gold has been quadrupled in two months. Customers will have to fork out at least Rs 250 more on unbranded jewellery of 10 grams on account of excise duty and Rs 550 more on gold bars of 10 grams. They say this will lead to increase in gold smuggling and “black” money.
|
||
|
Gold imports may surge post jewellers’ stir
Mumbai, April 6 Gold prices fell 2.6% to US $1,628.10 an ounce from a high of $1790 last February. However, the trade expects global gold prices to zoom with Indian buyers returning to the global market. "Indians buy gold for adornment as well as for appreciation of wealth, so one shouldn’t expect a sharp fall in demand for gold," says Ajay Saxena an analyst with a Mumbai brokerage. Many think customers will be back to buying gold as soon as they get used to the higher prices though there could be a dip in demand during the short-term. Reports from brokerages also noted that the government could retaliate by adopting more restrictive measures should imports of gold continue to rise. However the Bombay Bullion Association which monitors the country's gold trade says imports of the yellow metal has dipped ever since the government imposed the 2% import duty in January. This was doubled in the budget. “Gold imports could fall to as low as 450 tonnes in 2012," says Prithviraj Kothari, president of the Bombay Bullion Association. In 2011 India imported a record 969 tonnes of gold, second only to crude oil in terms of value of goods imported, thus adding to the pressure on the rupee. |
||
|
Punjab suffers Rs 4,675 crore revenue loss
Chandigarh, April 6 The Punjab government alone has incurred an estimated loss of Rs 4,675 crore in revenue because of this strike. With the sale of jewellery remaining closed, the state government lost revenue coming from 1% VAT and a 10% surcharge on VAT, through the sale of jewellery in the state. Average daily sales of jewellery in Punjab are estimated at Rs 100 crore, the major centres being Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana. During the past 21 days sales of Rs 2,100 crore could not be affected. Insiders in the jewellery trade say 80% of the jewellery trade done by unorganized jewellers is unaccounted for, as only 20% of customers want to legally show the purchases. This means VAT and the surcharge is payable only on jewellery sales of Rs 420-425 crore (during the 21 days of the strike), which is Rs 4,675 crore. Ever since the finance minister announced the budget proposals to levy excise duty on unbranded jewellery and double import duty on gold, jewellers in the state have been participating in the nationwide stir. They have also been protesting against the imposition of commodity transaction tax on them. Devinder Khanna, general secretary of the Punjab Sarafa Association, told The Tribune by hiking the customs duty, the gold available in India will become RS 70 per gram more expensive, than in other countries like Dubai. “This will encourage smuggling of gold in the country. Even the imposition of excise will impact a majority of jewelers as their total sales are over Rs 5 lakh a year. The abatement will be limited only to artisans, especially at a time when gold prices are zooming,” he said. Anand Sekri, president of the Punjab Jewellers Federation, said the government will have to roll back the excise duty and commodity transaction tax on gold. “We’ll suspend the stir only till May 11, waiting for the government to withdraw these taxes. In case they don’t, we’ll go on an indefinite strike again,” he said.
|
||
|
Equity mutual funds drop
in March; outlook hazy
New Delhi, April 6 The outlook for shares in India remains clouded by uncertainties about growth and lingering concerns about inflation, which could again help funds that invest in companies that make soaps, toothpastes and detergents or healthcare firms outperform the broader market. Diversified funds, which form the largest category of equity funds by number and assets, dropped 0.8 percent on average in March to register their first monthly fall in 2012, data from fund tracker Lipper, a Thomson Reuters company, showed. In comparison, the BSE Sensex fell 2 percent during the month, as the pace of foreign fund investments slowed $1.47 billion from $7.5 billion that came in over the first two months of 2012. "The outlook is cautious," said R.K Gupta, MD of Taurus Mutual Fund, adding an increase in service tax and excise duty would raise costs and pinch demand. Foreign fund investments would also be restrained. The finance minister said last week the government would look into the possible tax liability of foreign institutional investors, raising the prospect that brokerages and other financial firms with registered licences in India could be liable to pay taxes. India's annual budget around mid-March avoided bold reforms and outlined proposals that would allow authorities to make retroactive tax claims on overseas deals, such as Vodafone Group Plc's 2007 acquisition of mobile phone assets in India. International trade groups representing more than 250,000 companies have written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, warning that the new tax proposals have led foreign businesses to reconsider their investments. The uncertainties have dented investor sentiment. "The most liquid stocks are sold first to minimise impact cost," said Nilesh Shetty, associate fund manager at Quantum Asset Management Company, explaining the bigger drop in the Sensex. The BSE midcap index, which eased 0.63% in March, helped mutual funds limit their fall, as such stocks accounted for 20.3 per cent of overall assets at the end of February, Morningstar India data showed. Bets on fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and healthcare companies also helped limit the damage to unit values of funds, as the two sectors collectively accounted for 13.4 percent of the assets. The healthcare index rose 4.6 percent in March, while the BSE FMCG index was among the best performing sectors with gains of 7.8 percent. Shares in ITC, the largest cigarette maker in India, jumped 9.2 percent in March, while leading consumer goods maker Hindustan Unilever rallied 7.8 percent. FMCG funds were among top performers, with the ICICI Prudential FMCG Fund rising 8 percent and the SBI Magnum Sector Funds Umbrella - FMCG gaining 7.3 percent. Exposure to cash at Feb-end stood at 4.71 percent, the lowest level in nearly two years, but a likely increase in cash exposure in March could have also helped minimise the fall in unit values. "It is likely that cash levels may have gone up a bit in March portfolios, with the market volatility increasing lately," said Dhruva Raj Chatterji, senior research analyst, Morningstar India. Among other schemes, fixed income funds that invest in government securities fell 0.31 percent in the month, while gold exchange traded funds (ETFs) dropped 1.2 percent on average.
— Reuters |
||
|
Govt puts up roadblocks to divestment plans
Mumbai, April 6 This week the government ordered state-run Coal India to sign guaranteed supply pacts with power producers at below-market prices, raising the hackles of British activist investor The Children's Investment Fund Management (TCI). TCI, which owns 1 percent of Coal India, world's largest coal miner, plans legal action against for not protecting minority shareholder interests. The coal order follows a proposal in last month's budget to lift tax on oil production that will knock $978 million from Oil and Natural Gas Corp's pretax profit. That came weeks after a messy government selldown of a $2.5 billion stake in ONGC that ended up mostly in the hands of a state insurer. "It will be difficult for the government to find buyers of shares in the public sector firms after the recent decisions," said Juergen Maiar, a Vienna-based fund manager with Raiffeisen Euroasien Aktien, which owns Indian shares worth $300 million, including a stake in ONGC. "The interference by majority shareholders is not new, but how can the government set a very high divestment target and take decisions that will definitely hit companies' profit," said Maiar, who does not plan to add to his state holdings. The budget made headlines with provisions that could retroactively tax long-completed mergers, potentially putting Vodafone Plc back on the hook for more than $2 billion in tax, despite a win in the Supreme Court in January. The British mobile operator had fought a 5-year legal battle against the tax demand over its acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd's (0013.HK) Indian mobile assets in 2007. Uncertainty over another budget proposal that could tax foreign institutional investors has also spooked overseas funds, which typically buy the majority of large Indian equity sales. "It's counterintuitive to see the government making life difficult for public sector companies, and foreign investors for that matter, while it is in desperate need for cash and foreign funding," said Michiel van Voorst, a fund manager at Robeco in Hong Kong, which manages $400 million in India. India, expected to struggle to meet a target to cut its fiscal deficit to 5.1 percent of GDP from 5.9 percent, aims to sell 300 billion rupees of state shares this fiscal year after raising just 140 billion rupees in the year just ended, less than half its 400 billion rupee goal. The target looks harder to reach after Bharat Heavy Electricals, India's biggest power equipment maker, this week withdraw plans for a share sale expected to raise roughly $1 billion for the government. — Reuters
|
||
|
India, China, US to lead global urban growth: UN
United Nations, April 6 Ahead of a U.N. sustainability summit in Rio in June, the world body released new forecasts for urban populations in a bid to urge global leaders to come up with concrete plans at the conference in Brazil to produce sustainable cities. Nigeria's cities are expected to add 200 million people by 2050, more than doubling the country's current population; India's cities are to add 497 million, increasing the current total population by more than 40 percent; and Indonesia's cities are set to add 92 million people, about a 38 percent increase in its total population, according to the United Nations’ 2011 Revision of the World Urbanization Prospects. U.S. cities are forecast to add 103 million people, raising the country's total population by a third, while China is due to boost its total population by a quarter, with an increase of 341 million in its cities. Currently half the world's 7 billion people live in cities, the United Nations said. "Cities are where the pressures of migration, globalization, economic development, social inequality, environmental pollution and climate change are most directly felt," the United Nations said in a statement. "Yet, at the same time, they are they engines of the world economy and centers of innovation where many solutions to global problems are being piloted," the world body said. Representatives from around the world will gather in Rio de Janeiro in June to try to hammer out sustainable development goals at the Rio+20 conference, named after a ground-breaking meeting in the Brazilian city 20 years ago. — Reuters
|
||
|
Google CEO betting big on social networking, mobile
Mountain View, Calif., April 6 Larry Page, also co-founder who took over the top job from Eric Schmidt in April 2011, said in a 2012 strategy update that the search giant had made progress revamping Google around key business opportunities. Page said Google's smartphone operating system, Android, was being activated on 850,000 mobile devices every day. He signaled Google's intentions to make hardware devices when its $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility Holdings closes later this year, even as some observers have speculated that Google was only interested in the company for its extensive patent portfolio. "We’re excited about the opportunities to build great devices capitalizing on the tremendous success and growth of Android and Motorola's long history of technological innovation," Page wrote in the update. Founded by Page and Sergey Brin in 1998, Google has grown into a corporate behemoth, with roughly $38 billion in revenue last year and nearly $45 billion in cash and securities on its balance sheet as of the end of September of 2011. While Google has dominated Internet searching for a decade, the company has struggled to find its footing in social networking, with Facebook, Twitter and other startups stealing Web traffic and engineering talent. Since Page took back the reins in April 2011, Google has moved aggressively to make the company a force in the fast-growing social networking market, with the launch of its Google+ social networking service. "Our goal is long-term growth in revenue and absolute profit”, Page wrote. — Reuters
|
||
|
Yahoo calls revamp meeting on April 10
San Francisco, Calif., April 6 The company, once a dominant Internet media and search powerhouse which has seen its growth eclipsed by Google Inc and Facebook, announced this week it would lay off 2,000 people and set in motion a broad restructuring. It did not provide details of that plan. The reorganization meeting on April 10 is likely to focus around the 3 main businesses that Thompson cited in a memo to staffers on Wednesday: "Core media & communications," "platforms" and "data." Thompson told staffers in a companywide memo obtained by Reuters on Thursday that he and other Yahoo managers would provide information about "comprehensive plans" for Yahoo's future during next week's meeting. "The immediate next step for all of us is to get clear on our goals, and then take action and move," he said in the memo. One key question involves how the product and technology group, headed by Blake Irving, fits into the three new pillars of the company. According to the source, Irving has been out of the office on vacation this week, with the future of his team and his role uncertain. — Reuters
|
||
|
Washington, D.C., April 6 Employers added 120,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said on Friday, the smallest increase since October. Economists polled by Reuters had expected nonfarm employment to increase 203,000 and the jobless rate to hold at 8.3 percent. The slowdown in employment growth last month likely reflected the fading boost from unseasonably warm winter weather. It supported the caution on the labor market from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke last week. Bernanke expressed doubts the recent job gains could be sustained, and March's weak report was in line with expectations that economic growth slowed to an annual pace of 2 percent in the first quarter from the 3 percent rate in the October-December period. "This is going to keep the Fed in easy policy mode. They're going to want to see a step toward 300,000 before they start to think about seeing a stronger outlook for the economy," said Sean Incremona, an economist. — Reuters
|
||
|
BHEL Hyderabad unit’s turnover up 13% at
Rs 7k crore
Hyderabad, April 6 The unit expects export revenues to account for 20% of its turnover in the next two or three years. Owing to the current economic slowdown, its exports now stand at only about Rs 200 crore. Wanchoo said several export orders had been stalled resulting in the revenues falling sharply. The company is also betting big on capturing solar energy for generating steam for the turbines. |
||
|
Walmart training 60,000 women workers in
India, China
New York, April 6 The 'Women in Factories' programme is a five-year initiative that will be implemented in collaboration with local NGOs and teach "critical life skills" related to communication, hygiene, reproductive health, occupational health and safety and gender sensitivity. About 8,000 women will also receive leadership training to develop the work and life skills necessary for personal and career
development. The initiative would be rolled out to 150 factories in India, Bangladesh, China and Central America over the next five years, initially launching in Bangladesh and India this year. "Through this programme, women in the supply chain will receive the education and training they need”, Walmart Ethical Sourcing vice president Rajan Kamalanathan said in a statement.
— PTI |
||
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | E-mail | |
Google Inc's chief executive said the company's fledgling social network,
Google+, has scored more than 100 million active users, and he reiterated the Internet search giant's commitment to making long-term bets.
Larry Page, also co-founder who took over the top job from Eric Schmidt in April
2011, said in a 2012 strategy update that the search giant had made progress
revamping Google around key business opportunities.
Yahoo Inc. CEO Scott Thompson will outline his long-term strategy and vision for the struggling Internet company at an all-hands meeting for staff next Tuesday, a source at the company told Reuters, days after Thompson announced the deepest round of job cuts in years.
