The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Breather for sick industrial units
One-time settlement policy for loan defaulters in Punjab soon
Chandigarh, April 11
Hundreds of sick industrial units in Punjab can now expect some relief from the Punjab State Industrial Development Corporation (PSIDC) and Punjab Financial Corporation (PFC). The companies propose to come up with another one-time settlement (OTS) policy in May for those industrial units that have defaulted on their loans.

In this photo, a logo of Sony Corp is pictured at an electronic store in Tokyo. Shares of Sony Corp slid more than 7 per cent on Wednesday after the company more than doubled its annual loss forecast, highlighting the plight of a Japanese TV industry that once dominated living rooms around the world. — Reuters

Berkeley set to go global
Ties up with Pinelli to sell its products across Asia
Chandigarh, April 11
The Chandigarh-based business group, Berkeley, is set to go global. With the launch of their retail business and a tie-up with luxury Italian lifestyle brand, Pinelli, the group will expand its retail business across Asia.

e-filing of return must if income above Rs 10 lakh
New Delhi, April 11
The government has made it mandatory for individuals with income of over Rs 10 lakh to file their tax returns for 2011-12 electronically. "e-filing has been made compulsory for the person who is an individual or a Hindu Undivided Family, if his or its total income, or the total income in respect of which he is or it is assessable under the Act during the previous year, exceeds Rs 10 lakh for assessment year 2012-13 onwards," the Income Tax Department said.

Nokia’s US ambitions hit by Lumia 900 bug
Helsinki, April 11
Nokia has found a software bug in its Lumia 900 smartphone, its answer to Apple's iPhone, and is effectively giving the model away until it is fixed, blunting its bid to turn around its fortunes in the United States. Nokia's first 4G phone, which it markets with the strap line "an amazingly fast way to connect", can occasionally lose its data connection as a result of the bug, Nokia said. Though still the world's biggest volume maker of cell phones, Nokia lost the top spot in the lucrative smartphone market last year to Apple and Google, in part due to its weak performance in the US, where its smartphones have slipped to less than a 1 per cent market share.

Kingfisher soars on stake sale buzz
Mumbai, April 11
Shares of Kingfisher Airlines today soared over 6 per cent amid speculations of Reliance Industries being interested in the air carrier, even as Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate termed such reports as speculative.

Alfa Laval to delist from Indian bourses
New Delhi, April 11
Shares of Alfa Laval India today traded for the last time on the Indian bourses, as its Swedish parent joined a host of other multinational companies (MNCs) to delist their local units from the Indian stock market.

ADB pegs 7% growth for India

New Delhi, April 11
India's economic growth rate is expected to remain subdued at 7 per cent during the current fiscal, mainly on account of the impact of continuing global crisis, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said today.

The Asian Development Outlook (ADO), ADB's flagship report, said the Indian economy will only register a moderate increase in growth rate in the current fiscal, up from 6.9 per cent a year ago, and the country would need to push reforms and increase investments to achieve higher economic expansion.

The ADB's growth projection at 7 per cent for 2012-13 is lower than government's forecast of 7.6 per cent.

As regards developing Asian region, the ADO said economic growth in the region would decline to 6.9 per cent from 7.2 per cent in 2011-12, on account of continued uncertainty in eurozone and slump in global trade.

The ADO also highlighted the growing income inequality in the developing Asian countries, including India, and cautioned that the rich-poor divide could threaten region's stability.

"Asia's rapid growth is leaving millions behind, causing a widening gap between rich and poor that threatens to undermine the region's stability," the ADO said.

Referring to India, the report said that average rate of inflation, after remaining around 9 per cent of the most part of the last fiscal, is expected to be 7 per cent in 2012-13.

The report said that certain elements of labour laws deter investment and need to be revisited if India wants to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) into labour intensive sector.

"Weak infrastructure, especially in the areas of transport, power, and education and training has also reduced India's India's attractiveness to FDI," it added.

The ADB said the current account deficit, the difference between inflow and outflow of foreign exchange, would be around 3.3 per cent in the current fiscal.

Moderation in the growth of non-oil imports in 2012-13 and improved economic prospects in the advanced countries in 2013-14 are expected to help the current account deficit to improve to 3.3 per cent in 2012-13 and further to 3.0 per cent in 2013-14, it said.

The report said oil prices, on an average, would be around $112 a barrel in the current fiscal and would come down to about $105 a barrel in 2013-14. — PTI

Report Card

The ADB's projection at 7% is lower than government's forecast of 7.6%

Says the country needs to push reforms and increase investments to achieve higher economic expansion

Forecasts inflation at 7% in 2012-13

Projects the current account deficit at 3.3%

Expects RBI to cut interest rates

New Delhi: Days before the RBI's annual credit policy announcement, the ADB today said the central bank could cut interest rates to boost growth as inflation has started showing signs of moderation.

"Easing of monetary policy looks a distinct possibility. The rate cut could come," ADB Deputy Country Director Narhari Rao told reporters here.

The RBI is scheduled to announce the credit policy on April 17 amid demand for cut in short-term lending (repo) rates.

Following moderation in inflation and steps announced by the government in the 2012-13 Budget to contain fiscal deficit, it was expected that RBI would relax monetary policy, said the ADB's flagship publication Asian Development Outlook (ADO), which was released earlier in the day. — PTI

Breather for sick industrial units
One-time settlement policy for loan defaulters in Punjab soon
Ruchika M. Khanna/TNS

Chandigarh, April 11
Hundreds of sick industrial units in Punjab can now expect some relief from the Punjab State Industrial Development Corporation (PSIDC) and Punjab Financial Corporation (PFC). The companies propose to come up with another one-time settlement (OTS) policy in May for those industrial units that have defaulted on their loans.

This will be the second OTS policy to be announced by the government in the past four years. The earlier OTS policy was brought out in 2009, but of the Rs 4,500 crore (equity and principal amount or Rs 400 crore principal amount), the OTS yielded in recoveries of just Rs 139 crore. Another Rs 25 crore is expected to be realised soon from those who had availed this scheme.

Punjab Industries Minister Anil Joshi said today the new OTS for PSIDC and PFC loanees will be announced within a month. “We are already in consultation with the loanees of PSIDC and an OTS policy to recover our dues is being finalised,” he said. The department has completed first round of meetings with the loanees of Ludhiana and Amritsar. A second round of meetings is scheduled for next week. After these meetings, the final OTS policy for 2012 will be drafted and announced.

Promising that the new OTS policy would be different from the other OTS policies that have been announced by successive governments, Joshi assured that the new policy would take into account the problems encountered by the defaulting loanees in availing this scheme. The earlier OTS policy was announced and approved by the state Cabinet in March 2009. Though the scheme was to expire in May 2009, the state government expanded it, with the hope of realising more dues.

However, the industry has been critical of this OTS policy as a huge amount of interest at the rate of 12 per cent was charged from them while the prevailing rate of interest being charged by banks was around 10 per cent. “The corporations had refused to deduct the principal amount from the dues paid by the industry and adjusted these as interest repayment only. Also, the industry was asked to get themselves certified by employees of these corporations as not being wilful defaulters. These things weaned away the industry from the OTS policy. In case the government wants to recover the maximum dues from new OTS policy, it has to make it more industry-friendly, said RS Sachdeva, co-chairman of Punjab Committee of PHD Chamber.

Berkeley set to go global
Ties up with Pinelli to sell its products across Asia
Ruchika M. Khanna/TNS

Chandigarh, April 11
The Chandigarh-based business group, Berkeley, is set to go global. With the launch of their retail business and a tie-up with luxury Italian lifestyle brand, Pinelli, the group will expand its retail business across Asia.

Berkeley Retail has tied up with Pinelli to sell it products by getting an exclusive licence for retailing their products in all Asian countries. As part of this tie-up, Berkeley will open exclusive Pinelli stores across all major cities in Asia, besides outsourcing some manufacturing of Pinelli products in India. Pinelli is known for its range of formal office wear, opticals, sunglasses, travel cases, laptop bags, hand-made shoes, pens, watches and other accessories.

Talking to The Tribune here today, Sanjay Dahuja, managing director of Berkeley Retail Limited, said initially they planned to infuse Rs 100 crore in the retail business. “In the first year, we propose to open 75 Pinelli stores and the first two stores will be opened in May at Chandigarh and Patiala. We are using Punjab as a test market, and later this year, we propose to open stores in all metros and major state capitals,” he said, adding that the stores will also be opened at all international airports in the country.

Once the business stabilises in the domestic market, the company proposes to enter other Asian countries. “Initially, we will retail only the Pinelli shoes, and will slowly introduce apparel and accessories. Some of the products will be imported and some will be manufactured in India. We are already in the process of outsourcing the manufacturing of these products, strictly based on the specifications given by Pinelli,” Dahuja added.

Berkeley is a Rs 500-crore group with interests in auto dealerships, insurance brokerage, equity and commodities trading and real estate. It had started its retail business two years ago and is the master franchisee for Reebok Sports stores in Punjab.

e-filing of return must if income above Rs 10 lakh

New Delhi, April 11
The government has made it mandatory for individuals with income of over Rs 10 lakh to file their tax returns for 2011-12 electronically. "e-filing has been made compulsory for the person who is an individual or a Hindu Undivided Family, if his or its total income, or the total income in respect of which he is or it is assessable under the Act during the previous year, exceeds Rs 10 lakh for assessment year 2012-13 onwards," the Income Tax Department said.

E-filing for such individuals was optional till 2010-11.

The Income Tax Department had received a record number of 1.64 crore e-Returns in 2011-12 financial year.

"We have done it to encourage people to go for e-filing of returns. This makes the entire process faster. However, digital signature is not mandatory for them," a finance ministry official said.

Currently 'Business Houses' with receipts of Rs 60 lakh and professionals with income of Rs 15 lakh are mandatorily required to e-file their return with digital signature.

As on March 31, 2012, there were 1,96,84,592 taxpayers who had registered for e-filing. The new tax returns forms also ask assesses to furnish details of donations made for claiming tax deductions.

Besides, the government has made it mandatory reporting of assets held by individuals abroad, including financial interest in any entity, overseas.

"Furnishing of return by such a resident would be mandatory irrespective of the fact whether the resident taxpayer has taxable income or not," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had said in the Budget. — PTI

Nokia’s US ambitions hit by Lumia 900 bug

Helsinki, April 11
Nokia has found a software bug in its Lumia 900 smartphone, its answer to Apple's iPhone, and is effectively giving the model away until it is fixed, blunting its bid to turn around its fortunes in the United States.

Nokia's first 4G phone, which it markets with the strap line "an amazingly fast way to connect", can occasionally lose its data connection as a result of the bug, Nokia said.

Though still the world's biggest volume maker of cell phones, Nokia lost the top spot in the lucrative smartphone market last year to Apple and Google, in part due to its weak performance in the US, where its smartphones have slipped to less than a 1 per cent market share. The Lumia 900, which uses Microsoft's Windows Phone software, is currently only available in the US and is key to its comeback there.

It is the third Nokia phone to run the Windows operating system since it ditched its own Symbian system last year, and only went on sale in the US through AT&T on April 8. It is due for a wider global launch this quarter. The model won several awards at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas when it was launched in January.

Nokia said a software update to fix the problem, which was "a memory management issue" related to phone software, not to hardware, the network or the Windows operating system, would be available by April 16. — Reuters

Losing market share

The company’s first 4G phone, which it markets with the strap line "an amazingly fast way to connect", can occasionally lose its data connection as a result of the bug, Nokia said
Though still the world's biggest volume maker of cell phones, Nokia lost the top spot in the lucrative smartphone market last year to Apple and Google
The Lumia 900, which uses Microsoft's Windows Phone software, is currently only available in the US
Nokia said a software update to fix the problem would be available by April 16

Kingfisher soars on stake sale buzz

Mumbai, April 11
Shares of Kingfisher Airlines today soared over 6 per cent amid speculations of Reliance Industries being interested in the air carrier, even as Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate termed such reports as speculative.

After surging more than 10 per cent during the intra-day trade, Kingfisher stock pared some of these gains and closed 6.43 per cent higher at Rs 19.85 on the BSE. On the other hand, shares of RIL settled for the day 1.36 per cent lower at Rs 732.90. — PTI

Alfa Laval to delist from Indian bourses

New Delhi, April 11
Shares of Alfa Laval India today traded for the last time on the Indian bourses, as its Swedish parent joined a host of other multinational companies (MNCs) to delist their local units from the Indian stock market.

The trading in the shares of the company were discontinued after close of market hours today, pursuant to a delisting offer made by its promoter, Sweden-based Alfa Laval Corporate AB, for the public shareholders earlier this year.

In its last trading session, the stock today closed 0.11 per cent up at Rs 3,946.50 at the BSE. At the NSE also, it closed 0.18 per cent higher at Rs 3,948.90. — PTI