Borrowing costs bite: Soaring interest rates hurt corporate profits
Following the contribution of loans to corporate results for nearly two years after the outbreak of the pandemic, interest charges on them began to weigh on corporate profits.
Listed companies (ex-BFSI) combined interest expense increased 18.5% year-on-year (YoY) in Q2FY23, compared to an 8.8% year-on-year decline in their combined operating profit during of the period.
This is the fastest growth in corporate interest charges in at least three years. Read more…
Under scanner: special trade data sharing mechanism in preparation
The revenue and trade departments are working to develop a special mechanism to share crucial export and import statistics, following examples of data leaks putting businesses at risk.
“The Revenue Department will put in place a mechanism that will allow ‘encrypted access’ to business data which will be shared in a secure manner,” a senior government official said. Trade standard. Departments disagreed over data sharing and a delay in compiling daily and weekly trade data. As data sharing resumed last week, departments are trying to have a strict mechanism on how much data will be shared. Read more…
CBDT offers a common ITR focused on reporting crypto assets
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has proposed a new Common Income Tax Return (ITR), placing greater emphasis on the disclosure of income from virtual digital assets or crypto assets and equity instruments and of foreign debt held by Indian residents.
For non-resident Indians, RTI’s draft seeks exhaustive details ranging from nature of business, permanent establishment (PE), business connection, whether the entity has a significant economic presence (SEP) in India, as well as the number of users in India.
The ITR protocol for NRIs could broaden the scope of the SEP principle which was introduced in the draft finance law 2018-19, and the “commercial connection” explicitly defined to include the provision of data or software downloads, if the Cumulative payments from these transactions exceed a prescribed amount, or if a multinational’s interaction is with a prescribed number of users. Read more…
Open Door to No Satellite Spectrum Regulation in Revised Telecommunications Bill
The updated telecommunications bill will aim to set the guidelines for satellite spectrum – which the government could explicitly differentiate from terrestrial spectrum – but could not regulate it, officials say.
In the bill released last month, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) extended the definition of “telecommunications services” to include satellite communications services. Currently, the government has the exclusive right to establish, operate, maintain and extend all telecommunications services; and use, allocate and allocate spectrum. Read more…
NITI wants infrastructure projects to be decades behind schedule and complete by end of FY23
Even as new infrastructure projects keep being announced, the Center has shined the spotlight on projects that have been delayed for decades and is ensuring their completion by the end of this fiscal year (2022-23, or FY23) .
The NITI Aayog Center think tank – responsible for monitoring energy and infrastructure – has shortlisted 494 projects worth 5.66 trillion rupees to be completed by March 2023, Business Standard has learned. These include 279 road and highway projects worth Rs 1.92 trillion, oil projects worth Rs 1.11 trillion, nearly Rs 1 trillion railway projects, according to an internal report of the central think tank. Read more…
