IT : Where assessee-company was engaged in trading of shares and during year it earned interest from advancing loan to an isolated party and suffered loss in trading of shares and claimed set off of loss against interest income, since interest income/gross total income of assessee was chargeable under head 'income from other sources', Assessing Officer was wrong in treating loss in question as speculation loss in accordance with provision of Explanation to section 73
Sunday, 6 April 2014
ITAT denied to recall ex parte order as assessee didn't provide definite reason for not appearing du
IT: Where assessee had failed to show that there was a reasonable cause for non-appearance on date of hearing of appeal, applications filed by assessee for setting aside ex parte order and restoring appeal were to be dismissed
Assessee was liable to pay VAT in Gujarat only as his place of registration and payment also was in
CST & VAT : Though place of payment cannot be only factor for determination of place of sale, however, where it is found that assessee was registered in Gujarat only and could not have made sale within any other State and payment was also received in Gujarat, sale can be regarded as having taken place in Gujarat
Duty On Pta Will Make Synthetic Fabrics Costly
Prices of synthetic fabrics manufactured in the country's biggest man-made fabric (MMF) hub here are set to increase by almost 15 per cent with the central government last week imposing anti-dumping duty on the import of purified teraphthalic acid (PTA) - a raw material to manufacture polyester filament yarn.
The MMF industry in the city contributes to 40 per cent of the nation's synthetic fabric demand by producing around 3 crore metres of fabric every day.
The anti-dumping duty will rein in production of downstream products such as polyester filament yarn, polyester staple fibre and synthetic textiles, industry sources said.
They said PTA imports in the country originate from China, European Union (EU), North Korea and Thailand. PTA is a raw material for the production of polyester chips which in turn are used to produce polyester filament yarn, polyester staple fibre and polyester film. To produce 1kg of polyester staple fibre 0.92kg of PTA is required and to produce 1kg of polyester chips 0.8583 kg of PTA is required.
Industry sources said domestic producers of PTA are acting in an unreasonable manner, which puts additional burden on the user industry. Their sole objective is to earn extra profits on the product by seeking imposition of anti-dumping duty. There is a demand supply mismatch, which according to latest estimates stands at 4,096,952 MT against 3,420,000 MT, they said.
Federation of Indian Art Silk Weaving Industry chairman Arun Jariwala said, "The small spinners in the domestic industry are left with no choice but to purchase PTA from big companies at high rates. The PTA imported from China and European Union is much cheaper. The levy of anti-dumping duty will lead to increase in the prices of polyester yarn and subsequent rise in the prices of synthetic fabrics like saris and dress material."
"We expect the yarn prices to go up by around 10 to 15 per cent in the coming days. Ultimately, the weavers will pass on the price rise to the traders," yarn dealer Rajesh Surana said.
Source:- timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Church spending on religious purposes with no exp. on charitable activities wasn't eligible to sec.
IT: Church spending no money for charitable activity while spending more than 5 per cent of income for religious purpose, would not be entitled for approval under section 80G(5)(vi)
Assessment order held invalid as special audit was directed without an opportunity of being heard to
IT : Where Assessing Officer passed an order under section 142(2A) without giving an opportunity of hearing to assessee and without even considering detailed replies submitted by assessee in response to notice issued earlier, said order being invalid was to be set aside
Sugar Mills Junk Exports Now As Local Market Turns A Sweet Spot
Raw sugar export has become unviable even after export subsidy is included because domestic prices have rallied 24% in the last few weeks. India is likely to re-enter the world market only when global prices increase.
Export contracts have decreased after the rally in domestic prices began in February and peaked in March. Ex-mill prices increased from Rs 25 per kg in February to Rs 32 per kg in April. A range of factors including less pressure on sugar mills to sell sugar as the crushing season is in its closing phase, availability of soft loan from banks as well as production concerns due to El Nino fears along with policy decision is behind the steep increase in prices.
"No new sugar deal is happening as export is not competitive now," said a Mumbai-based exporter. Even after taking the subsidy into consideration, the realisation from raw sugar export for mills is Rs 27.50 per kg while tenders for sale in domestic market ex-Kolhapur are quoting Rs 32 per kg. The physical shipment of earlier deals will go on till the rainy season sets in June, when transportation becomes difficult.
In the current sugar year from October 2013 to November 2014, India has exported about 19 lakh tonne including about 8.5 lakh tonne of raw sugar, said industry sources. The total shipment in the current season are expected to be 25 lakh tonne, of which the raw sugar export is expected to be 11 lakh tonne to 12 lakh tonne.
The year 2013-14 is set to be the fifth consecutive year of surplus production. Ex-mill prices in India, which were about Rs 31 per kg in February 2013, fell to Rs 28 per kg when crushing began in November and crashed to Rs 25 per kg in February. The Central government announced a subsidy of Rs 3,300 per tonne for raw sugar export and interest-free soft loan to enable mills pay farmers.
Abinash Verma, director general of Indian Sugar Mills Association ( ISMA), said, "If world raw sugar prices increase beyond 18 cents per pound, India can re-enter the world market." Currently raw futures are trading at about 17 cents. The global price trend is expected to become clear once Brazil begins crushing this month.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank, the apex co-operative bank in the state and prime lender to co-operative sugar mills, has increased its valuation of sugar. This will make more liquidity available to mills, which are still crushing sugar.
"Based on sugar prices of the past three months, we have increased valuation to Rs 2,585 per quintal from April 1 from earlier Rs 2,540 per quintal," said Pramod Karnad, managing director, MSC Bank.
Source:- economictimes.indiatimes.com
Iron Ore Imports May Rise In Fy15 Amid Sedate Global Prices
After plunging to a near five year low, iron ore imports in the country could see some traction in the current fiscal following a sharp correction in global prices and recent appreciation in rupee.
Iron ore imports, which had seen record rise in 2012-13 following the mining ban in Karnataka, declined to 4,20,000 tonne in the first 11 months of 2013-14 from 3.05 million tonne (MT) in the previous financial year, a drop of 86.2%.
"Going ahead in 2014-15, this figure should go up to 0.5-0.8 million tonne in 2014-15. This is excluding pig iron or sponge iron" Prakash Duvvuri, head of research at OreTeam, a Delhi-based iron ore research firm said.
Iron ore prices are down 17.5% since the start of the year due to slowing Chinese economy and slackening demand for ore from its steel industry. Average CFR China ore price corrected to $114.82 in March from $134.19 in December. Huge ramp-up in ore production at Australia is likely to further reduce prices to double digit level in the current fiscal. Besides, rupee strengthening to 60 against dollar in recent times from 62 in the beginning of March may help push up ore imports.
"Imports should increase in the coming years but not sharply in 2014-15 because the expansion plans of the steel mills (which normally import) are still going slow and the running capacities of the same mills are less than 75%," Duvvuri said.
"Definitely there is an advantage for the port-based mills to secure raw material from imports rather than domestic market as global prices have dropped to $115-118 levels and rupee has inched up to 60-61 against the dollar. There is a probability that rupee may even appreciate to 57-59 in the coming weeks," Duvvuri added.
In the domestic market although mining has resumed in Karnataka, mines are not producing sufficient ore to meet the overall requirement of local steel producers. "Iron ore lump production has substantially decreased as compared to earlier, which could also be a reason for companies to look at imports," HC Daga president of Federation of Indian Mineral Industries told dna. He stressed that India has enough resources to meet requirement of domestic steelmakers but due to mining ban they had to face severe shortage.
Some of the ports such as Kandla, Mundra, Dharamtar, Paradip are used for importing ore. Lumps are mainly imported from Anglo (South Africa) and pellets from Vale (Oman/Brazil), Rio (Canada), Metinvest & Ferrexpo (Ukraine).
Welspun Maxsteel, now a part of Welspun Infrastructure (after the demerger with Welspun Corp) has been procuring iron ore pellets from Brazil and Oman. The company needs high quality pellets for its directed reduced iron (DRI) plant situated in Salav village at Raigad district of Maharashtra.
Prakash Tatia, president-marketing and raw material procurement at Welspun Maxsteel said that it was quite likely that ore import could go up, but he quickly added that as a buyer they do prefer to purchase ore from local market. He stressed that due to improved availability of pellets in Indian market, imports may not go up sharply.
Ashima Tyagi, senior consultant with Infraline Research said that improved availability of iron ore in local market might also be the factor that is stopping steelmakers from taking advantage of global price correction.
Mining ban is now likely to be lifted from Goa as well, which would improve the availability of ore, although Goa mainly produces low quality ore of 54%Fe. Improved availability of pellets due to imposition of 5% export duty on pellet may also deter steelmaker from imports.
However, there is significant quality difference between pellet quality of India and other countries, claimed Duvvuri. "In India, there are very few pellet producers who can produce over 63+% Fe pellets. The pellets available from VALE (Oman/Brazil) are of good grade 64-65% Fe. Ukraine & Canada supply nearly similar grades."
Source:- dnaindia.com
Gold Imports May Hit 10-Month High In March
India’s gold imports in March are estimated to have risen to nearly 50 tonnes, the most since the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) import curbs came into force in May last year. According to analysts tracking gold, this surge could have been mainly due to high imports during the last week of the month.
With the yellow metal’s prices moderating and amid expectations that the curbs might be relaxed, market players believe gold imports would stay high for some time.
The precious metal is understood to have arrived in large quantities through official channels, including direct import by export-oriented units, in the last week of March. The rise in flow could have also been because the five banks allowed to import gold have become more active in the business.
On Monday, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan’s comments hinting at some relaxation in gold import curbs, besides an increased flow of imported gold, helped cool spot market premiums for delivery to $35 an ounce from $45-50 a week earlier.
According to some experts, currency movements have also helped bring down gold prices. T Gnanasekar, director at Commtrendz Research & Fund Management, says: “Domestic gold prices are under pressure due to a falling rupee. The Indian currency is seen appreciating in the coming quarters. The government, now more comfortable on the current account deficit front, could keep the duties intact but remove the conditional export clause. Imports will improve if such a decision is taken before Akshaya Tritiya”.
On May 13 last year, the RBI had first asked banks not to import gold on a consignment basis, as imports had surged significantly in the preceding weeks. The import pressure was such that 300 tonnes of gold had been brought into the country in less than two months. This was followed by rules that linked imports with exports — under the 80:20 rule, 20 per cent of imported gold was asked to be exported, while the remaining 80 per cent could be for the domestic market. Along with a 10.3 per cent import duty, these measures significantly brought down gold imports through official channels — even to a virtual halt, as there were certain ambiguities in the rules. Later, imports came down to 51 tonnes in the December quarter.
In the March quarter, however, the imports are expected to be double those in the previous quarter.Besides, the imports of the metal could further rise, as demand is likely to surge around Akshaya Tritiya (May 2), considered an auspicious occasion to buy gold. This demand might only get a boost from low prices in the domestic market.
The price of gold has come down to under Rs 29,000 per 10 grammes, compared with Rs 31,000 a fortnight ago. Standard gold price in Mumbai’s spot market, Zaveri Bazar, closed at Rs 28,950 per 10 g on Saturday.
Source:- business-standard.com
Self-Certification For Bar-Coding For Drug Firms Launched
The government has introduced self-certification for bar coding of secondary and tertiary level packaging of drugs in order to simply the export procedures.
A barcode helps in tracking and tracing the origin of drugs which in turn helps in minimising chances of genuine drugs being considered spurious, sub-standard or counterfeit.
"A self-certification process on compliance of bar-coding requirement on secondary and tertiary level packaging of pharmaceuticals and drugs has been introduced. This will be effective from April, 1 2014," the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has said in a public notice.
The government had asked pharmaceutical companies to build track and trace capability for their exported medicines using barcode technology at three levels of packaging, primary, secondary (like packets) and tertiary (shipper or carton).
Primary level packaging is the first-level product packaging such as bottle, can, jar, tube that contains the item sold.
DGFT said that in this process, an exporter would be required to furnish a written declaration to custom authorities at the time of export regarding compliance of the relevant provisions of bar-coding on secondary and tertiary level packaging on the consignment.
India exports over $10 billion worth of drugs annually. The government wants to increase that figure manifold in the next few years. There is a big market for generics in the developed world.
Industry experts say the only way Indian pharma firms can tap the market is by ensuring quality, and barcoding will help ensure that.
Source:- profit.ndtv.com
Rupee Opens Higher At 59.91 Against Dollar
The Indian rupee on Monday opened higher at 59.91 per dollar against its Friday’s close of 60.09, tracking gains in major Asian currencies.
The Malaysian ringgit was trading up 0.38%, Indonesian rupiah rose 0.17%, Taiwan dollar was up 0.15%, while the Philippines peso jumped 0.15%.
Since the beginning of this year, the rupee has gained 3.37%, while foreign institutional investors have bought $4.42 billion from local equity markets.
The yield on India’s 10-year benchmark bond was trading at 9.055%, compared with its Friday’s close of 9.067%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 80.435, up 0.01% from its previous close of 80.423.\
At 9.09am, the rupee was trading at 59.80 per dollar, up 0.47% from its previous close, while India’s equity benchmark Sensex index was trading flat at 22,355.56 points on BSE.
India’s 15th Lok Sabha elections starts on Monday, with the first day of voting in six parliamentary constituencies in the northeastern states of Assam and Tripura. General election to be held in nine phases on April 7, 9, 10, 12, 17, 24, 30, May 7 and 12. The results will be announced on 16 May.
Source:- livemint.com
HC remands back as Tribunal's order simply relied on another judgment without considering facts of c
Service Tax : When Tribunal, without application of mind and without considering facts involved, has rendered judgment by following another judgment, such judgment has to be set aside and remanded back for consideration afresh
CCI approves of combination of steel Mfg. cos as it would not have significant impact on competition
Competition Law : Where informant-UGSL sought for approval of proposed combination relating to its amalgamation with SUSPL and market share of UGSL in steel products was insignificant, proposed combination was not likely to have appreciable adverse effect on competition in India and same was to be approved
No withholding from sum paid to NR agent who was assisting to win a contract to be carried outside I
IT/ILT: Where assessee entered into a contract with an agent in foreign country who did not have PE in India, payment made to agent cannot be construed as income accrued in India
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