24.04.2008

• Microsoft’s tax problem in India
• When a big company like Microsoft (aka M$ for nerds) is involved in some tax problem, it does make news. Let’s know the details as reported in ET.
• M$ has been issued notices for non-payment of service tax on ‘marketing and user support services’ carried out by M$ India for M$ Singapore. The Indian subsidiary held marketing events and other promotional activities for the Singapore subsidiary for a mark up of 7 to 10%. As the Indian subsidiary did not pay any service tax on these receipts, it was sent the notice.
• The government had prescribed separate set of rules for export of services in 2006, making it clear that any service consumed within India won’t come under exports. If they come under exports, then they would be exempt from tax. Export of services is defined as services being used outside India.
• Wasn’t it just yesterday that we noted about RIL’s spectacular performance?
• See today, it is reported that it has decided to close down its fuel retail business. Having incurred losses of Rs. 800 crores for 2007-08, it decided to call it quits from the fuel retail business. Good business sense is not sticking to a losing proposition.
• It had a license to set up over 5500 retail outlets. It has set up over 1250 over the first three years of its operations.
• Toyota overtakes GM as world’s top automaker
• In Q1 of this year, Toyota has emerged as the largest automaker with sales of 2.41 mn vehicles compared to GM’s 2.25 mn units.
• How do you deal with sticky issues in Indian polity?
• Answer: by avoiding them.
• This is precisely what the Abhijit Sen committee on commodity future trading is going to do; if reports are to be believed. It appears there are differences within the committee on the issue. The committee has Shetkari Sangathana leader Sharad Joshi, IIMA professor Siddharth Sinha, Forward Markets Commission member Kewal Ram and IIMB professor Prakash Apte as members.
• Its terms of reference were:
• To examine whether there was an unusual hike in essential commodity prices in 2006;
• To examine whether futures trading in the commodities contributed to the price rise; and
• To suggest measures by which the participation of farmers in futures trading could be made easier in order for him to discover optimum price for his produce.
• Remember about Alang?
• It is our well known ship-breaking yard in Gujarat.
• It was one of the biggest employers of migrant labour. It is fast losing out business to Bangladesh. It has generated business worth Rs. 80,000 crore till 2008. It has breached its first vessel in 1983.
• The problem with working in the yard is asbestos pollution. It adversely affects the health of the workers. They develop lung cancer because of it. The asbestos affected workers in Alang are reported to be around 16% of the workforce.
• But it is handsome wages ranging between Rs. 100 to 300 per shift that made working there lucrative.
• I am left to wonder, if a ship-breaking yard can give asbestos pollution, will not a building yard also give the same problem? Any ideas from people working in the ship building industry?
• Who is the new Governor of Bank of Japan?
• Masaaki Shirakawa
• You may know that BoJ is the equivalent of RBI.
• Want to make money even in turbulent times?
• For those of you who are dare devils and play the stock markets, this article is worth a read. You can’t afford to miss.
• Read it in full here.
• Be warned, I don’t subscribe to the theories or methods propounded by the author. You are on your own when you follow his advice. My advice is to stay away from stock markets till you are fully settled in life. When you can throw away a couple of lakhs, you are ready to play the markets.
• Playing stocks is not for the faint hearted.
• If you are asked to compare and contrast the working and/or functioning of IMF, World Bank and WTO, what could your answer be?
• If it is better than this article, be assured you can be on your way to working for them sometime in the future.
• Here it is.
• Who is Manoj Tewari and why is he in the news?
• He is a Bhojpuri singer-actor who has popularized Bhojpuri movie industry. He was the one whose debut film in Bhojpuri “Sasura Bada Paise Wala” was made for a paltry Rs. 30 lakhs but went on to earn Rs. 20 crores.
• Bhojpuri peasants were shipped out between 1873 and 1916 from Western Bihar and eastern UP to work as indentured labour on sugarcane plantations in distant colonies like Surinam. The trauma of being uprooted resulted in a folk culture called Bidesia. Bhojpuris who left their homeland remember it through Poorvi Lok Sangeet and Ganga Geet – an oral tradition that is kept alive to this day in the songs sung by Tiwari.
• It was in honour of this that the Dutch decided to have his face printed on a postage stamp in Holland. Why Holland? It has a sizeable population of Bhojpuri speaking Indians.