India Seeks To Expand Marine Food Exports To Africa

India, which has made big impact at Africa's biggest trade shows, wants to start exporting its marine products to the African continent. A 50-member delegation from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry participated in Africa's biggest trade fair - the South African international trade exhibition (SAITEX) - that started here on Sunday.

"It is the first time we have come to such a large exhibition in South Africa to showcase India as the biggest producer of vannamei and a host of other aquaculture products with our land farming of fish," said Leena Nair, chairman of the marine products export development authority.

"We are looking at value-added processed seafood coming in here," Nair added. One of the marine product exhibitors is Preetha George, Executive Director of Starfish Exports.

The Spices Board of India took up four of the stalls in the Indian section as its members attempted to grow its markets in Africa.

"Many of our members have been very happy with our participation at this fair in the past, hence there are more this year," Spices Board chairman A Jayathilak told agency.

"There is increasing demand for Indian spices with the great growth in the number of Indian restaurants and popularity of the spices with other communities as well," Jayathilak said.

Jaspeer Kaur, deputy manager of the India Trade Promotion Organisation which brings out the delegation from India each year at SAITEX, said the subsidy provided by the Indian government enabled even the smallest companies participate in the event.

Opening the Indian stand at SAITEX, High Commissioner Ruchi Ghanashyam said Indian business houses were participating in large numbers because South Africa has a mutually beneficial trade relationship with India.

Source:moneycontrol.com

Deductions couldn't be denied if assessee submitted manual return, though e-filing was mandatory for

IT: Where a manual return was furnished before due date while electronic return after due date, provision of section 80-IC so as to claim deduction under section 80-IC was complied with

Karnataka VAT deptt. couldn't impose penalty on basis of original returns after accepting revised re

CST & VAT: Karnataka VAT - Once revised return filed by assessee has been accepted and acted upon by parties, then it is only revised return which has to be taken as sole return for purpose of imposition of penalty under sub-section (2) of section 72

Pulses Prices Soar Past Rs 100/Kg; No Tenders Yet For Import

Amid a supply crunch, retail prices of many pulses have crossed Rs 100 per kg mark in major cities across the country, but the government agencies are yet to float the tender for their import to check the price.

Barring gram and masoor dal, all major varieties of pulses -- including tur, urad and moong -- are being sold at prices above Rs 100 per kg in the four metro cities due to lower production of the key lentils during the last harvest. Consumers in Mumbai and Chennai are paying the maximum price for tur, urad and moong, followed by Delhi and Kolkata.

Prices have increased by more than 60 per cent in the last one year as the domestic production fell by nearly two million tonnes (MT) in 2014-15 crop year (July-June) due to unfavourable weather conditions.

To check the prices, the government has decided to boost supply by importing pulses in large quantities, while it has also finalised the modalities for the import through state-trading agencies like MMTC.

However, they are yet to float the import tenders. The government last week also announced a significant hike in the MSP of pulses by upto Rs 275/quintal to encourage domestic production and ensure adequate supply.

Though India produces 18-19 million tonnes of pulses, it also imports 3-4 million tonnes annually to meet the domestic shortages.

According to the data maintained by the Consumer Affairs Ministry, tur prices in Mumbai and Chennai have increased to Rs 116/kg at present, from Rs 72-79/kg in the year-ago period, while rates of urad dals have risen to Rs 121-123/kg from Rs 79-84/kg in the said period.

Similarly, moong prices in these two cities have shot up to Rs 111/kg from Rs 92-97/kg, while gram dal rates have increased to Rs 68-70/kg from Rs 47-61/kg in the period under review.

In Delhi and Kolkata, consumers are paying Rs 105-113/kg for tur at present, as against Rs 68-73/kg in the year-ago period. They are paying Rs 108-112/kg for urad, Rs 103-105/kg for moong, Rs 84-94/kg for masoor and Rs 64-68/kg for gram.

In the year-ago period, tur and urad were available in these two metro at Rs 68-73/kg, moong at 85-92/kg, masoor at Rs 60-70/kg and gram at Rs 44-49/kg, the data showed. A similar situation prevails in other cities in the country, where consumers are
feeling the pinch of price rise.

Source:economictimes.indiatimes.com

Repeal Proposed Quality Control Order For Steel Imports: Fii To Government

Government should repeal the proposed Quality Control Order with regard to steel imports else it would adversely impact India's international trade relations, an industry body has said.

Under the proposed Steel and Steel Products (Quality Control) Order, 2015, government is set to bring several steel products under a mandatory Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) registration.

In its letter to the Steel Ministry, the Federation of Industries of India (FII) has said that Quality Control Order is nothing but an effort to create barrier to stop import of Hot Rolled (HR) Coil steel essentially required to bridge the gap between industry's demand and
supply by domestic steel producers.

"...the proposed Quality Control Order, 2015, if not withdrawn by the Steel Ministry, would have a massive adverse impact on our international trade relations as no foreign country or their companies, would go for cumbersome BIS registration procedure for the sake of exporting small quantities of steel, occasionally to a few engineering companies in India," FII said in the letter. It said the Control Order would dent relations with countries like Korea and Japan.

"The foreign companies are equally competent to introduce same kind of non-tariff restrictions on export from India. Under such restrictions, how our PM's Make In India programme would become a success here, if other countries stop our exports through similar non-tariff restrictions," it said.

FII also said that there is hardly any reason for the Steel Ministry to protect 4-5 major domestic steel producers through this route.

"The steel producers should follow anti-dumping or SG route to check dumping of steel, if any, happening in India and not through the mandatory Control Order route," FII added.

It has asked the Steel Ministry to give instructions to officials not to proceed with the proposed order and also spare time to discuss the issue with FII and other steel consumers likely to be affected by this order.

According to data provided by FII, India's imports of non-flat steel products constituted 2.3 per cent of domestic production in 2014-15.

While, import of flat products constituted 14.17 per cent of the domestic production and import of alloy steel made 28.7 per cent of domestic production.

Source:economictimes.indiatimes.com

Sovereign Gold Bonds: A Fresh Tool To Curb Import

The draft guidelines issued for the Sovereign Gold Bonds (SGBs) is the government second salvo as part of its plan to curb the import of gold. In its budget proposal in February, the government had proposed the introduction of the Gold Monetisation Scheme (GMS), which was introduced a month ago and now the SGB is the second measure.

SGBs are to be linked to the price of gold, and issued by the central bank (Reserve Bank of India). It is proposed that banks, non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) and post offices will be able to collect money and redeem the bonds on behalf of the government. The bonds are to be issued in denominations of two, five and 10 grams of gold with a minimum tenor of five to seven years.

“Any step that increases consumer choices and makes gold a fungible asset class is good. Our research confirms the growing interest among Indian consumers for interest-bearing gold-based investment products,’’ Somasundaram P.R. MD, India, World Gold Council, said.

“Unlike the GMS, where the primary objective is to ‘monetize’ India’s massive stock of physical gold, the SGBs scheme intends to convert the investment demand for physical gold into paper demand,’’ according to Sonal Varma, India economist at Nomura.

In 2014, India’s investment demand for gold was at 181 tonnes against an average annual demand of 345 tonnes from 2010 to 2013. “If the scheme is subscribed fully in the first year, then it would represent 27 per cent of the 2014 investment demand and would result in saving of $2 billion on gold imports at current prices,’’ the report said.

Importantly, a 2 per cent lower limit of interest rate has been indicated and will be paid in terms of gold grams. On maturity, the investor is to get an amount equivalent to the face value of gold in rupee terms.

As with the Gold Monetisation Scheme, the interest rate could determine its success. “It is an excellent scheme and is a new alternative investment avenue while having ‘gold’ tagged to it and will surely gain popularity among investors,’’ Prithviraj Kothari, Managing Director, Riddhi Siddhi Bullions and Vice-President of India Bullion and Jewellers’ Association, told this correspondent.

Source:thehindu.com

Indian Rupee Opens Flat At 63.55 Per Dollar

The Indian rupee has opened flat at 63.55 per dollar on Monday and immediately inched up by 5 paise.

However, Himanshu Arora, Religare expects USD-INR to trade lower today amid across the board weakness in the dollar against major currencies after US Fed signaled gradual rate hike in its latest meeting held last week.

The Indian rupee gained 18 paise to close at 63.55 a dollar on Friday compared to 63.73 a dollar in previous session.

Euro harried over the past months on concerns Greece might default on its debt, nudged up slightly as Greek prime minister's new offer provided a glimmer of hope. The dollar index is trading around the 94 mark.

Source:moneycontrol.com

No criminal prosecution against assessee due to having Swiss account if he had furnished its details

IT: Where assessee had already furnished all relevant details in reply of show cause notice under section 142(1), revenue cannot initiate criminal prosecution under section 279 against assessee for non-compliance of said notice

Challenge to validity of AGM doesn't fall under purview of provisions of sec. 167 of the Companies A

CL : 'Challenge as to validity of AGM does not fall within purview of provisions contained in section 167 of Companies Act 1956'