The Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India, the apex body to regulate the profession of cost accountants, is working out the impact of IFRS on costing principles. The ICWAI has taken this initiative at the behest of the International Federation of Accountants, the global organisation for the accountancy profession, which is for the first time addressing costing and has come out with guidelines on the impact of IFRS on costing principles.
India's anti-trust body CCI, which would ultimately replace MRTPC, is an independent body responsible for investigating mergers, market shares and conditions and the regulation of firms. Section 66 of the Competition Act deals with repealing and dissolution of the MRTPC Act, 1969. With the operationalisation of CCI, MRTPC was supposed to stop entertaining new cases and was to deal with pending cases for two years before being completely dissolved.
If the company A is located in a non-GST state, it would pay a total tax of Rs 300 (Rs 200 on finished product and Rs 100 on input), compared to Rs 200 paid by other producers in a GST state. The Centre is hoping that in such a scenario companies in GST states would lobby for introduction of the pan-India tax, which will subsume most state and Centre-level taxes.
However, unlike exports of other goods, which have been affected by the economic slowdown, the reason for fall in exports of opium is entirely different. India is the only country in the world to legally produce gum opium for export, for the pharmaceutical industry. However, exports to the US and Japan, the main importers, have been falling for the past couple of years.
The Mumbai-based Piramal Healthcare is preparing to become the first private sector company to process opium for use in pharmaceutical products.
Experts agree with the assessment that the Budget next month would respond to the predictions of deficient monsoon rains with a policy package. According to them, rain-fed areas, which are likely to be affected by a 'below normal' monsoon, could see increase in allocation in terms of higher spending through the public distribution system and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
Two sections of the Competition Act still to be notified.
A month after the government allowed registration of Limited Liability Partnerships, only 10 firms have availed this new form of doing business that provides advantages of a partnership firm and also a corporation. This is because the government is yet to notify key sections (Sections 55 to 58) of the law that would enable conversion of a partnership firm, private company or unlisted public company into an LLP.
Beating the slowdown, chartered accountants (CAs) have bagged jobs with top-notch companies in the latest campus placement drive, which has also seen more newly qualified professionals get jobs.
Maytas Infrastructure Ltd, the listed company floated by the promoters of Satyam Computer Services, plans to raise Rs 800 crore to Rs 1,000 crore through asset sales plus loan and guarantees from banks to complete various projects, including the prestigious Hyderabad Metro, and to bid for some new projects that are coming up for auction.
"Since December last year, we started focusing on TDS and regular assessment to increase tax collections, and it has paid off," said a senior revenue department official. According to the latest data, TDS collections increased by 25 per cent to Rs 1,304.56 billion in fiscal 2009, compared to Rs 1,046.95 billion in the previous fiscal. However, advance tax collections under two major heads -- corporation tax and income tax -- dipped by 7 per cent to around Rs 1,680 billion.
He went on to explain that it is standard practice for developers to have development agreements under which the land-owner cannot sell his land to any other entity or individual.
The government, on January 13, had initiated an SFIO probe into various corporate aspects of the fraud under Section 235 of the Companies Act after getting a report from the registrar of companies, Andhra Pradesh. "The report was submitted to the government on Monday night," said a senior corporate affairs ministry official who declined to reveal the contents of the report.
In the three months since the scam, Satyam's employee strength has reduced from 53,000 to 50,000, said a senior ministry of corporate affairs official. "Satyam continues to have strong revenues. The difference between its turnover and the next highest is around 10-15 per cent," he said. He did not disclose his idea of the revenue and net profit, saying it would interfere with the ongoing process for selling a strategic stake in Satyam.
The government has initiated the process to recruit the remaining two members of the Competition Commission of India (CCI), with an aim to make the anti-trust body fully functional by June 2009.
This would bring between 20,000 and 25,000 firms under the ambit of cost audit. At present, only 44 industries and specific products within an industry come under cost audit. This covers around 6,000 firms but cost audits are conducted in only about 2,200 of these. The proposed change will have a major positive impact on the profession because more firms will have to mandatorily appoint a cost auditor and have cost accounting records audited on an annual basis.
The government's estimate that 300,000 to 500,000 people will lose their jobs -- is well below the projections of industry lobby groups, which put the number at around 1 million. The textiles and garments industry is the second-largest employer in India after agriculture. It directly employs 35 million people and indirectly provides livelihood to about 88 million people.
The general elections could take a toll on the bottom lines of a host of Indian companies that have accessed overseas debt.
Data collected from the Registrar of Companies, or RoC, show that The Firm, as McKinsey is reverentially referred to, has been making steady losses in India since 2004-2005, except in 2006-07. It ended 2007-08 with a loss of Rs 2.26 crore, which was a lot better than the figure in some of the earlier years.
ICAI president Uttam Prakash Agarwal said the new board, to be called the Review Reporting Board, will have powers to examine even unlisted firms. Currently, the Financial Reporting Review Board, which was set up in 2004 to monitor and regulate the functioning of CAs in the country, picks up audit reports of about 50-60 listed companies and non-government organisations to see whether procedures are being followed.