Tax thorns haunt Walmart-Flipkart deal, foreign shareholders want clarity

Current Affairs
Duty related issues are springing up in the Walmart-Flipkart bargain even just about two years after the exchange was finished.
A grip of remote firms who were investors in Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal-established Flipkart have moved the Authority of Advance Rulings (AAR) to look for clearness on the taxability of the capital additions emerging out of the $16-billion arrangement struck in May 2018.
American retail major Walmart supposedly deducted charges from Flipkart's remote investors including SoftBank, Naspers and Accel Partners to pay retaining expense to the legislature for capital additions made by these elements. A retention charge, or a maintenance charge, is a personal assessment to be paid to the administration by the payer of the salary instead of by the beneficiary. The expense is in this way retained or deducted from the pay because of the beneficiary.
AAR is a legitimately comprised body whose administering is official on the candidate just as government specialists. Under the Income-charge Act, an outside organization or the Indian citizen can move toward AAR and get a decision on the taxability of the proposed exchange in India. "The authority has taken up a portion of the cases this month itself and may take four to five months to get a last request on the issue," said an expense official mindful of the advancement.
A SoftBank representative declined to remark, while email polls sent to Accel and Walmart on Tuesday didn't evoke any reaction.

Albeit a portion of the remote speculators of Flipkart had looked for a lower reasoning endorsement under Section 197 of the I-T Act from the assessment division, a couple of cases got dismissed and others are getting looked at...READ MORE

Ola bets big on food biz, to launch portfolio of in-house food brands

Technology
Ride-hailing firm Ola is betting big on the food business and is planning to launch a portfolio of in-house food brands and take them across the country. These brands would not only be available on external platforms like food delivery apps Swiggy and Zomato, but also offline stores including restaurants, cloud kitchens, food trucks and pop-up kiosks that Ola is also planning to set up.
Ola’s food business will focus on becoming a food-first company with a massive kitchen infrastructure and a slew of brands. These include brands related to desserts, rice bowls and biryanis which would be unveiled within this year. These initiatives will also help the company reach new customers by penetrating deeper into the existing markets and expanding to tier-2 and tier-3 cities and towns.
“It is a very big opportunity and there are very few food brands with a national footprint. Eating out was an indulgence four years back and now it is part of the daily routine. And the food and supply has to modify with that behaviour,” said Pranay Jivrajka, chief executive of Ola’s food business. “We aim to have a national presence for our (food) portfolio and our goal is to have 80 per cent penetration in the top markets,” he added.

 To begin with, the SoftBank-backed company has launched its flagship brand ‘Khichdi Experiment’ which has gone live in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune and Chennai. It is offering more than 16 varieties of ‘khichdi’ and the flavours will keep expanding depending upon the feedback from the customers. ‘Khichdi’ is a comfort food which is liked by people across ages and demographics. Ola said the idea was to answer to the hunger pangs, reconnect with the nostalgia and comfort that one attaches with an item like ‘khichdi’ and at the same time surprise customers with different flavours of the dish...READ MORE