News digest: HUL-GSK Consumer deal, corporate tax, IL&FS crisis, and more

Listed companies are becoming less important for the I-T department with each passing year

HUL, GSK ink Rs 317-bn merger in India's biggest consumer goods deal

Unilever (HUL) on Monday said it was merging GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Consumer Healthcare with itself in a transaction worth Rs 317 billion, in the largest deal of the consumer goods space in the country.

The development came as parent Unilever announced it was acquiring Horlicks and other health food drinks from GSK in over 20 markets for £3.1 billion, bringing to an end a high-profile deal that had seen a cross-spectrum of players, including Nestlé, Coca-Cola, and ITC throwing their hats in the ring.

The transaction has three parts, including GSK picking up a 5.7 per cent stake in HUL, valued at £S2.6 billion (or Rs 230 billion). Read more 

Listed companies paid little less than a third of corporate tax in FY18

Listed companies are becoming less important for the income-tax (I-T) department with each passing year. In 2017-18 (FY18), they accounted for a little less than a third of the corporate I-T, down from nearly 40 per cent a year ago and 49 per cent a decade ago.

India’s top listed companies paid Rs 1.88 trillion in direct taxes in FY18, against total corporate tax receipts of Rs 5.71 trillion. According to the I-T department, total corporate tax receipts were up 17.8 per cent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis last financial year, against a 0.6 per cent decline in the tax outgo of the country’s top 868 listed companies across sectors. Read more 

Sun Pharma to bring in changes to boost investor confidence, stock falls

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries on Monday said it was open to engaging new audit firms for subsidiaries and discontinuing domestic sales through a related party, in a bid to assuage investor concerns. The firm said it was open to making changes wherever matters were not in shareholders’ interest.

India’s largest drug maker by sales came under fire over the weekend on charges of inadequate corporate disclosures and insider trading during the acquisition of rival drug maker Ranbaxy.

Sun Pharma’s Managing Director Dilip Shanghvi said the company had received no intimation from the Securities and Exchange Board of India on the matter and announced steps to soothe investor concerns in a conference call Monday evening. Read more 

NCLT directs 9 former IL&FS executives to disclose financial details

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has directed nine senior executives of the beleaguered Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) Group to disclose their financial positions within the next three weeks. These include property, financial investments and bank accounts and lockers for instance.

Following an application moved by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) at the NCLT in Mumbai, the two-judge bench of Justice VP Singh and Justice Duraiswamy have barred the former directors of IL&FS from “creating third party rights, mortgaging or alienating movable and immovable assets fully or partly owned.” Read more 

We need more than just polling booths, say rural voters in Jaisalmer

There is no road to Chh Ki Dhani. No mobile phone connectivity for miles around. The place still doesn’t exist on Google Maps. A long dusty, bumpy track off major district road 103 leads to this hamlet of Muslims. An odd camel munching on acacia is the only sign of life till the habitation of 158 voters appears on the horizon. There is one primary school with 62 children, and one teacher who hails from Jaipur and curses her punishment posting. Electricity came here "2-3 years ago". There is no piped water supply. No primary health care centre. But this time Chh Ki Dhani — ward 80 A in official records — will have a polling booth of its own for the first time. Earlier, the inhabitants of this hamlet had just a couple of hours to cast their vote in the afternoon. This time, they can come out and vote like other people do — 8 am to 5 pm. Read more