Infrastructure companies’ tax expenses up: Assocham

October 10th, 2009 NEW DELHI - An industry body Saturday urged the government to remove some provisions in the Direct Tax Code draft, especially those taxing capital gains arising on indirect transfer of Indian assets. "This can have serious implications in various international transactions like cross-border mergers and transfer of Indian shares in foreign capital markets," the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) said in a statement.

October 4th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) has urged the central government to allow the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) to invest at least 5 percent of its funds in equities. "The EPFO can also be a beneficiary of such emerging capital markets, provided it is permitted to invest a part of its corpus in index-based equity market - which is safer, reliable and remunerative," Assocham said in a report.

September 20th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Companies in the telecom and auto sectors have witnessed robust growth in turnover despite not increasing their advertisement budgets, according to the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocam), an industry lobby. In a study titled "Cost-Benefit Analysis of Advertisement Campaigns", Assocham said: "The amount spent on the marketing expenses in proportion to the sales has undergone a substantial decline in 2008-09." However, it added that Indian telecom and auto companies, "despite spending less on their advertisement and promotion campaigns, were able to increase their sales volume significantly".

July 30th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Buoyed by the recent surge in capital markets, India Inc is planning to raise Rs.16,000 crore ($3.3 billion) through initial public offerings (IPOs) this fiscal, an industry lobby report said Thursday. "The companies are weighing higher expectations from renewed investor's sentiments to raise funds from the primary market," Assocham president Sajjan Jindal said.

July 20th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The share of manufactured goods in India's exports declined from 81 percent in 1999-2000 to 63 percent in 2008-09, according to an industry lobby survey released here Monday. However, India's project exports - setting up infrastructure projects overseas - increased by over 25 percent during the same period, the report by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) said.

June 24th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) Wednesday urged the government to exempt infrastructure projects from excise, value-added tax (VAT) and central sales tax (CST) to make them more cost-effective. "On account of excise, VAT and CST, the capital costs of projects become dearer by over 20-25 percent which puts huge burden on companies commissioning infrastructure projects," said Assocham president Sajjan Jindal.

June 19th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Speedy execution of pending projects, modernisation of stations and improvement of passenger amenities are among the suggestions the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) has made to the railways ministry. "Despite marked improvement in the financial position, Indian Railways continue to face issues such as outdated technology, poor state of railway stations, lack of basic passenger amenities, capacity constraints and shortage of funds for investment," the chamber said in a 20-point charter submitted to the ministry.

June 17th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Coaching institutes must be brought under the tax net as they seldom disclose their earnings, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) has said. In a note submitted to the revenue department of the finance ministry Wednesday, Assocham said coaching institutes were charging "astronomically higher fee without submitting proper accounts of their income to tax authorities".

June 11th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) Wednesday called on the government to bring down tax on household purchases to less than 20 percent from over 45 percent now to spur domestic demand. "Although the annual income of an average Indian is growing significantly, it is not resulting in increased savings because the government takes away over 45 percent on household purchases in terms of indirect taxes alone," Assocham president Sajjan Jindal said in a statement.

June 4th, 2009 NEW DELHI - India's hospitality sector has witnessed a fall of 64 percent in profit in the January-March quarter this year, thanks to the economic slowdown, an industry lobby report said here Thursday. "While on the one hand the inflow of foreign tourists came down sharply and the room rates contracted, on the other hand there was a rise in expenses," the report by the Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) said.

April 26th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) has urged the government to set up a 'separate infrastructure financing fund' worth $90 billion to finance infrastructure projects in the next three years. In a note submitted to the Planning Commission and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Assocham secretary general D.S.

April 15th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The public-private partnership (PPP) projects in the infrastructure sector in various states will provide a Rs.200,000-crore stimulus for the Indian economy, a study by an industrial lobby released Wednesday said. According to the study by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham), the PPP projects - especially roads, real estate, power, ports and transport - have tremendous potential to unleash higher growth rate if the investment outlays are utilised effectively.

April 5th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Metros in South India are more attractive for infrastructure projects than their counterparts in the other parts of the country, an industry lobby report said Sunday. According to the report, 'Indian Metros: Pulling Infrastructure Investment', released by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham), Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai received 70 percent of the total private infrastructure investment came to the six major metros in the country.

March 22nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - A leading industry lobby Sunday urged the country's central bank to lower prime lending rates (PLR) for agriculture and infrastructure projects to 10 percent from the current 15 percent to help economic expansion. A list of recommendations sent to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) also called for a further slash of 50 basis points in repo, reverse repo and cash reserve ratios.

January 17th, 2009 NEW DELHI - A leading industry lobby has advocated a five-year tax holiday for hotels including five-star establishments in and around the capital to expedite hotel room construction before the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games. The Union budget of 2007-08 provides a five-year tax holiday for two-star, three-star and four-star hotels and convention centres in Delhi, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Gautam Budh Nagar (Noida) and Ghaziabad.