1. Choose Right Privatisation Process For Air India: IATA Chief
Right privatisation process should be chosen for Air India Ltd to make it more competitive, International Air Transport Association chief Alexandre de Juniac said as he asserted that there is no need for the government to own stake in the carrier.
Supporting the decision to sell stake in the debt-laden airline, he said the government has to find “competitive conditions to give Air India the right weapons to compete against others.”
Air India is a member of the IATA, a grouping of more than 275 airlines worldwide. “We support privatisation of Air India .The company has to be privatised in revised conditions to be able to compete effectively,” de Juniac told PTI in an interview.
The government is working out the modalities for strategic disinvestment to revive ailing Air India.
(Source: Bloomberg Quint)
2. Bitcoin Profits Come With Big Time Taxes
Experts said returns from bitcoins could attract 20-30 percent tax, depending on whether they are categorised as business income or capital gains, as reported by Economic Times
Experts said the tax department could categorise money from selling bitcoins as business income. Active trading could also make it liable to be treated as speculative business, attracting regular tax rates. Alternatively, revenue officers could levy long-term or short-term capital gains tax on bitcoin returns.
Long-term capital gains tax at 20 percent would be levied if bitcoins were held for at least 36 months. In all other cases, short-term capital gains tax at 30 percent would be applicable
With the advance tax deadline on 15 December, bitcoin investors and their tax advisers are working out how to deal with returns on investments in the cryptocurrency. There is also a fear that it may attract indirect tax, that is, goods and services tax (GST).
(Source: Economic Times)
3. Amazon India Claims 67% Sales Volume Growth in 2nd Quarter
Amazon India said its gross sales volume rose 67 percent from a year earlier in the September quarter, reported Livemint.
According to numbers shared by Amazon India with Mint show, gross sales by value jumped 72 percent during the quarter. The broader online retail market is estimated to be growing at roughly 25-30 percent, according to brokerages and experts tracking e-commerce in India.
Amazon India said gross sales rose 66 percent in the six months which is much faster than Flipkart in April-September and that figure is considerably higher than the figures that were revealed in the recent half-yearly report from one of Flipkart’s largest investors, Naspers.
(Source: Livemint)
4. New Norms for Handling Complaints Under Bankruptcy Code Notified
The regulations for grievance handling procedure under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code have been notified, wherein the filing fee will be refunded to the stakeholder in case the complaint is found to be not "frivolous or malicious".
The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI), which is implementing the Code, has notified the regulations and will be applicable for all stakeholders, including creditors, debtors and service providers.
Depending on the complaint, the IBBI can order an investigation or issue a show cause notice to the entities concerned.
"The regulations provide for an objective and transparent procedure for disposal of grievances and complaints by the IBBI, that does not spare a mischievous service provider, but does not harass an innocent service provider," the corporate affairs ministry said in a release on Sunday.
(Source: PTI)
5. Eros Int'l Expects 75% Revenue From Digital Space in 3 Yrs
Eros International expects about 75 percent of its revenues from digital platform in the next three years, up from 25 percent now, with increasing data affordability bringing more people online to content consumption, a top company official has said.
Eros International Media is on the path of transforming itself from a "full studio to a digital company" as it is sensing a great opportunity in the OTT (Over-the-top) media services, the official added.
"We think right now this year, out of USD 260-270 million revenue, digital would be USD 40 million. It's about 25 percent of the total revenue. Fast forward after three years, digital would be three-quarters," Eros International Group CEO and MD Jyoti Deshpande told reporters.
(Source: PTI)
6. Airtel, Jio in Race to Provide Cloud Services to Govt
Bharti AIrtel and Reliance Jio are set for another bout after the fight in the telecom space to grab a larger pie of the country’s cloud services market and are in the running to become government-empanelled cloud service provider.
Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, BSNL and HP, among others, are also in the race. The government would give empanelment to 15 firms for providing cloud services to Central, state, and local governments, and public sector bodies in India.
Of the 15, the ministry of electronics and information technology has cleared seven: Amazon Web Services, BSNL, CtrlS Data Centers, ESDS Software Solutions, Net Magic IT Services, Sify Technologies and Web Werks India.
(Source: Business Standard)
7. Airtel to Connect Over 2,100 Uncovered Villages in North East
Telecom services provider Airtel on Sunday said it will provide mobile connectivity in 2,100 uncovered villages and on national highways in north-eastern states in next 18 months.
"Bharti Airtel has signed an agreement with Department of Telecom (DoT) and the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) for provision of mobile services in identified uncovered villages and national highways in the north-eastern states of Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh," Airtel said in a statement.
Under the agreement, it said that Airtel will set up over 2,000 mobile towers/sites in unconnected pockets of the region and deliver telecom connectivity to citizens in over 2,100 villages over the next 18 months.
The deployment will also boost connectivity along important national highways in the region. Airtel would receive about Rs 1,610 crore from the USOF for executing the project.
(Source: PTI)
8. Coal Imports Rise 40% on Restocking Demand in November
Coal imports rose 40 percent to 19.18 million tonnes in November, mainly due to pick up in demand for winter restocking and low coal stock position in power plants.
“Coal import in November 2017 stood at 19.18 MT (provisional), against 13.70 MT in November 2016 and 19.77 MT in October 2017,” as per the latest data by m-junction services. M-junction services is an online procurement, and sales platform floated jointly by state-run Steel AUthority of India and steel behemoth Tata Steel Limited.
The higher volume of imports is mainly due to 4.18 MT increase in non-coking coal imports during the month under review, the data showed. There was also a healthy growth in coking coal imports in November 2017 on a yearly basis.
(Source: Bloomberg Quint)
9. UK Won't Pay Brexit Bill If No Trade Deal Agreed: Davis
Brexit Secretary David Davis on Sunday said Britain will not honour financial commitments agreed this week with the European Union if they fail to secure a future trade deal, contradicting finance minister Philip Hammond.
"No deal means that we won't be paying the money," he told the BBC.
"It is conditional on an outcome. It is conditional on getting an implementation period, it is conditional on a trade outcome," he said.
Under an initial agreement reached with the EU on Friday, Britain will pay a financial settlement of between 35 billion- 39 billion pound for leaving the bloc in March 2019.
The 15-page document, detailing post-Brexit arrangements for citizens' rights and the Irish border, was hammered out after nearly six months of negotiations and now allows the talks to move on to a future trade deal.
(Source: PTI)
(Breathe In, Breathe Out: Are you finding it tough to breathe polluted air? Join hands with FIT in partnership with #MyRightToBreathe to find a solution to pollution. Send in your suggestions to fit@thequint.com or WhatsApp @ +919999008335)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)