Friday, 16 March 2012

Budget 2012 implications on Indian real estate, Gold , Stock markets and black money

Lets discuss how this impacts investments and taxability for Indian residents and NRI's.

1. IT exemption limit raised marginally so more income in every tax payers pocket.
2. Gold bars tax limit increased, making gold more expensive. The process of laundering black to white using gold also becomes more expensive.
3. Service Tax increase of 2% passed down to end users
4. Cars become expensive due to increase in excise duty
5. Electronics less expensive as the import duty is cut marginally
6. TDS for real estate transactions. This is a big one.
7. I don't understand how real estate capital gains become tax free after one year.
8. The first step for Indian government to tax all global income is proposed by the FM where NRI's/Indian residents are mandated to report foreign ownership of assets held abroad. Hell if the US government can do it, so can the Indian FM
9. Rail budget has increased Freight rates which directly inflates the cost of everything including steel, cement, coal
10. Coal prices are expected to increase in April which causes electricity prices to be hiked.
11. Petrol/Diesel will soon rise now that UP elections are behind us.

Instead of presenting the budget the FM should just increase the cost of everything by 10% every year. It will save us the trouble of analyzing

Please add comments and I will roll all salient points into the main post

Sunday, 4 March 2012

Investors in Mumbai flats want money back Investors in Mumbai flats want money back Investors in Mumbai flats want money back

Times Of India reports. Of all the papers this is TOI reporting.. Again.. Times of India reports :)

Underconstruction investors are screwed big time. Brokers are returning calls as prices are dropping in Mumbai. With good cash one can easily snatch a good deal.  Unfortunately this cannot be said of Bangalore/Chennai or Pune as yet.

MUMBAI: Property speculators and investorswho book flats even before the project is launched are in trouble. Builders who used to take money from them upfront and promised them large areas by manipulating certain spaces in the building, can no longer do so after BMC's stringent building laws kicked in in January. 

Across the city, most builders sell up to 30% of their stock at a discounted rate to investors if they pay a major chunk of the amount upfront. These deals are struck when builders do not even have the basic construction approvals in place. 

Earlier, when building rules could be manipulated to the hilt, developers misused and sold areas which were not part of the apartment. These areas were then surreptitiously and illegally amalgamated into the flat to make it bigger. New rules have upset the calculations of such builders who had promised larger houses to their investors. 

Thursday, 1 March 2012

DLF Business Model Suspect

Here is the news 

Verbatim
"Canadian research firm Veritas has slammed realty major DLF Ltd, calling its accounting practices “conflicting” and pointing at gaps in its business model — charges the company termed “mischievous and presumptive”. Earlier, Veritas Investment Research had come out with damaging reports on other Indian firms, including Reliance Industries, Reliance Communications and Kingfisher Airlines.
Veritas has said DLF’s stock is at best worth Rs 100, and the company may have to recast its loan. DLF said “the company adhered to the highest standards of corporate governance and financial integrity”. “We do not generally comment on individual research reports. However, this report in question is presumptive and mischievous as the analysts have never contacted the company to seek any information or clarification,” a DLF spokesperson said . “The audited financials of the company are always in the public domain,” he added. Following the report, the DLF stock price dropped 5.5 per cent on Thursday, becoming the biggest loser on the Bombay Stock Exchange, closing at Rs 214 after an opening of Rs 224."
Source: Moneycontrol ticker


- Source Business Standard (link 1)

Stock price chart
http://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=0&chdv=1&chvs=Linear&chdeh=0&chfdeh=0&chdet=1330634199048&chddm=391&chls=IntervalBasedLine&q=NSE:DLF&ntsp=0

Later Times of India trying to assuage market fears by claiming that DLF is crying foul
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/real-estate/news-/dlf-says-report-that-hit-its-shares-mischievous/articleshow/12100095.cms