Toronto, September 21
BlackBerry said on Friday that it would lay off 4,500 employees, or 40% of its global workforce, as it reports a nearly $1 billion second-quarter loss a week earlier than expected.

The stock dropped 23% to $8.11 after reopening for trading. Shares had been halted earlier pending the news. BlackBerry had been scheduled to release earnings next week.

But the Canadian company said it expected to post a staggering loss of $950 million to $995 million for the quarter, including a massive write down of the value of its inventory due to increasing competition.

Revenue of $1.6 billion is only about half of the $3 billion that analysts expected, according to FactSet. The company's expected adjusted loss of 47 cents to 51 cents per share falls far below the loss of 16 cents per share projected by Wall Street.

BlackBerry said it wanted to slash operating costs in half by the first quarter of 2015 so cutting its global headcount to 7,000 total employees is necessary.

“We are implementing the difficult, but necessary operational changes announced today to address our position in a maturing and more competitive industry, and to drive the company toward profitability,” Thorsten Heins, President and CEO of BlackBerry, said.

The BlackBerry, pioneered in 1999, was the dominant smartphone for on-the-go business people and other customers before Apple debuted the iPhone in 2007. Since then, BlackBerry has been hammered by competition from the iPhone as well as Android-based rivals like Samsung.

BlackBerry said last month that it would consider selling itself. The company reiterated today that a special committee of its board of directors continues to evaluate all options. “Going forward, we plan to refocus our offering on our end-to-end solution of hardware, software and services for enterprises and the productive, professional end user,” said Heins. — AP

Mumbai, September 21
Trade unions at Coal India Ltd have put off a three-day workers strike from September 23 to December, after a meeting with company officials, a company director said on Saturday.

According to unions, they wanted more time to discuss the contentious issues with the government. However, if the demands are not met, they would go for a three-day strike starting December17.

The state miner's five trade unions had earlier served a strike notice, mainly to protest against the government's plan to sell off five per cent of the company's equity. Last month, India selected seven banks to manage the stake sale that could raise $1.2 billion, prompting intensified opposition from the unions.

“Our opposition to stake sale and proposed restructuring is still there. But we are aware of the economic situation of the country and hence we are deferring the strike,” said SQ Zama, secretary general of the Indian National Mine Workers’ Federation (affiliated to INTUC), which is the largest among all the five coal workers' unions who had called the strike.

“They have deferred it to December after we agreed to some of their demands relating to voluntary retirement schemes and other issues,” Personnel & Industrial Relations Director R Mohan Das said by telephone from Kolkata. “The divestment should go through now.”

The unions — Indian National Trade Union Congress, Hind Mazdoor Sabha, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, All India Coal Workers’ Federation and All India Trade Union Congress — represent about 90% of CIL’s 383,000-strong workforce.

Coal India, which accounts for about 80% of India’s coal output, has missed its production target so far this year, which will likely result in costly imports, and the three-day strike would have further squeezed supply. The government hopes to sell Coal India stake as part of a divestment target to raise Rs 400 billion from stake sales in the current fiscal year. — Agencies

Vadodara, September 21
Small and medium scale companies should get listed on the BSE SME platform so as to avail of various benefits, a top Bombay Stock Exchange official said today.

“The BSE was the first stock exchange in the country to launch the special BSE SME platform last year. Any company whose post-issue face value capital is less than Rs 250 million is eligible to get listed on the SME platform, subject to fulfilment of other applicable provisions,” said Bombay Stock Exchange MD & CEO Ashishkumar Chauhan.

He said the exchange had 32 listed companies on the BSE SME platform and 70 companies were waiting to be listed on the bourse.

The CMD was addressing the 94th AGM of Federation of Gujarat Industries at Sevasi near here last night.

He said the index aimed at tracking primary market conditions in the Indian capital market and measure growth in investors' investments in SME equities, over a period of time.

“The BSE SME platform has made available effective source of raising equity capital for the growth of SMEs,” Chauhan said, adding that the BSE SME IPO index would continue to guide them and various intermediaries in the capital market as well as investors in this respect. "Any company whose IPO is listed on the BSE SME platform shall be considered eligible for inclusion in the index," he added.

The index will have a minimum of 10 stocks at any given point in time. At present, 32 SMEs, listed on the BSE SME platform, are part of the index. — PTI

This is with reference to your reply to a question published in the column on September 9, 2013, regarding investment in PPF accounts of other family members out of taxable income of self by a person for earning tax-free returns which also nullify the effect of clubbing of income. In this regard you have replied that the same can be done, but you have not commented any more. But practically and also as per the PPF Act, one can invest only up to Rs 1 lakh maximum including for himself, spouse and children. Clarify it.

— Swarn Jain

The PPF Act clubs the contribution in the case of a minor with the contribution of its guardian parent and restricts the total contribution at Rs 1 lakh. There is no such clubbing provision in the case of adults.

For instance, if an assessee’s wife is only a homemaker and has no income (or income below the tax threshold of Rs 1 lakh), her husband can contribute Rs 1 lakh to his own account and also Rs 1 lakh to his wife’s account. The same is the situation in the case of major children.

Suppose we want to show business income of a person to be less than Rs 1,20,000 to avoid maintaining account books. In such case, on what basis should we show gross receipts, gross profit, expenses, debtors, creditors, cash balance stock etc. in the ITR-4? Is it necessary to show all these items or only those which we are somewhat sure of?

— Samrat

To relieve some special class of assessees from maintaining books of accounts, the provision of payment of presumptive tax is made for assessees engaged in business of — i) Civil construction or supply of labour for civil construction @8% of the gross receipts provided the receipts are under Rs 40 lakh under Section 44AD. ii) Plying, hiring, or leasing goods carriages @ Rs 3,500 per month or part of the month for heavy vehicles and @ Rs. 3,150 for other vehicles under Section 44AE provided the assessee does not own more than 10 vehicles. iii) Retail trade in any goods or merchandise @5% of the gross receipts under Section 44AF where the turnover does not exceed Rs 40 lakh.

It is obvious that you will do well by maintaining books of accounts, if necessary, by taking some professional help.

BRIEFLY

NEW DELHI
Gold, silver extend losses