Vodafone Idea Limited [VIL] – a joint venture [JV] between UK based multinational Vodafone and Kumar Mangalam Birla owned Idea Cellular – and Bharti Airtel have reported a staggering loss of Rs 51,000 crore and Rs 23,000 crore respectively for the second quarter of current financial year ending September 30, 2019. This is primarily due to a recent order of the Supreme Court [SC] directing telecom companies to pay ‘unpaid’ dues to the Government of India [GOI] towards license fee and spectrum usage charges [SUC]. The order is the culmination of a long-drawn court battle between the department of telecommunication [DoT] and service providers with the former insisting that for determining the license fee and SUC charged as a percentage of adjusted...
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Category: Regulatory environment
E-commerce majors – punish only if they break rule-book
The Confederation of All India Traders [CAIT] [it represents millions of small traders who are not only a major source of employment but also is a constituency which Modi – dispensation can’t afford to ignore from a political perspective] has complained to the government that global e-commerce majors viz. Amazon, Flipkart are giving huge discounts, selling exclusive brands [including their own] and controlling inventory of sellers etc – all of which is prohibited under the extant policy on foreign direct investment [FDI]. Promising action, the minister for commerce and industry, Piyush Goyal has already ordered collection of data on their financials, business model and operating practices. Meanwhile, it is necessary to analyze whether the FDI rules are really being flouted....
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Slowdown in growth – who is the culprit
The deceleration in GDP growth which commenced in the second quarter of the last financial year [FY] has continued during the current year even as the growth during the first quarter ending June 30, 2019 has plummeted to a record low of 5%. Moreover, there appears to be no sign of reversal even as the Reserve Bank of India [RBI] – in its latest [October 4, 2019] monetary policy review – has projected growth of just 6% for 2019-20 – down from its previous estimate [August, 2019 policy review] of 6.9% . Analysts have propounded several theories from purely cyclical to decline being of a ‘structural’ nature to doomsayers predicting that Indian economy is heading for a prolonged recession. The...
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E-commerce norms – violations continue unabated
The global e-commerce majors have been in the news, yet again, for violating norms for foreign direct investment [FDI]. The Confederation of All India Traders [CAIT] has complained to the government that Amazon, Flipkart are giving huge discounts, selling exclusive brands [including their own] and controlling inventory of sellers etc – all of which is prohibited under FDI policy. Under the guidelines on FDI in e-commerce [issued in 2016-17, Press Note 3], 100% FDI is permitted in the ‘market-place’. The market-place is a platform where sellers and buyers meet to conduct sale and purchase transactions even as the owner of market-place [read: e-commerce company] merely acts as a facilitator. It can provide services such as book orders, raise invoice, arrange...
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CSR levy – an anathema to free enterprise
In a country where tens of millions persons live in abject poverty, suffer from acute malnutrition, live in unhygienic conditions and don’t get opportunity for even basic education, corporate social responsibility [CSR] is an idea which caught the imagination of the both the dispensations under UPA – II and Modi – 1.0/2.0 . When, a company generates profits using the country’s resources besides relying on the capital and labor provided by the public, it needs to pay back to the society. This may be the underlying logic behind CSR levy. The government expects that a company above a threshold in respect of net-worth, turnover and net profit, should spend a given percentage of its net profit on activities such as...
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FDI in e-commerce – the logjam
In a meeting with stakeholders in the e-commerce segment – including multinational companies [MNCs] such as Amazon, Flipkart etc – the minister for commerce and industry, Piyush Goyal categorically ruled out any change in the extant policy on foreign direct investment [FDI] in ‘market-place’ model of e-commerce. This has led to huge disappointment among foreign majors who were hurt by the amendments/clarifications to the 2016-17 policy [Press Note (PN) 3] made vide circular dated December 26, 2018 and were looking for necessary correction to remove the anomalies – as they perceived. The U. S. – India Business Council [USIBC] – a US-based lobby group – even termed the amendments as ‘retrospective’ which created uncertainty of the policy environment. What was...
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Imperatives for a new India
Now that the BJP Government has received mandate for another term, will it will play hard ball and bring the much-needed reforms in crucial sectors? During his first term (2014-19), Prime Minister Modi focussed on governance reforms, cutting bureaucratic red tape, simplifying procedures, expediting approvals and ease of doing business. The Government also spent its energy on effective implementation of welfare schemes, thus ensuring that assistance reaches the beneficiaries in full vide the Direct Benefit transfer (DBT). Now that the public has given him a resounding mandate to rule for another term, he should crack the whip on long-pending reforms. The key sectors crying for immediate attention include food and fertilisers, oil, gas, power, irrigation, credit to name a few. At present,...
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P-notes could be back in a new ‘Avatar’
The ‘rounding tripping’ – a euphemism for the coming back, in the garb of foreign capital, of Indian money which left our shores in a clandestine manner – is a phenomenon that characterized wholly the first decade of the present century, persisted on a somewhat reduced scale during the first half of current decade [2011-2015] and is more or less fizzling out during the second half. The dubious practice proliferated when there was little oversight on money leaving the country and there were tax haven jurisdictions such as Mauritius, Singapore etc ever ready to attract it. The shell companies – mostly owned by persons to whom the money belonged set up in those countries – would then, invest in India....
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Crossing environment hurdle under Modi era
On May 7, 2019, the ministry of environment and forest [MoEF] released a compilation of official documents on environment impact assessment [EIA] related issues. It encapsulates crucial notifications or office memoranda on the guidelines/procedures for environmental clearance for projects across industrial sectors. The compilation covers the period between December 2014 and January 2019 under the present dispensation led by prime minister, N Modi. The document looks mundane but is a window to see through momentous changes which have helped transform the economic landscape of India and have been greatly instrumental in putting the economy on to a high growth trajectory. To get an idea as to how, let us take a look at some of the key changes. On March...
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Now, the Tribunal helps start-ups evade tax
In a major ruling that will have a profound impact on the way companies are taxed, the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal [ITAT] has upheld the validity of the discounted cash flow [DCF] method for arriving at the fair market value of a company’s share. The order says “the DCF method is a recognized method though it is not an exact science and can never be done with arithmetic precision”. The order needs to be viewed in the backdrop of the tax demands raised on hundreds of companies [besides assessment notices on thousands of them] issued by the Income-Tax [IT] department for payment of tax on the extra capital raised through the issue of shares over and above their fair market...
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