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India’s domestic economy has been on the recovery curve, with the real estate and construction sector taking a leading position. Recent steps taken by the government —from the demonetisation drive and the Real Estate Regulatory Act (RERA) to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) — are all working towards bringing in transparency and increased investor confidence in the real estate market. India is fast emerging as an attractive investment market with positive macro-economic sentiment - government initiatives to spur investments and a developing real estate market, are all integrating to make India a positive market for attracting investors. Underlining India’s position as a robust commercial real estate market is its appeal as an established outsourcing hub, which is expected to fuel expansion initiatives by corporate real estate occupiers from around the globe. The overall sentiment among corporate occupiers remains optimistic in recent times a...

The tax department has reiterated that the PoEM rules, which require foreign firms to pay taxes in India if the effective control is here, will not apply to companies withaturnover of Rs.50 crore or less inafinancial year. Last month, the tax department had come out with the longawaited Place of Effective Management (PoEM) rules, which require foreign companies in India and Indian firms with overseas subsidiaries to pay local taxes if their businesses are effectively controlled by Indians. Then the rules did not setathreshold above which they were to apply. However, the accompanying press release states that the rules will not apply to companies withaturnover of up to Rs.50 crore inayear. That created confusion whether the threshold will be adhered to. Inacircular to clarify things, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said the provision "shall not apply toacompany havingaturnover or gross receipts of ~50 crore or less inafinancial year". PoEM rules essentially ta...

The creation ofa ´bad bank´ will speed up resolution of stressed assets in the banking system, but it will also require significant capital infusion in the staterun banks to meet any shortfall, saysareport. The recent economic survey mentioned about formation ofabad bank that will purchase stressed assets and take them to resolution. “The creation ofa ´bad bank´ could accelerate the resolution of stressed assets in country´s banking sector, but it may face significant logistical difficulties and would simultaneously requireacredible bank recapitalisation programme to address the capital shortfalls at stateowned banks,” Fitch Ratings said inareport here on Friday. It said the country´s banks have significant asset quality problems that are putting pressure on profitability and capital, as well as constraining their ability to lend. It expects the stressedasset ratio to rise over the coming year from the 12.3 per cent as at endSeptember 2016, with the ratio significantly higher among...

Co will establish ecosystem of partners that may include contract manufacturers and suppliers Apple has told the government that it plans to make most of its products in India and that it will establish an ecosystem of partners, which may include contract manufacturers and suppliers. The company is said to be planning a start with local production of its iPhone SE. “Apple plans to move up the value chain in their next phase, in terms of producing the entire suite of products, definitely all iPhone models, for which their entire ecosystem of partners needs to move in,“ IT secretary Aruna Sundararajan told ET. The company's main contract manufacturers Foxconn, Wistron, Pegatron and Inventec are closely watching its plans for that reason. “They (Apple) have two primary asks--one that they should be able to import the components that they need, and second that it should be cheaper for them to manufacture here than to import,“ she said. “The second question is where government has...

The government can lower tax rates if people pay their dues sincerely, Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday. “We can lower tax rates of GST, income tax and others if everybody pays taxes,” Goyal said while addressing businesses at the ‘EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards’ in New Delhi. On the demand of businesses to lower tax rates, he said industry chambers ask for zero or five per cent tax the proposed GST regime. “I wonder what revenue neutral rate it would be, if we will put every thing in zero or low rates. Do we have to make profit at the cost of the nation?,” the minister said. Goyal also appealed to the charter accountants to suggest their clients to pay their taxes. Talking about the wind power tariff touching an all-time low of Rs 3.46 per unit without sops like accelerated depreciation, generation-based incentives and tax holidays, he said this auction was just for 1,000 MW and many more will come. He also rubbished the advisory issued by an industry body to...