&w=3840&q=100)
Dalmia Bharat under I-T lens post HC nod on reopening of assessment
Dev Chatterjee Shine Jacob Chennai/Mumbai
Listen to This Article
The Dalmia Bharat group is facing an income tax (I-T) scrutiny following a recent ruling by the Madras High Court, which upheld the reopening of I-T assessment proceedings against Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd (DCBL) in a transaction involving US-based private equity giant KKR & Co.
The tax authorities have alleged that an investment of ₹500 crore made by KKR Mauritius Cement Investment Ltd, a KKR & Co investment vehicle, in DCBL in 2010-11 for a 14.99 per cent stake, prima facie suggests round-tripping of unaccounted money by the company.
An email sent to the Dalmia Bharat group on Tuesday did
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
39 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Latest LIVE: PM Modi arrives to grand reception in Trinidad & Tobago, meets Indian diaspora
Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his first official visit to Trinidad and Tobago on Thursday (local time), where he was accorded a ceremonial Guard of Honour at Piarco International Airport. He was received by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, along with 38 ministers and four Members of Parliament from the Caribbean nation. This marks Modi's first visit to Trinidad and Tobago as Prime Minister, and the first bilateral visit by an Indian Prime Minister to the country since 1999. The visit is taking place at the invitation of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar. During his two-day visit from July 3 to 4, Modi is scheduled to meet President Christine Carla Kangaloo and Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar to further strengthen bilateral ties. Torrential rains have once again disrupted life across Himachal Pradesh, leaving more than 37 people dead and causing property damage worth over ₹400 crore, according to the State Disaster Management Authority. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a rain alert for the state until July 7, as monsoon showers continue to lash several regions. Officials from the Himachal Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority and the Revenue Department said the state has recorded losses exceeding ₹400 crore due to relentless rainfall. Rescue, relief, and search operations are in full swing, particularly in Mandi district, which remains the worst affected. Several roads in the region are blocked, and essential services have been disrupted. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has barred US-based trading firm Jane Street from accessing Indian securities markets for alleged manipulation. In an interim order, Sebi also directed the high-frequency trading firm to disgorge ₹4,844 crore in 'unlawful' gains. The ban will remain in effect until the firm complies with the order to surrender the alleged illegal profits. Sebi's investigation found that Jane Street was responsible for a substantial share of net buying in the 12 Bank Nifty component stocks and their futures. This 'burst of buying' was aimed at influencing the prices of these securities, enabling the firm to take significantly larger and more profitable positions in the highly liquid index options segment.
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
an hour ago
- Business Standard
China shows signs of tackling price wars taking toll on its EV industry
China's industrial policy has engineered a remarkable transformation to electric vehicles in what is the world's largest auto market AP Beijing The Chinese government is signalling enough is enough when it comes to the fierce competition in the country's electric car market. China's industrial policy has engineered a remarkable transformation to electric vehicles in what is the world's largest auto market. In so doing, it has spawned far more makers than can possibly survive. Now, long-simmering concerns about oversupply and debilitating price wars are coming to the fore, even as the headline sales numbers soar to new heights. Market-leader BYD announced this week that its sales grew 31 per cent in the first six months of the year to 2.1 million cars. Nearly half of those were pure electric vehicles and the rest were plug-in hybrids, it said in a Hong Kong Stock Exchange filing. The company phased out internal combustion engine cars in 2022. BYD came under thinly veiled criticism in late May when it launched a new round of price cuts, and several competitors followed suit. The chairman of Great Wall Motors warned the industry could come under threat if it continues on the same trajectory. When volumes get bigger, it's just much harder to manage and you become the bullseye, said Lei Xing, an independent analyst who follows the industry. The government is trying to rein in what is called involution a term initially applied to the rat race for young people in China and now to companies and industries engaged in meaningless competition that leads nowhere. BYD has come under criticism for using its dominant position in ways that some consider unfair, sparking price wars that have caused losses across the industry, said Murthy Grandhi, an India-based financial risk analyst at GlobalData. With the price war in its fourth year, Chinese automakers are looking abroad for profits. BYD's overseas sales more than doubled to 464,000 units in the first half of this year. Worried governments in the US and EU have imposed tariffs on made-in-China electric vehicles, saying that subsidies have given them an unfair advantage. Market leader BYD comes under attack The latest bout of handwringing started when BYD cut the price of more than 20 models on May 23. The same day, the chairman of Great Wall Motors, Wei Jianjun, said he was pessimistic about what he called the "healthy development of the EV market. He drew a comparison to Evergrande, the Chinese real estate giant whose collapse sent the entire industry into a downturn from which it has yet to recover. "The Evergrande in the automobile industry already exists, but it is just yet to explode, he said in a video message posted on social media. Two days later, a BYD executive rejected any comparison to Evergrande and posted data-filled charts to buttress his case. To be honest, I am confused and angry and it's ridiculous! Li Yunfei, BYD's general manager of brand and public relations, wrote on social media. All these come from the shocking remarks made by Chairman Wei of Great Wall Motors. Next, the government and an industry association weighed in. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers called for fair competition and healthy development of the industry, noting that major price cuts by one automaker had triggered a new price war panic. On the same day, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology vowed to tackle involution-style competition in the auto industry, saying that recent disorderly price wars posed a treat to the healthy and sustainable development of the sector. That price cut might have been the final straw that irked both competitors and regulators for the ruthlessness that BYD continues to show, Lei said. A promise to pay suppliers within 60 days signals possible shift The following month, 17 automakers including BYD made a pledge: They would pay their suppliers within 60 days. One way China's automakers have been surviving the bruising price wars is by delaying the payments for months. The agreement, if adhered to, would reduce financial pressure on suppliers and could rein in some of the fierce competition. The introduction of the 60-day payment pledge is the call of the government to oppose involution-style competition," said Cui Dongshu, the secretary-general of the China Passenger Car Association. It also reduces the risk of an Evergrande-like scenario. Many automakers had stretched out payments by paying suppliers with short-term debt promises to repay them in a certain period of time instead of cash. Real estate developers used the same system. It worked until it didn't. When Evergrande defaulted on its debts, suppliers were left holding worthless promises to pay. This practice is seen as a potential cause of a larger crisis, similar to what happened with Evergrande, Grandhi said. The vows to speed up payments and the government calls to rein in the price wars, along with a rollback of some financing offers, point to an effort to reverse downward price expectations, said Jing Yang, a director at Fitch Ratings who focuses on the auto industry. We may watch how effectively these measures are in reversing the price trend and how would that affect EV demand in the coming quarters, she said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
an hour ago
- Business Standard
Trump's Vietnam deal signals China tariffs unlikely to ease further
Chinese goods face 55% tariffs, likely through August. Under the Vietnam deal, the US will impose 20% tariffs on Vietnamese exports and 40% on transshipped goods to curb Chinese tariff evasion Bloomberg President Donald Trump's new trade deal with Vietnam sends a clear signal about where US tariffs on Chinese goods might ultimately land, as talks between Washington and Beijing continue following their recent truce. Chinese goods currently face tariffs of around 55 per cent, a level expected to remain through August. But under the latest Vietnam agreement, the US will slap a 20 per cent tariff on Vietnamese exports to the US and a steeper 40 per cent levy on goods deemed to be transshipped — the latter targeting a well-worn backdoor used by Chinese exporters since the first China-US trade war to dodge American tariffs. By closing the loopholes, the Trump administration is signaling what any future deal with China might look like. The 40 per cent tariff on transshipped goods suggests that even if tariffs on China are eventually reduced, they're unlikely to fall significantly below that threshold. 'The 40 per cent figure in the Vietnam deal might reflect a broader conviction in the Trump administration about the appropriate tariff level on China, which would be similarly reflected in other bilateral deals,' said Gabriel Wildau, a managing director at Teneo focused on political risk analysis in China. 'However, I am skeptical that Trump has a specific red line for minimum tariffs on China.' Beijing and Washington reached a trade framework last month following talks in London, which remains in effect through mid-August. As part of the deal, China agreed to resume shipments of rare earths — key inputs for wind turbines, electric vehicles and military hardware. In return, the US offered to ease some export restrictions on ethane, chip-design software and jet engine components. US tariffs on Chinese goods have been cut back to around 55 per cent, down from as high as 145 per cent in early April. But 20 per cent tariffs tied to fentanyl remain in place. Beijing has since tightened controls on two precursor chemicals used to make the drug — one of the few obvious avenues it has to win further tariff relief. 'The 20 per cent is really the focal point where all the attention is centered right now,' said Christopher Beddor, deputy China research director at Gavekal Research. 'The thinking is that the Chinese government is very willing to do a deal on something related to fentanyl. They've been telegraphing that for months.'' Still, those efforts are unlikely to bring Chinese tariffs below the 40 per cent rate now applied to Vietnam. If China's duties were to fall to 35 per cent, for instance, it would restore a competitive edge to China and encourage firms to shift operations back, running counter to the Trump administration's broader objectives. 'If China ends up with a lower tariff level than Vietnam that would certainly shift the competitiveness calculations somewhat, but keep in mind that moving production facilities is not as easy as flipping a light switch on and off,' said Stephen Olson, a former US trade negotiator now with the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. 'From the perspective of Chinese companies, there is zero confidence that once Trump sets a tariff level that it will remain at that level.' For now, there are signs both sides are following through on the terms of the London agreement and displaying signs of goodwill. The Trump administration has lifted recent export license requirements for chip design software sales in China, and approved US ethane exports to China without additional approvals. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Chinese rare earth magnets are flowing, although they haven't yet bounced back to the levels seen before China imposed export curbs in early April. The US remains hopeful that China will further ease restrictions on those exports after their London deal, he said in an interview Tuesday on Fox News. Meanwhile, a senior Chinese official on Thursday delivered one of Beijing's most positive messages about his nation's ties with the US in weeks. Liu Jianchao, head of the Communist Party's International Department, said at the World Peace Forum that he was 'optimistic' about future relations. China is keenly aware of what it's gained from China-US cooperation,' Liu said 'Our cooperation is mutually beneficial. The act of putting up barriers will hurt the other and ourselves as well.' Other negotiations Apart from Vietnam, Beijing is growing increasingly cautious about US efforts to strike trade deals that could isolate China. With a July 9 deadline approaching, when Trump's higher 'reciprocal' tariffs are set to take effect, American officials are ramping up negotiations with key partners in Asia and Europe. What Bloomberg Economics says... 'The looming question now is how China will respond. Beijing has made clear that it would respond to deals that came at the expense of Chinese interests and the decision to agree to a higher tariff on goods deemed to be 'transshipped' through Vietnam may fall in that category. Given China's position as Vietnam's largest trading partner and key source of inputs for domestic production, any retaliatory steps could have an outsized impact on Vietnam's economy.' — Rana Sajedi and Adam Farrar. Click here to read the full report. Beijing on Thursday said it's taken note of the US-Vietnam trade deal and is currently assessing the situation. 'We're happy to see all parties resolve trade conflicts with the US through equal negotiations, but firmly oppose any party striking a deal at the expense of China's interests,' He Yongqian, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce, said at a briefing. 'If such a situation arises, China will firmly strike back to protect its own legitimate rights and interests,' she added, repeating a familiar warning. Olson cautioned against relying too much on the US-Vietnam trade agreement as a blueprint for assessing Washington's approach to China. The stakes in US-China negotiations are significantly higher, shaped by strategic rivalry and a wider set of geopolitical considerations. There is also much less of a power discrepancy in the US-China discussions. 'One important takeaway for China from both the Vietnam deal and the previous deal with the UK is that the US intends to use these negotiations to apply pressure on China,' Olson said. 'This could lead China to a much more sober assessment of what it might be possible to achieve with the US in these negotiations.'
