by admin | May 25, 2021 | Halal Food, Halal Industries
New Delhi:(IANS) The apex consumer court on Wednesday said it will hear Nestle’s arguments on fresh tests conducted on its popular Maggi noodles on October 8, and take up the larger class action suit filed against the Swiss giant by the end of next month.
The decision was taken after after an initial hearing of arguments regarding the class action suit filed by the central government against Nestle India for alleged unfair trade practices.
Appearing for the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain sought more time from the commission to present the fresh tests on the 27 sealed samples of different variants of Maggi collected from the market, to which Nestle had raised objections.
Jain, along with counsels Mrinalini Sen Gupta and Prabhsahay Kaur, also placed the samples of different variants they wished to be tested before the court. But the Nestle counsel wanted to know from where they had been, since the product was withdrawn from the market on June 5.
A bench of the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, comprising Justice V.K. Jain and Justice B.C. Gupta, said the court will meet again on October 8 to hear the arguments of Nestle India over the fresh tests.
The commission also questioned why Nestle India should have a problem with the testing of their own products, and said, “The government wasn’t producing the product”.
The government’s counsel had also filed an application to allow the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) as a party to assist the commission.
During the hearing Nestle India said the company has been singled out and questioned why its competitor brands weren’t being tested.
Responding to some test reports done by the government, which were missing from the application filed before the court and marked as “Not Applicable”, Nestle’s counsel said material supporting their company was being concealed and needed to be produced.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate finance
New Delhi:(IANS) Swiss and other European banks have asked Indian customers to avail the ongoing one-time compliance window granted by the tax department for disclosure of foreign assets.
The call has been made in the wake of the final month’s deadline to declare and pay tax on assets abroad beginning on Tuesday.
A source here told IANS on Monday that Swiss and Britain-based banks are asking Indian customers to provide fresh undertakings that all taxes have been paid on funds deposited by them in respective bank accounts.
Such undertakings have also been requested from high net worth individuals and corporate clients dealing in wealth and portfolio management, the source added.
The Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets (Imposition of New Tax) Act, 2015, or the black money act, for the first time allows levy of tax in India on assets kept abroad.
The ministry has notified September 30 as the expiry date of the compliance window, while allowing those with undisclosed income and assets abroad time till December 31 to pay the levies.
Unlawful undisclosed income abroad is taxed at a rate of 30 percent with an additional 30 percent penalty.
Failure to meet the declaration compliance window will attract an additional penalty of 90 percent for a total tax liability of 120 percent on the quantum of black money abroad.
The Income Tax department has filed 121 cases of prosecution against those entities whose names have appeared in the HSBC Geneva bank list.
The 121 cases were filed before the March 31 deadline after which these cases would have become time-barred and thus could not be prosecuted by the department.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said the government has completed an assessment of 350 foreign accounts and tax evasion proceedings had been initiated against 60 account holders.
This move followed the Supreme Court last year giving a list of 628 entities in the HSBC Geneva branch, furnished to it in a sealed envelope by the government of India, to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted in May last year.
Admitting that there was no official estimation of black money within India or stashed abroad, Jaitley told parliament during the budget session that the government was examining the reports of three institutes on the matter.
An unofficial estimate puts the sum somewhere between $466 billion and $1.4 trillion.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Economy, Large Enterprise, News
Suresh Narayanan, the new India chief of the $97.5 billion Swiss processed food giant Nestle. (Photo Credit Economic Times)
New Delhi:(IANS) Suresh Narayanan, the new India chief of the $97.5 billion Swiss processed food giant Nestle, on Saturday said the popular instant noodle brand Maggi will be back on retail shelves as soon as possible, even as the company will launch more instant snacks and also focus on other areas of operations.
Narayanan, 55, who officially took charge of India operations on Saturday replacing managing director Etienne Benet who stepped down on July 25, said dairy, chocolates and confectioneries will all be in focus to push growth.
“All of this is part of the agenda,” he said in a meeting with select media persons, adding that he will focus on five key areas.
“First focus is to get Maggi back. Then put the growth on other categories. Third, to engage more with stakeholders and authorities. Fourth, to improve focus and energies around the environment where we can do better. Finally, engage with our people (employees),” he said.
He also said that the company will launch instant alternate snacking options in India, but did not specify any timeframe for it.
During the hour-long interaction, Narayanan declined any direct comment on the controversy over the ban on Maggi noodles, over which Nestle has moved the Bombay High Court. “We have to get back Maggi on the shelves. As of now, the matter is sub judice. Everything depends on the outcome. Let’s wait and see,” he said.
He said the controversy had cast a shadow over the rest of Nestle’s portfolio and the company will enhance its marketing and advertising activities to tide over the situation.
Having specifically flown in to India from Manila, where he was overseeing the Philippines operations as chairman, Narayanan said he had faced a host of challenges in his career and that the current one too would tide over.
The Bombay High Court is expected to deliver its verdict on the Maggi ban on Monday.
Asked whether the company management strategically roped in an Indian face, who speaks Hindi, to tide over the current crisis period, he said: “My being an Indian, my boss says, is icing on the cake. Since I can speak the Hindi language, I can feel the heartbeat of the people.”
An alumnus of the Delhi School of Economics, Narayanan also allayed fears of any job cut in the company, which employs 7,200 people, anytime soon.
“Every single permanent employee has his job. The situation is not a pleasant one. We have redeployed people to other activities. We will overcome this. We are a people’s company. My first task is to bring back people’s confidence,” he said.
“Maggi is a key part of our business. We will continue to be a part of this country as we have been for the last 100 years,” said Narayanan, who has served Nestle for some 16 years, having joined the group in India in 1999.
Asked about the company’s interaction with the government, the soft-spoken Nestle India chief, who began his international career began in 2003, said: “We are constantly engaged with the authorities.”
India’s official food regulator on June 5 had banned the sale of Maggi after an allegedly high amount of lead and monosodium glutamate (MSG) were found in samples. Following that, Nestle withdrew all the variants of the noodle, while continuing to maintain that its products were safe.
At the same time, a number of other countries also found the noodle imported from India to be safe. The countries included Britain, Singapore and Canada.
For Nestle India, Maggi was the dominant brand under “prepared dishes and cooking aids” and accounted for 31.5 percent of the sales in 2014. Among the other three divisions, “milk products and nutrition” fetched 47.1 percent, followed by 12.2 percent from chocolates and confectionery” and 9.2 percent from beverages”.
The Maggi unit saw a 1.8 percent increase in volumes in 2014 over the previous year and 8.1-percent rise in value at Rs.21.4 billion.
