Top Headlines: Wheat export push, CBDT's ITR guidelines, and more

Here are the top Business Standard headlines on Friday

Govt plans wheat export push in nine countries amid rising global demand

Amid speculations that India might ban wheat export, the Centre will send trade delegations to nine countries to explore possibilities of boosting the grain’s export. Delegations will be sent to Morocco, Tunisia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Turkey, Algeria and Lebanon, the commerce and industry ministry said on Thursday. India has set a target of a record 10 million tonnes of wheat export in 2022-23, amid rising global demand for the grain globally due to the crisis in Ukraine. Read more...

CBDT lays out guidelines for manual scrutiny of income tax returns

Income-tax (I-T) authorities will manually select those tax returns (ITR) for complete scrutiny where reassessment notices have been issued pursuant to search or survey action carried out on or after April 1, 2021. For preceding years in which reassessment notices have been issued, the matter may not be manually selected for scrutiny and will instead be taken up by a faceless authority, according to an instruction note for the current fiscal year (2022-23, or FY23) issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to tax officials on Thursday. Read more...

Power outage in the time of sowing: Jalandhar MSMEs' new struggle

With the Covid-19 pandemic showing signs of ebbing and economic activity picking up, factory owners in Jalandhar had hoped that the worst was over. However, the heat wave in April and extensive power cuts that came with it, have crushed their hopes. The city’s large number of micro, medium and small enterprises (MSMEs) are now gearing up for yet another struggle, this time to survive with the shortage of power that is severely impacting their operations. Read more...

GAIL to submit new InvIT proposal to monetise Rs 5,000-crore assets

After highways and power infrastructure, the next sector of government-owned infrastructure that might be monetised through the infrastructure investment route (InvIT) could be gas pipelines, with GAIL (India) submitting a proposal to monetise about Rs 5,000 crore, Business Standard has learnt. This comes after an earlier proposal by GAIL for an InvIT was asked to be refined and reconsidered by the Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee (PPPAC) as GAIL wanted to keep operational control of the pipeline projects in question. Read more...

India can't be scoffed at by global chipmakers: Ather Energy's Tarun Mehta

Ather Energy, one of the front runners in the electric vehicle (EV) race in India, on Thursday announced the completion of its Series E round of funding with the signing of investment agreements amounting to $128 million (or Rs 992 crore) with the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIFL) and Hero MotoCorp, along with other investors. Its Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer TARUN MEHTA in conversation with Surajeet Das Gupta talks about the company’s next phase of growth. Read more...

Ultratech in talks with rival cement firms, PEs on asset divestiture plans

Ultratech has started talks with rival cement companies and private equities (PE) to sell plants in Western and Central India, aiming to win the Competition Commission of India’s approval in case it acquires Swiss major Holcim's 63 percent stake in Ambuja Cements. A banker said Ultratech, while making an “aggressive” non-binding bid, has sought more time from Holcim to close the deal as any combination between it and Ambuja Cements and Ambuja subsidiary ACC will trigger the CCI’s objections. Read more...