US market regulator SEC has slapped penalties of over $16 million on spirits giant Diageo Plc for indulging in corrupt practices in India, Thailand and South Korea to push up sales of its leading brands like Johnnie Walker.
The government may be waiting for the outcome of an arbitration initiated against its levy of Rs 10,247 crore retrospective tax on UK's Cairn Energy Plc before deciding on appealing against losing a tax case against Vodafone Group, sources said. An international arbitral tribunal is expected to give a decree within next few days on Cairn Energy Plc's challenge to the Indian government seeking Rs 10,247 crore in retrospective taxes. If the arbitration award in the Cairn cases goes against India, the government has to pay the British firm over Rs 7,600 crore to reverse the dividend and tax refund it had ceased and shares it sold to recover part of the tax demand.
IOC chief said he believed more than 80 per cent of residents of the Olympic Village would be vaccinated or booked for vaccination ahead of the Games
Kapoor is an MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur, and has a Chemical Engineering degree from BITS, Pilani.
The government last month announced freeing of auto fuel prices from its control, resulting in a Rs 3.50 per litre hike in petrol prices as domestic rates got linked to global movements.
The government on Thursday brought a bill in the Lok Sabha to withdraw all back tax demands on companies such as Cairn Energy and Vodafone and said it will refund the money collected to enforce such levies.
Experts attribute the lower target to increased allocation under the credit guarantee scheme for small businesses. Out of the Rs 3.21 trillion worth loans sanctioned under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) in the last financial year, Rs 3.12 trillion were disbursed to entrepreneurs, according to official data.
The two parties -- the Centre and Vodafone -- have sought a few more weeks to decide on the matter.
The Biden administration had been under pressure to send the excess COVID-19 vaccines with the US to nations like India, which are facing severe vaccine shortages.
State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp on Monday said UK's Cairn Energy Plc cannot sell a majority stake in Cairn India to Vedanta Resources without its consent.
A day after agreeing to sell majority stake in its India subsidiary for $8.48 billion, UK's Cairn Energy Plc top management on Tuesday met Oil Minister Murli Deora and other key officials to clear any regulatory roadblocks to the deal with Vedanta Resources.
Cairn India on Friday said its UK-based parent Cairn Energy Plc is unlikely to exit completely from the company.
Edinburgh-based Cairn said its Alpha-1S1 well in the sea between Greenland and Canada found oil over a 400 meter section and encountered gas reserves, the company said.
UK's Cairn Energy Plc on Tuesday said it will seek shareholder nod for sale of majority stake in its Indian arm, Cairn India, to London-listed Vedanta Resources Plc for up to $8.48 billion on October 7.
British energy firm Cairn Energy Plc on Thursday said it will pay all taxes due, both in India and the United Kingdom, on the $8.48 billion it will gain from selling a majority stake in its Indian arm to Vedanta Resources.
The UK-based Standard Chartered Plc moved the market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India for approval to float 220 million IDRs.
The government on Thursday hiked by 62 per cent the price of natural gas that is used to produce electricity, make fertilisers and turned into CNG to use as fuel in automobiles and cooking gas for household kitchens. This is the first increase in rates since April 2019 and comes on back of firming benchmark international prices but does not reflect the spurt in spot or current price of liquefied natural gas (LNG) witnessed during the last couple of weeks. The oil ministry's Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) said the rates paid for gas produced from fields given to state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) will be $2.90 per million British thermal unit for the six-month period beginning April 1.
London Stock Exchange-listed Essar Energy Plc plans to bid for coal-bed methane (CBM) and shale gas blocks in Indonesia next month.
Diageo, which had acquired Mallya's United Spirits nearly six years ago, is claiming $40 million paid to the liquor tycoon as part of an alleged breach of agreement.
Cairn joins a slew of multinational firms including Vodafone Group Plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc that have been slapped with retrospective tax demands by Indian authorities.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has initiated discussions with banks to address financial stress in the telecom sector, particularly Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) that urgently requires fund infusion to stay afloat. There was a meeting of DOT officials and senior bankers on Friday on the issue of Vodafone, sources said, adding that banks have been asked to look for a solution within the prudential guidelines. According to sources, senior officials from the country's biggest lenders State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda were also present among others in the meeting. More such meetings are expected to take place in the coming days, they said.
Financial services major Citigroup's top executive Tom King is leaving the company after 20 years of service and is likely to join Barclays Plc, a media report said.
The onus of the tax dues of Rs 22,100 crore on Vodafone India's British parent could also fall on the merged entity.
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Cairn India said the company board has accepted Elango's resignation.
The central government has agreed in-principle to Air India employees' main demands. It fears an industrial dissension now could impede the process of privatisation. It has agreed to bear the cost of liquidation loss on account of transfer to the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) from company-owned trusts, inclusion of employees in the central government health scheme (CGHS), and encashment of leaves. The template of the Air India process will be followed for other public sector undertakings up for privatisation at a later date.
The brand integration not only marks the completion of the largest telecom merger in the world, but will also set the company on its future journey to offer strong digital experiences to 1 billion Indians on its 4G network.
UK's Cairn Energy Plc has offered to forego $500 million and invest that amount in any oil and gas or renewable energy project identified by the Indian government if New Delhi agrees to honour an international arbitration award and returns the value of loss it incurred because of being taxed retrospectively, sources said. The Scottish firm invested in the oil and gas sector in India in 1994 and a decade later it made a huge oil discovery in Rajasthan. In 2006-07, it listed its Indian assets on the BSE. Five years after that the government passed a retroactive tax law and billed Cairn Rs 10,247 crore plus interest and penalty for the reorganisation tied to the flotation.
The British mobile phone operator was widely expected to go for an international arbitration after its talks with the Indian government failed to find a solution last year.
The company no longer sees the London listing as necessary to access capital and the deal will simplify Vedanta's corporate structure.
'There is a long-term bull market that commodities will witness. This can take 2-3 years to start. There have been some large moves in foreign exchange. We have seen the pound depreciate by 25 per cent against dollar. We have seen the yen appreciate against the dollar. When the markets start stabilising, these trends will reverse. This will give good trading opportunity. But it is not clear whether any one should do anything yet,' says Robert Morrice, MD, Barclays Wealth.
Tesco was the first global retailer to apply for multi- brand retailing in India.
The bill to nullify retrospective taxation offers a fair solution within the framework of Indian law and Parliamentary sovereignty to companies which have been subjected to such demands, Finance Secretary T V Somanathan said on Thursday. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced 'The Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021' in the Lok Sabha that seeks to withdraw tax demands made using a 2012 retrospective legislation to tax the indirect transfer of Indian assets. The Bill provides for the withdrawal of tax demand made on "indirect transfer of Indian assets if the transaction was undertaken before May 28, 2012 (i.e. the day the retrospective tax legislation came into being)."
The question mark over Vodafone Idea's survival is gone after the government's telecom package, managing director and chief executive officer Ravinder Takkar said in an interaction recently. The extended moratorium for spectrum payments and adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues has indeed ensured that Vodafone Idea survives, at least for the time being, but questions remain. Answers to those questions may determine the future of Vodafone Idea and its power to stay in a difficult telecom market in the coming years.
US District Judge Beryl Howell in Minneapolis denied Ranbaxy's request, the court filing showed.
It is alleged that the company floated 32 subsidiaries in several tax haven countries to bring foreign funds to India through sham transactions.
British oil firm Cairn Energy Plc on Tuesday said it has identified Indian sovereign assets overseas, which it can seize in the event of New Delhi failing to return over USD 1.7 billion that an international arbitration tribunal has ordered after rescinding a retrospective tax demand.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday reiterated that an international arbitration ruling on India's sovereign right to taxation sets the wrong precedent, but said the government is looking at how best it can sort out the issue arising out of New Delhi being ordered to return $1.2 billion plus interest and cost to UK's Cairn Energy Plc. The government, which participated in an international arbitration brought by the Scottish firm against being taxed retrospectively, has appealed against The Hague based tribunal's ruling asking the government to return the value of shares expropriated and liquidated, tax refunds withheld and dividend seized to recover a wrongly levied retroactive tax demand.
The world's third largest energy firm BP Plc has rubbished India's claims that oil speculators are responsible for a global surge in crude oil prices, saying high prices were a result of production struggling to keep pace with the demand.
John Leighfield, chairman (global group), RM plc, said, "We will have to take a concrete decision after weighing all options. The education scene in the country faces a major financial resources crunch and incorporating RM's educational software and services might not be a viable proposition for many schools in India only due to this." However, the company is keen on servicing clients in the country's education segment with time.
The total number of M&A deals during the first eight months of this year stood at 346, with an announced value of $22.74 billion as against 456 deals amounting to $48.23 billion in the corresponding period in 2007, according to the data compiled by Grant Thornton. There was an increase in high-value deals in August.
