CATERING DIFFERENT MARKETS

MAINTAINING DOMINANCE

Country’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India continues its dominance on the Indian roads with its four models, led by entry level small car Alto heading the top ten best sellers list in April-June quarter this fiscal. According to the SIAM data, the company’s Dzire, Swift and WagonR were the second, third and fourth biggest selling models in the quarter. Rival Hyundai’s Grand i10 is the fi ft h largest selling model in India during the period under review, followed by Honda Cars India’s sedan City at the sixth position. Maruti Suzuki India’s Alto sold 64,573 units in the April-June quarter this fi scal as compared to 56,335 units sold in the same period of previous fi scal. It is followed by compact sedan Dzire, with 50,951 units sold during the quarter. The company had sold 49,259 units of the sedan in the same period of previous fiscal.

DE-MERGING FOR GOOD

Crompton Greaves is considering de-merging its consumers products business into a separately listed company in what is seen as a prelude to an eventual sale of equity in the business. Thapar’s Avantha Group is believed to have held informal talks with bulge bracket private equity funds such as TPG Capital and Carlyle. Crompton would use such funds to reduce its debt. The consumer goods business makes fans, appliances and lighting products and is one of the firm’s oldest businesses.

PROVIDING TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

Engineering firm Larsen & Toubro’s technology services arm has bagged a contract from AkzoNobel to provide technical assistance to drive the latter’s engineering excellence and reduce its capital expenditure. L&T Technology Services will provide engineering services for capex projects by executing non IP-sensitive engineering activities in the front-end engineering design and in the detailed design phase.

 A BIG SIGH OF RELIEF

In a big relief to billionaire Gautam Adani-promoted Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, the Union Ministry of Forests and Environment has granted environment clearance to its special economic zone (SEZ) spread across 8,481 hectares in Mundra taluka of Kutch district of Gujarat. The union government also accorded coastal regulation zone (CRZ) clearance for setting up of desalination plant, sea water intake, outfall facility and pipeline.

The tax structure needs to be further simplified so that it is easy for tax payers to comply and pay off the tax due from them. The citizens want to become lawful compliant rather than tax evaders.

Nirmala Sitharaman
Minister of State for Finance
Government Of India