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Govt cuts duty on cement
Form 16 no longer obligatory
Tatas line up Rs 1.2 lakh cr
Jet creates European hub at Brussels
CORPORATE RESULTS
Ficci airs concern over WTO negotiations
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MPs’ panel pulls up govt on SEZ
Floriculturists seek subsidy, auction house
Honda to set up plant in Rajasthan
M&M defers open offer for PTL
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Govt cuts duty on cement
New Delhi, May 3 He promised to bring income tax code this year, which will comprehensively review current income rates and slabs. Only benefit for IT payee was that he extended tax benefit under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act for investment in Nabard rural bonds. Chidambaram said inflation, reigning at about six per cent, is a major worry and the government would intensify fiscal and monetary measures to bring down the rate of price rise to 4.5 per cent. For the first time, he identified capital inflows in the form of portfolio investments, FII inflows, foreign direct investment and remittances made by Indians residing abroad as one major source of inflation and price rise. The Lok Sabha passed the bill, seeking to give effect to proposals in the budget for 2007-08, amid walkout by the opposition. Chidambaram stated that in a period of six years, the tax-GDP ratio increased from 8.5 per cent to 9.2 per cent and in 2006-07 actual tax collections exceeded both budget estimates and revised estimates. Gross tax revenue at Rs 471,742 exceeded the budget estimates by Rs 29,589 crore and the revised estimates by Rs 3,894 crore. Although, Chidambaram did not accede to the demand of cement companies to do away with dual excise duties, he provided partial relief by lowering the duty on cement sold at retail price of Rs 190 per bag and above. In effect, cement would be cheaper by Rs 7 per bag for the consumers. He rationalised fringe benefit taxes on the ESOPs given to employees.
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New Delhi, May 3 The eight new forms are prescribed for the current assessment year, four of which are for individuals and Hindu undivided families. All categories of employees are supposed to be filing forms on electronic mode, though for the moment only corporates and the firms, whose turnover is above Rs 40 lakh a year, are required to do so, finance minister P Chidambaram said. The form will replace Form 2F and does not require assessees to give cash flow statement, which is an account of one’s income and expenditure during the year. However, the assessees are required to provide information on their high value transactions. As such, cash flow statement is not fully but partly withdrawn, tax officials said. High value transactions are anyway received by the department from banks and others through a mechanism called Annual Information Returns. As such, individuals have to fill account of their transaction in any of these seven heads in a year- cash deposits of Rs 10 lakh or more in a year in savings accounts; credit card payments exceeding Rs 2 lakh; purchase of mutual funds for Rs 2 lakh or more; purchase of bonds or debentures for Rs 5 lakh or more, purchase of shares (public or rights) for Rs 1 lakh or more; purchase or sale of immovable property for Rs 30 lakh or more and purchase of RBI bonds for Rs 5 lakh or more. — PTI
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Mumbai, May 3 "I don't think we have neglected the domestic market... the boat must go where the tide is and we are investing in both, wherever it makes strategic and economic sense," Tata Sons' executive director R Gopalakrishnan said here. Tata group is already a Rs 1-lakh-crore company in India and has now embarked upon an investment of additional Rs 1.2 lakh crore, the major focus of which will be on steel, power, auto and chemicals. The group was said to be focusing more on its growth in the overseas market after it acquired Anglo-Dutch steel manufacturer Corus for $12.9 billion. Apart from Corus, the group had acquired among others, Tetley, Daewoo, coal mines in Indonesia and a clutch of hotels abroad in the last few years. The Tatas would be investing as much as Rs 70,000 crore in steel, Rs 20,000 crore in power, Rs 12,000 crore in auto and Rs 5,000 crore in chemicals, Gopalakrishnan said. Another Rs 12,000-15,000 crore has been set aside for business segments like IT, hospitality, retail and telecom, he added. The group's investment in the steel sector includes setting up of greenfield projects in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Orissa besides expansion of its existing plant in Jamshedpur. — PTI
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Jet creates European hub at Brussels
Mumbai, May 3 It will work closely with Brussels Airlines and will offer its customers seamless connections to/from Europe, the USA, Canada, Africa and India, the airline said. It will also launch daily services from Mumbai to New York (Newark) via Brussels, from August 5 and later this year, will also offer daily services from Delhi to Toronto via Brussels. In the future, Jet plans to operate about 10 daily flights from Brussels to India, the USA and Canada. Subject to government approvals, it plans to additionally operate from Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Chennai to Los Angeles, Chicago, New York (JFK), via Brussels. Jet Airways and Brussels Airlines have signed an MoU implementing code share, frequent flyer partnership, and through check-in facilities. Brussels Airlines will implement code share on the Jet Airways operated flights between Mumbai to Brussels, Delhi to Brussels and Brussels to Toronto. It plans to code share on Brussels Airlines flights from Brussels to Stockholm, Oslo, Birmingham, Geneva and Madrid and will later on expand to a total of 25 routes. Ups fuel surcharge
Jet Airways today said it will increase fuel surcharge by Rs 150 on both club premiere and economy class tickets on domestic routes, with effect from May 4. However, the Jet Privilege redemption tickets for domestic travel are exempt from this fuel surcharge. |
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Corporate Results
Mumbai, May 3 The total income of the company also rose by nearly 40 per cent to Rs 1,732.95 crore, HDFC informed the BSE. The results for the year ended March 31 show that the company posted a net profit of Rs 1,570.38 crore and total income on annual basis increased to Rs 5,896.26 crore. Meanwhile, the board has recommended a dividend of Rs 22 per equity share for the fiscal 2006-07 as against Rs 20 per share for the previous year. Century Textiles
Century Textiles & Industries today posted a net profit at Rs 94.36 crore for the quarter ended March 31, whereas total income (net of excise) of the company was Rs 907.1crore, Century Textiles informed the BSE. For the year ended March 31, the company reported a net profit of Rs 272.81 crore whilst the total income (net of excise) was Rs 3,214.8 crore. The board of directors today decided to treat the interim dividend at 37.5 per cent paid on March 21, 2007 as the final dividend. The final dividend in the previous year was 30 per cent on the paid up equity share capital. Mphasis net up 30 pc
The Mphasis group’s net profit has risen 30 per cent to Rs 45.6 crore for the quarter-ended March 31, 2007, as compared to Rs 35.2 crore in the same quarter of the previous fiscal. Consolidated revenues grew 35 per cent to Rs 337 crore in the fourth quarter of 2006-07, a company release said. The company' board of directors also recommended a final dividend of Rs 3 per share for 2006-07. During 2006-07, the group recorded a 27 per cent year-on-year growth in revenues to Rs 1,196 crore. Aptech
Aptech Limited has posted an impressive global system-wide booking of Rs 341.38 crore, registering a growth of 103 per cent over the same quarter of 2006. The profit before exceptional items and tax similarly registered a impressive growth from Rs 2.61 crore in 2006 to a high of Rs 7.33 crore in Q1 2007. The PAT stood at 6.80 crore, the release added. Colgate Palmolive
Colgate Palmolive India today posted a 36.69 per cent increase in net profit after tax (PAT) at Rs 50.59 crore for the quarter ended March 31 and the total revenue grew by 15 per cent to Rs 360.6 crore, Colgate Palmolive informed the BSE. The board of directors today declared a dividend of Rs 2 on over 13.59 crore equity shares of Rs 10 each for the year ended March 31, 2007. Further, it has also approved a proposal, wherein the company would return Rs 122.4 crore to its shareholders through a reduction in its capital. This amount would be paid as deemed dividend of Rs 9 per share uniformly to all shareholders and would not be liable to tax. i-flex Solutions
i-flex Solutions has clocked a 4.41 per cent rise in net profit for the quarter ended March 31 at Rs 127.12 crore and revenues of the company grew by 21.29 per cent to Rs 451.59 crore for the quarter from Rs 372.32 crore in the corresponding period a year ago, the company informed the BSE. Meanwhile, the group registered a net income of Rs 132.4 crore for the quarter ended March 31 and the total revenues increased to Rs 601.1 crore from Rs 470.6 crore. P&G profit
Procter & Gamble (P&G) Hygiene and Health Care reported a net profit of Rs 21.41 crore for the third quarter ended March 31 and total income stood at Rs 126.33 crore, P& G informed the BSE. The financial results for the nine months ended March 31 are not strictly comparable as the corresponding period ended March 31, 2006 included sales and expenditure of detergent business, which was transferred effective October 1, 2005 to Procter & Gamble Home Products Ltd. Exim Bank
The Export-Import Bank of India (Exim) has registered a net profit of 10.6 per cent at Rs 299 crore in the financial year 2006-07. Announcing the annual results, Exim Bank MD T C Venkat Subramanian said loan approvals were also increased by 31 per cent during the period from last year’s margin of Rs 20,489 crore to Rs 26,762 crore for 2006-07. Apollo Tyres
Apollo Tyres reported a 62 per cent jump in net profit to Rs 42.71 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, as compared to Rs 26.38 crore for the corresponding period a year ago. The company also became the first Indian tyre company to cross the $1 billion mark in annual revenues with net sales at Rs 430 crore post-consolidation of the financial of the acquired company, a statement said
here.— Agencies |
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Ficci airs concern over WTO negotiations
New Delhi, May 3 It has expressed concern over the latest communication from the WTO agriculture committee chairman, particularly on issues relating to special products (SP), domestic support (DS) and market access aspects of the negotiations. The chamber said the agriculture paper circulated by chairman Crawford Falconer has not only lowered down the ambition for subsidy reduction in developed countries but has also limited the scope of SP for developing countries. On the issue of DS, Ficci noted significant lowering down of ambition in reduction of aggregate measure of support as compared to the Hong Kong declaration and also as articulated by G-20. On the issue of SP, according to the chairman, about 5 to 8 per cent of the total agriculture tariff lines may be designated as SPs by developing countries. Ficci said the chairman’s approach is in sharp contrast to the July framework agreement and the demand of G-33. The lobby group feels that the paper undermines the importance of critical issue of SP in the negotiations which is of high significance from perspective of India and other developing countries. Limited availability of SP for a large developing country like India will imply that it may not be possible to provide adequate protection to a number of poor farmers from the highly subsidised imports coming from developed countries, it observed.
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MPs’ panel pulls up govt on SEZ
New Delhi, May 3 The committee feels that it would have been in fitness of things if the Department of Commerce had waited for the committee's report on SEZs, the committee, headed by former union minister and senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi, said in its report. The committee is at present examining the functioning of SEZs and would shortly submit its report but the government announced changes in policy and notified a few more zones without waiting for it, the report said. The decision to change the rules and notify SEZs, which have formal approval, was taken at the meeting of empowered group of ministers, headed by external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, on April 5. The other decisions of the eGoM to limit the size of SEZs to 5,000 hectares and stop compulsory acquisition of land for the zones are yet to be notified. |
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Floriculturists seek subsidy, auction house
Chandigarh, May 3 Even in Delhi, where the daily sale of flowers is highest in the country (over Rs 2 crore a day), there is no organised flower market and most retail sales take place on the road side. The total domestic wholesale market for flowers is estimated to be around Rs 1,500 crore, but the government has failed to provide infrastructure like supply chains for ferrying flowers, assured markets for produce, loans at reasonable rates of interest, and cold storage facilities for flowers. Leading floriculturists in the region, who had gathered here to announce the International Flora Expo to be held in Delhi from September 12-14, spoke to TNS about the problems ailing the sector. Mohammad Mushtaq, a leading floriculturist who has helped farmers in Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh, diversify to growing carnations and thus reap high dividends, said high tax structure on importing green house plastic for setting up green houses for flowers was a major deterrent to the growth in the sector. Floriculturists also rued that though this was a very capital intensive preposition, the government was not providing enough subsidies or concessions on loans. Meanwhile, Satyavir Singh, director, horticulture, Haryana, said Haryana was coming up with an auction house for flowers. It would come up in Gurgaon, while a terminal market for flowers, besides horticulture crops would come up in Rai, Sonepat.
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Fiat to launch Linea next year
Istanbul, May 3 Fiat has a tie-up with Tata Motors to manufacture passenger cars, engines and transmissions for the Indian and overseas markets. Tata Motors already distributes and markets Fiat cars in the country. "We want to accelerate our entry into key emerging markets. I think India is a market where we could actually get above the 1,00,000 threshold if the market develops in the right direction," Fiat Automobiles Spa CEO Luca De Meo said here. The company, which launched its luxury sedan Linea here, will be driving the product to India next year and is eyeing to sell about 50,000 to 60,000 units of the car annually in the country, he said. Fiat was confident that it would be able to scale up sales with Grande Punto, a premium hatchback car on the anvil for India launch next year, and existing compact car Palio Stile, Meo said. The company is banking on Linea to make its presence felt in the Indian market and is even looking at making the country a export hub for all the right-hand drive car markets, he added. On auto component sourcing, he said Fiat was not only looking at increasing its localisation content for models to be sold in India, but would also increase levels of sourcing for global operations as well. — PTI
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Honda to set up plant in Rajasthan
Jaipur, May 3 “We plan to manufacture two models from the plant. One model will be a new small car and the second will be from our existing line-up,” Masahiro Takadegawa, president and CEO Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI), said here. HSCI, a joint venture between Honda Motor of Japan and Siddharth Shriram Group firm Siel Ltd, today signed an MoU with the Rajasthan Government to set up the plant. The company would invest an additional Rs 1,000 crore for ramping up the capacity to over two lakh units per annum after 2009. — PTI
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M&M defers open offer for PTL
Mumbai, May 3 The timelines for the two separate open offers, which were slated to begin today and close on May 22, would have to be revised as the 'Letter of Offer' was being finalised, the manager to the offer Kotak Mahindra Capital Company said. A public announcement containing the revised timeline for the open offers would be issued later, it informed the Bombay Stock
Exchange.— PTI
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