Service Tax/Excise/Customs : Where SML was alleged to be importer and demand was raised only from that company, said demand could not be recovered from assets owned by SDL (another group company), as there was no evidence that import was made for benefit of 'group' as a whole
Sunday 9 August 2015
India Manages To Export 1.26 Mt Sugar So Far Amid Global Glut
India, which is saddled with surplus sugar stocks, managed to export 1.26 million tonnes of the sweetener in seven months to April 2015 at a time when the world market is facing a glut situation.
Sugar output has exceeded the domestic demand in the world's second largest sugar producer for the last five years and the trend is expected to continue in the current sugar marketing year (October-September) too.
India exported 1.26 million tonnes of sugar during October 2014 - April 2015 period of the ongoing marketing year, according to the official data.
Sudan accounted for the highest sugar exports of 3,78,132 tonnes during the period under review, followed by Somalia (1,62,873 tonnes), Sri Lanka (1,54,020 tonnes), UAE (1,05,540 tonnes), and Tanzania (91,138 tonnes) in that order.
Although exports are not viable now due to sharp decline in global prices, the government is trying all options including barter trade to push export of 4 million tonnes of surplus sugar to help cash-starved domestic mills make payment of dues over Rs 14,000 crore to cane farmers.
The sugar industry, which owes about Rs 14,398 crore to cane farmers, is unable to make payment as it is facing severe liquidity crunch on account of surplus production that has resulted in low prices of sugar in domestic markets. Ex-mill sugar prices have fallen below Rs 20/kg in the country, while the cost of production is over Rs 30/kg.
The country is estimated to produce 28 million tonnes of sugar in 2014-15 marketing year, against annual demand of 24.8 million tonnes. There is still surplus stock of 10 million tonnes in the country. Meanwhile, world sugar production this year is estimated to exceed demand by 6,20,000 tonnes.
Source:economictimes.indiatimes.com
Govt Allows Export Of Rice Bran Oil In Bulk
The Government has allowed export of rice bran oil in bulk and other edible oil in branded consumer packs of up to five kg with a minimum export price of $900 (?57,363) a tonne. Trade expects rice bran oil exports to jump sharply to 10,000 tonnes this fiscal against 2,000 tonnes achieved last year.
India produces about 10 lakh tonnes of rice bran oil annually and is largely consumed in the domestic market. Bran, the brown layer on rice grain, has 10-25 per cent oil content. Though the rice bran oil is considered cheap and healthier, it has not gained popularity among Indian consumers as it does not have any particular taste unlike groundnut, soybean or sunflower oils.
India, one of the largest consumers of edible oil, imports about 10 million tonne (mt) of edible oil per annum. It meets about 60 per cent of its vegetable oil demand of 17-18 mt through imports.
Speaking on the sidelines of Global Rice Bran Conference organised by the Solvent Extractors’ Association, Dr V Prakash, Scientist with Council of Scientific and Industrial Research said, “The decision to allow rice bran oil export in bulk without any limit may push up prices in the domestic market as producers would find it easier to sell it abroad than packaging and labelling for the domestic market.”
However, he added, given the poor demand and low awareness of the benefits of rice bran oil, bulk exports will not have much impact for consumers.
Though India is the second largest producer of rice after China, the nation has not fully explored the potential of producing rice bran, which can be also be used in the pharma sector.
China is slowly getting used to rice bran oil and it’s a matter of time before it becomes the leading supplier of this oil.
“India should consider importing raw rice bran from Thailand and do the value addition here to produce the oil,” said Prakash. BV Mehta, Executive Director, Solvent Extractors’ Association said there is good demand for Indian rice bran oil in countries such as Japan and Thailand.
Since rice bran oil has no particular taste, it can be easily blended with any oil and may be imported back into India as a value added product or olive oil. Incidentally, the demand for rice bran oil in India is more in non-paddy growing northern and western regions than in the eastern and southern parts.
Source:thehindubusinessline.com
CIC couldn't direct SEBI to disclose info of its Chairman without assigning any reasons: High Court
RTI : Where Central Information Commission passed order contrary to its earlier order without assigning any reasons and directed SEBI to disclose information against Chairman, SEBI, impugned order was to be set aside
India On Top In Exporting Beef
India retains its top spot as the world’s largest exporter of beef, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and has extended its lead over the next highest exporter, Brazil. It must be noted, however, that the U.S. government classifies even buffalo meat as beef.
According to the data, India exported 2.4 million tonnes of beef and veal in FY2015, compared to 2 million tonnes by Brazil and 1.5 million by Australia. These three countries account for 58.7 per cent of all the beef exports in the world. India itself accounts for 23.5 per cent of global beef exports. This is up from a 20.8 per cent share last year.
Data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) shows that most of India’s buffalo meat exports go to Asian countries — Asia receives more than 80 per cent, while Africa takes around 15 per cent. Within Asia, Vietnam is the largest recipient, at 45 per cent.
India’s buffalo meat exports have been growing at an average of nearly 14 per cent each year since 2011, and fetching India as much as $4.8 billion in 2014. Last year, India for the first time earned more from the export of buffalo meat than it did from Basmati rice.
Several databases, including the United Nations Food and Agricultural Outlook, show that meat consumption in India is increasing. However, the data also shows that beef consumption has been falling over the years, down -44.5 per cent in 2014 from the level it was in 2000. This fall in consumption has been taking place regardless of the political party in power. Chicken consumption, however, was up 31 per cent in that period.
Source:thehindu.com
Column-No Breaks For Coal Miners From China, India Imports: Russell
It seems coal miners and traders just can't catch a break, with a rebound in China's imports being tempered by early signs of a turning point in India's import growth.
The main problem for coal exporters such as Australia, Indonesia and South Africa is that China's surge in imports in July is unlikely to be sustained, while India's decline may well be the start of a longer-lasting trend. China, the world's biggest producer and importer of coal, brought in 21.26 million tonnes in July, up 28.1 percent from June's 16.6 million and the highest in eight months, according to customs data released Aug. 8.
However, imports are down 7.7 percent on a year earlier and down 33.7 percent for the first seven months of 2015, making July's month-on-month result an outlier in a overall weakening trend. It's also likely that July's strength will remain an exception, rather than herald the reversal of the existing trend. Traders believe the gain in imports came after Chinese domestic producers limited supply in a bid to bolster prices, with more than 70 percent of miners suffering losses in the first half of the year.
Domestic prices have fallen sharply this year, with benchmark thermal coal at Qinhuangdao port SH-QHA-TRMCOAL ending last week at 410 yuan ($66.13) a tonne, down 22 percent since the end of last year. In contrast, benchmark Australian thermal coal at Newcastle port ended the week to Aug. 7 at $59.54 a tonne, down 7.5 percent from the end of 2014.
While the Newcastle index is still mired near the 8-year low of $54.37 a tonne from April, Australian miners haven't suffered as much as their Chinese counterparts this year, and have also had a longer time to adjust to the reality of falling prices, given the current four-year losing streak.
Lower domestic prices may ultimately lead to extended pit closures in China, but the short-term impact is more likely to be to render imports less competitive against local production. With Beijing also ordering the shutdown of industries to improve air quality ahead of a parade to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two, coal demand may also drop in August and into September.
However, the overall trend of China trying to limit coal use remains intact, as does the stricter quality standards for imports of the fuel blamed for most of the country's pollution problems. This makes it unlikely that China's coal imports have turned a corner and will resume growing. However, it does make it more likely that volatility in monthly figures will increase as traders try to arbitrage domestic and international prices.
The great hope for coal exporters in Asia has been India, and the 11 percent slump in imports to 19.3 million tonnes in July from the same month a year earlier will cause consternation among miners.
July's drop was the first in 15 months and was largely the result of lower demand from power generators, according to commodities trader mjunction, which supplies the data. If there is a positive in the decline in July's imports, it's that the demand is still there. What's lacking is the money to pay for power generated from imported coal.
Power distributors in India are struggling to pay for electricity given high levels of debt and uneconomic regulated pricing regimes that result in financial losses. However, there are some signs that state-controlled behemoth Coal India is making progress in lifting output in line with the government's desire for domestic production to reach levels that would make imports unnecessary.
Coal India boosted output in the fiscal year to end March to 494 million tonnes, which was 3 percent below the targeted 507 million tonnes, but still 32 million tonnes more than the prior year. This increase was more than the cumulative 31 million tonnes of growth in the four years from 2010 to 2014, according to a report in The Hindu newspaper on Aug. 8.
Coal India's output rose 12 percent to 121.3 million tonnes in the April to June period this year as it opened new mines and received approvals to expand existing facilities. However, the company is still a long way from meeting its target of 1 billion tonnes by 2019-20, and it will have to add more than 100 million tonnes of output every year from now until then to meet the target.
While this would seem unlikely, even partial success will hurt demand for imports, which may drop 3 percent to 210 million tonnes this fiscal year, according to Coal Minister Piyush Goyal. This is based on a coal requirement of 910 million tonnes, up 10 percent from the prior year, and total domestic output of 700 million tonnes from Coal India and other miners, up 15 percent.
This seems a reasonable forecast, and if achieved, would end India's run of rising annual imports, which dates back to 2004, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Overall, there are reasons to be optimistic that India may manage to curb its appetite for foreign coal, while at the same time there are reasons to be pessimistic about a revival of Chinese import demand.
Source:uk.reuters.com
India Slaps 10 Per Cent Duty On Wheat To Curb Import
The duty impost is now expected to halt import of another 500,000 tonnes that millers had planned to import.
India will impose an import duty of 10 per cent on wheat until March 31 next year, finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Friday, reinstating tariffs after a gap of eight years following big overseas purchases in recent months.
The trader, who did not want to be named, said at least one of the rejected cargoes was heading towards Tuticorin port in southern India. The estimated revenue implication of this measure “is revenue gain of about Rs 90 crore in the remaining part of the year”, the finance ministry said in a statement here. Traders opposed the government’s move. She said that 3 lakh tonnes of wheat has reached Indian ports and another 2-3 lakh tonnes is on its way.
As per the worldwide Grain Council data, the exports price of wheat from the United States was $217 per tonne on Thursday while the domestic minimum support price offered to farmers during recently concluded rabi marketing season was Rs 1,450 per quintal. “The government is only trying to offload its low-quality wheat in the market while trying to prevent the entry of high-quality wheat from Australia and cheaper wheat from Russian Federation and France”, said Tejinder Narang, a Delhi-based grain analyst. Wheat production in India, the world’s second biggest grower, is estimated to have declined to 90.78 million tonnes in 2014-15, against the record production of 95.85 million tonnes during 2013-14.
Mills in southern India, which depend on supplies from growing regions in the north, bought wheat mostly from Australia because domestic grain was more expensive.
In the recently concluded rabi marketing season, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) procured 28.08 million tonne of wheat from farmers, out of which 26.62 million tonne have been purchased under the relaxed quality norms as the crop got damaged due to unseasonal rains.
Source:bulletinleader.com
Rupee Opens Higher At 63.79 Against Us Dollar
The Indian rupee on Monday opened marginally higher against the US dollar as traders awaited further cues on key data later this week.
At 9.08am, the home currency was trading at 63.78, up 0.05% from its previous close of 63.82. The local unit opened at 63.79 per dollar. The benchmark Sensex index rose 0.06% to 28,254.71 points.
The government will release consumer price inflation for July and Index of Industrial Production data for June on 12 August and for wholesale price inflation for July on 14 August. The yield on India’s 10-year benchmark bond was trading at 7.792% compared with its Friday’s close of 7.81%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
Since the beginning of this year, the rupee has lost 1.2%, while foreign institutional investors have bought $7.34 billion from local equity and $6.45 billion from bond markets. The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 97.654, up 0.1% from its previous close of 97.563.
Most of the Asian currencies were trading mixed. South Korean won was up 0.16% and Thai baht 0.1%. However, Japanese yen was down 0.11% and Taiwan dollar 0.06%.
The US Department of Labour said on Friday that employers added 215,000 jobs in July, only slightly below a Reuters poll estimate of 223,000 jobs. The unemployment rate was held at a seven-year low of 5.3% and there were signs that wages were beginning to pick up.
Source:livemint.com
Assessee was entitled to complete stay of demand as demand was based on overruled judgment of Apex C
CST & VAT : Uttar Pradesh VAT - Where Assessing Authority made assessment relying upon judgment of Supreme Court in case of State of Andhra Pradesh v. Kone Elevators (India) Ltd. [2005] taxmann.com 1542 and raised tax demand upon assessee, since said judgment had now been overruled by Supreme Court in another case, assessee was entitled to complete stay of demand amount
TPO can't make TP addition without making adjustment of capacity utilization between assessee and it
IT/ILT : Where TPO made addition to assessee's ALP in respect of selling ready to serve food to its AE without giving adjustment on account of difference in capacity utilisation between assessee and its comparable, impugned addition deserved to be set aside
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