Business

New Delhi, Sep 13 (IANS) The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Tuesday issued another circular to further clarify issues arising on deduction of tax at source under the newly-inserted Section 194-R in respect of benefits or perquisites provided to residents in cash or in kind in the course of business or profession.

As per the circular, now bank and financial institutions need not deduct tax at source in respect of benefits provided to its borrowers by waiver of loan or advance by way of one-time settlement.

Similarly, a company in which the public is substantially interested need not deduct tax at source while issuing bonus or rights shares.

The implication of this clarification will be that a company in which public is not substantially interested will be required to deduct tax at source while issuing bonus or rights shares despite such receipt of bonus or right shares being not taxable in the hands of the shareholders.

The reasoning given in this circular for exempting a company in which the public is substantially interested from deduction of tax at source while issuing bonus or rights shares equally applies to a private company in which the public is not substantially interested, experts said.

Experts say this circular may be fishing in troubled waters as it is differentiating between taxpayers. Experts also wonder if by doing that the legislative intent is being bypassed by such circulars.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 13 (IANS) While all eyes are on BYJU's much-awaited FY21 financial results that were set to be revealed on Wednesday, the edtech major has registered nearly Rs 9,991 crore in revenues in FY22 and its core K12 education business is growing fast, top sources have revealed.

In six months from February 2022 till July 2022, the company logged Rs 6,175 crore revenue, breaking all previous sales records, three people close to the matter told IANS.

This is a substantial gain from its FY20 financial report, when the company registered revenue of Rs 2,434 crore with a net profit of Rs 51 crore.

BYJU's investors were ecstatic at the company's growth in the core business in the recently-concluded meeting, sources told IANS, as the company logged 50 per cent growth (year-on-year) in its core K12 India business at Rs 1,205 crore, leaving no competition anywhere near it.

After getting acquired by BYJU's for $1 billion last year, Aakash Educational Services (AESL) has transformed into a hybrid edtech firm, expanding rapidly across the country, which is one of the key reasons behind BYJU's FY22 success.

Meanwhile, after nearly 18 months delay of "ironing out the complexities", edtech major BYJU's was all set to reveal its financial report for FY21.

The company had received an 'unqualified' report from auditor Deloitte late last month.

According to sources, there may be a substantial difference between the projected sales and the audited revenue in BYJU's FY21 financial results.

Last valued at $22 billion, BYJU's has so far raised over $6 billion in funding, and aims to file an IPO in the US through the Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) route.

The company is likely to raise over $500 million (nearly Rs 3,900 crore) at a valuation of around $23 billion soon.

--IANS
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Monza (Italy), Sep 13 (IANS) Team Principal Toto Wolff is hopeful that Mercedes can push Ferrari for the runner-up spot in the 2022 constructors' standings after "maximizing" their Italian Grand Prix points haul "on a track that doesn't suit the team".

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell started the Monza weekend within reach of the pace-setting Ferrari and Red Bull cars but dropped back as practice wore on and ended qualifying almost one-and-a-half seconds off pole position.

On race day, however, Russell capitalised on a host of grid penalties to convert a front-row start into another podium finish, while Hamilton fought his way through the field from P19 to claim fifth -- adding important points to Mercedes tally.

"I think you (can) see that we are on a track that doesn't suit us, (and) we are clearly third on the road, so (positions) three and five is probably the maximum (result)," Wolff told Sky Sports F1.

As for Hamilton's drive from the back of the grid, he added, "It was enjoyable. In the beginning, it looked like [he was] a little bit stuck, but once the tyres came together, he was very quick."

"I think it's all to play for. We just need to do the best every single weekend and see whether we come out second," Wolff said.

Asked if P2 would 'soften the blow' of an otherwise difficult campaign, he said, "Maybe a bit, but there [are] more blows that we are ending up 30 seconds behind the leader, and that is the gap that we need to catch up."

--IANS

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New Delhi, Sep 13 (IANS) Aiming to shore up huge quarterly losses incurred by state-owned oil marketing companies (OMCs) like Indian Oil Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, and Bharat Petroleum Corporation, the government plans to pay them $2.5 billion as partial compensation, according to a Bloomberg report.

The losses have been incurred by the OMCs as they absorbed international crude prices, however the report, quoting sources, said that while the Petroleum Ministry had sought a far greater amount, the Finance Ministry agreed only to $2.5 billion as a cash payout.

The partial compensation to OMCs has also been planned to rein in cooking gas prices, the Bloomberg report said.

It further said, quoting sources, that the discussions on compensation payout are at an advanced stage though a final decision is yet to be taken.

Though the government plans to ease their financial pain, the Bloomberg report said it would add pressure to the exchequer, which is already burdened by excise duty cuts on fuel prices and a higher fertiliser subsidy, to tackle inflation.

The OMCs use more than 85 per cent of imported oil and benchmarked the fuels they produce to international prices. Those shot up after a global recovery in demand coincided with reduced fuel-making capacity in the US and fewer exports from Russia, thus leading to their losses, the Bloomberg report said.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 12 (IANS) Technology company Kodak TV on Monday forayed into the premium Matrix QLED Series with Google TV in India.

With a starting price of Rs 33,999, Matrix QLED TV is available in three sizes -- 50-inch, 55-inch, and 65-inch on Flipkart as Big Billion Days Sale (BBD) Specials.

"We are proud to be recognised as one of the premium Smart TV brands in India. Kodak has a history of introducing new technologies in the market and we believe that this launch will prove to be a game-changer in the future of technology," Avneet Singh Marwah, Director and CEO, Super Plastronics Pvt Ltd (SPPL), the official manufacturer of Kodak TVs, said in a statement.

"We are highly excited to bring Kodak's new variants under the Matrix series, which are an outcome of investments that we made in technology research within India. With the 65-inch model, we will be a tough competitor in the premium QLED Smart TV segment," he added.

The TVs have improved sound with DTS TruSurround sound, a QLED 4K display with 1.1 billion colours, Dolby MS12, HDR 10+ with 2GB RAM and 16GB of internal storage.

SPPL said it will also be the first Indian manufacturing company in the country to introduce QLED TVs with Google TV.

With an integrated Google Assistant, the Kodak TVs offer a large screen for Chromecast video meetings, documents and built-in apps, such as YouTube Learning and Google classroom, assisting in learning and upgradation.

--IANS
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Gaborone, Sep 12 (IANS) Botswana witnessed its first-ever drop in fuel prices in 2022, said the country's energy authorities.

According to a press release from Botswana Energy Regulatory Authority, pump prices for petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin will decrease by 1 pula ($0.076), 0.23 pula and 0.08 pula per liter, respectively, Xinhua news agency reported.

The authority said the decrease was necessitated by the fall in oil prices over the past two months. Brent Crude averaged $97.74 per barrel in August compared to an average of $105.12 a barrel in July.

The energy authority said the fall in fuel prices was influenced mainly by fears of a possible global recession, which could weaken the global demand for oil.

Four straight increases in fuel prices in the Southern African country since December 2021 have primarily contributed to rising inflation, which reached a 13-year high of 14.30 per cent in July.

--IANS
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Mumbai, Sep 11 (IANS) Reliance Capital bidders have sought an extension of time for submission of binding bids. According to sources, Piramal Finance has sought extension by 12 weeks, while Advent has sought time till January 30, 2023, i.e., 16 weeks extension for submission of binding bid, as the company has not yet done due diligence.

There are other bidders also who have sought a similar extension of timeline for filing of binding bids. IndusInd has sought 10 weeks extension, Oaktree has asked for 12 weeks and Zurich has requested for 8 weeks extension.

*As per the current timeline, the last last date for submission of binding bids is 29 September, along with an EMD of Rs 75 crore.*

COC will be meeting in the coming week to decide on a time extension to maximise the value for lenders and ensure maximum binding bids for RCAP assets.

The timeline for filing of final Resolution Plan with NCLT is November 1, 2022.

Reliance Capital had received 6 bids under option-1, i.e., for Reliance Capital as a company. Torrent, IndusInd, Oaktree, Cosmea Financial, Authum Investment, and B Right Real Estate have submitted bids in the range of Rs 4,000 crore to Rs 4,500 crore for Reliance Capital's entire assets.

For Reliance General Insurance business, Piramal Finance has bid Rs 4,000 crore, while Zurich Insurance's bid is Rs 3,500 crore. The third bidder, i.e., Advent has bid Rs 7,000 crore for Reliance General Insurance.

Jindal Steel and Power and UVARC have submitted bids for Reliance Capital's ARC business.

For other assorted assets of Reliance Capital, three bidders -- Choice Equity, Global Fincap and Grand Bhawan have submitted the bids.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 10 (IANS) French consumer electronics brand Thomson has launched new QLED TV series with Google TV in India, ahead of the festive season, that starts from Rs 33,999.

Thomson 50-inch QLED TV starts from Rs 33,999, the 55-inch from Rs 40,999 and 65-inch from Rs 59,999.

The QLED TVs at the price of 4K will be available on Flipkart during its annual ‘The Big Billion Days' sale, said the company.

"These TVs are packed with top-notch features and hardware yet again giving the Indian consumer the opportunity to put their hands on the best of technology and design at an extremely pocket-friendly price," said Avneet Singh Marwah, CEO SPPL, exclusive brand licensee of Thomson in India.

The TVs offers support for multiple adult and child user profiles, a selection of smart TV apps, manual and voice controls for smart home devices, personalised home screen for each user, Google TV app to control the TV and smart home controls for lights and cameras.

The new QLED TVs are frameless and offer Dolby Vision with HDR 10+, Dolby Atmos, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS Trusurround, Bezel- less design, 40W Dolby Audio Stereo Box Speaker, 2GB RAM, 16GB ROM, Dual Band (2.4+5) GHz Wi-Fi, Google TV and much more.

The TVs come with completely bezel-less and Air Slim design.

"We are excited for the launch of Thomson's QLED series with Google TV on our platform which will offer a differentiated TV viewing experience this festive season to millions of our customers across the country," said Hari G. Kumar, Vice-President, Large Appliances at Flipkart.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 10 (IANS) Indian digital businesses are witnessing rapid growth, aided by stronger adoption of online services in diverse segments, especially in the fintech landscape. In view of this development, Dipan Mehta, Director, Elixir Equities, recently said in an interview to a publication that he believes that the next set of multibagger stocks will come from digital businesses.

Elaborating on the subject, Mehra said the next set of multibaggers will come from concept stocks rather than mature businesses. He defined concept stocks as the ones where companies are doing something differently with a huge market and can be scaled up at a very low cost.

He added that a lot of digital businesses fit this criteria, which is why he is bullish on stocks of companies like Paytm, India's leading digital payments and financial services company, and the pioneer of mobile and QR payments.

For Paytm, Mehta said the stock is on his watchlist and he tracks it "very closely".

He went on to say that he could invest in the company in future, based on its profitability target and revenue source.

Paytm shares have been gaining over the past few months and closed sharply higher on Friday at Rs 727 after a 2.83 per cent jump.

"My simple submission is that one of these companies or most of these companies may turn out to be great value creators because of the way the business models are and our understanding of those business models," he said in the interview.

In April, Paytm MD and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma shared a letter with shareholders, saying that the company will achieve operating EBITDA breakeven by September 2023, supported by stronger business momentum, scale of monetization and operating leverage.

He also highlighted that the company plans to achieve this without compromising on any of its growth plans.

Paytm has revolutionised digital payments in the country and paved the way for stronger financial inclusion. Several analysts are bullish on Paytm's business model and path to profitability. Top brokerages continue to maintain their ‘BUY' ratings for the stock, based on the scale the company is seeing in its unique high-margin businesses and subsequent revenue growth in each quarter.

Paytm started this financial year on an excellent note, with 89 per cent year-on-year revenue growth in Q1FY23 at Rs 1,680 crore, while EBITDA (Before ESOP) loss reduced to Rs 275 crore, marking an improvement of Rs 93 crore Q-o-Q. The company's contribution profit grew 197 per cent Y-o-Y to Rs 726 crore, leading to an increase in contribution margin to 43 per cent of revenues in comparison to 35 per cent in Q4FY22.

In its latest monthly update for August, the company said its loan distribution business has now reached an annualised disbursal rate of Rs 29,000 crore, while it has disbursed loans worth Rs 4,517 crore during the first two months of Q2FY23.

The company also strengthened its offline payments leadership by deploying over 4.5 million subscription-based payment devices to merchants across the country.

Its strong performance is a reflection of its position in India's digital business landscape as it remains focused on creating long-term shareholder value besides empowering millions of consumers and merchants in the country.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 10 (IANS) Indigenous crafts and products manufactured at a district level in Uttar Pradesh under the flagship 'One District One Product' (ODOP) scheme have generated huge demands even outside the country in the past few years.

Government data said that the total value of exports of ODOP products from the state increased from Rs 58,000 crore in FY17-18 to Rs 96,000 crore in FY21-22.

The government of Uttar Pradesh identified the indigenous crafts and products being manufactured at a district level under its flagship ODOP program.

Officials said that the state undertook diagnostic studies of these manufacturing clusters, identifying their strengths and formulating strategic interventions for mitigation of on ground challenges.

District Export Action Plans have been prepared with the objective of placing each district of Uttar Pradesh on the global trade map and increasing their contribution in the state's exports.

"Handicrafts and handlooms, Ready-made garments, Textile articles, Engineering goods, Leather goods, Footwear, Carpets & durries, Sports goods, Toys, Wooden articles, Ceramics, Glass articles, Food processing and Agri-based products are the key contributors to Uttar Pradesh's ODOP exports," said a senior official.

Besides, the percentage contribution of ODOP products is estimated to be approximately 62 per cent in Uttar Pradesh's overall exports.

However, the low average value of exports is largely because of the Covid-19 pandemic induced disruptions in global supply chains.

"With the continued efforts of the exporters, industry associations and the government, it is envisaged that the percentage share of ODOP products may recover from the pandemic induced slowdown and further cross the targeted 70 per cent contribution in exports in the next 1-2 years," said a senior official.

On August 29, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal praised Uttar Pradesh for the ODOP initiative and said that the rest of the states should also learn.

Appreciating the unprecedented contribution of Uttar Pradesh in promoting ODOPs, Goyal said that all the 75 districts of the state, under the leadership of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, have set an example for others in this context.

"The efforts made by the state government are visible on the ground today. Through the success of ODOP scheme in UP we can see how much potential is there in this scheme. Yogi Adityanath and his entire team deserves congratulations for this wonderful work."

--IANS
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