Stagnant demand has led to a situation of excess capacity for wall tile manufacturers in Gujarat's Morbi district. Adding to their woes is higher production costs, leading to tougher competition for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from Chinese products, which are becoming viable in the global market.In the past year, wall tile manufacturers' production capacity has increased by about 30 per cent, while actual demand has declined by nearly 40 per cent."Apparently, it is the wall tile makers who are to be blamed for this situation. Without understanding the market demand, many players increased their production, resulting in over-capacity," said M P Shorya, managing director, Orbit Cera Tiles Private Limited.Shorya, who is also the secretary of the Morbi Dhuva Glaze Tiles Association, added that the ceramic industry in Morbi is not expected to emerge from the over-capacity situation for the next two years. Overall business, he said, will be down by at least 20 per cent over the next

Morbi wall tile industry hit by excess capacity

Business Standard

What is the applicable rate of service tax post-Budget, in view of the fact that one per cent and two per cent cess have been withdrawn? The proposed new rate of service tax of 14 per cent will be applicable from a date to be notified by the government after passage of the Finance Bill 2015 by Parliament. Till then the current rate of 12 per cent will continue along with two per cent education cess and one per cent secondary and higher education cess, which have not yet been exempted on service tax.We are an SME located at Yamunanagar in Haryana and a recognised export house. Sixty per cent of our production is exported mainly to GCC countries. Two years back, we set up a wholly-owned unit in UAE. At the close of the second year, the unit has made a handsome turnover and profits. Our unit wishes to pay us 100 per cent dividend on our 1 million AED, which is the basic investment. What will be the rate of tax leviable on this dividend? Also, we had also advanced around AED 915,000 (0.915

'Service tax to stay at 12% until Parliament passes Finance Bill'

This has been done under the new five-year Foreign Trade Policy unveiled by Union Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

New foreign trade policy identifies 108 MSME clusters

BS Reporter

Lender to small industries, SIDBI today signed USD 543 million (about Rs 3,400 crore) pacts with World Bank for two projects to provide debt assistance to start-ups, MSMEs and promote energy efficiency investments in the country.

SIDBI, World Bank ink $543 million pacts for start-ups, MSMEs

Press Trust of India

CRISIL has analysed the growth in fixed assets of 2,185 micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the manufacturing sector, rated on the basis of their financials for 2013-14 (financial year April 1 to March 31). The study shows that with an average growth in fixed assets of 24 per cent during 2013-14, these MSMEs are poised for growth in the next one to three years.In the manufacturing sector, MSMEs in auto ancillary and components led with the highest growth in fixed assets of 29 per cent, followed by textiles at 26 per cent, and those in engineering and capital goods at 23 per cent. The fixed assets of MSMEs in electrical and electronics components grew at 17 per cent and of those in steel and allied products at 11 per cent.This reflects the investment these MSMEs have made in capacity addition and modernisation, anticipating better prospects for growth in the next one to three years. CRISIL expects GDP growth of 7.9 per cent in 2015-16 and the above MSMEs will benefit from th

Manufacturing sector MSMEs to benefit from capacity additions

The Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), a public sector undertaking established three years ago under the department of biotechnology in the Union ministry of science and technology, has reached out to more than 250 companies (mainly start-ups and SMEs), and has supported more than 100 young entrepreneurs through seed funding, according to the council's annual report.BIRAC has also provided incubation and mentoring for intellectual property (IP) and technology management and business development to more than 100 companies. It has supported 15 incubators in a bid to strengthen the innovation ecosystem of the country.BIRAC will operate an equity fund known as the BIRAC AcE Fund, which the Union government launched less than a fortnight ago, and which is aimed at accelerating the growth of entrepreneurship in the field of biotechnology.BIRAC will attempt to enable and catalyse innovation-driven biotech enterprise to fulfil the vision of a $100-billion biotech indus

BIRAC funds over 100 entrepreneurs

Currently, out of the 18,000 companies registered with Exotel and more than 45,000 users, the majority are SME companies. Business from SMEs and larger enterprises is in the ratio of around 50:50

Exotel sees uptake in cloud telephony among SMEs

Common investment portal for MSME investors will be created in 2015-16

Single-window clearance for small units in TN

Aman Angrish, Cherub Software’s CEO

Aman Angrish, Cherub Software's CEO, says ThatNeedle is based on semantic technology that produces highly relevant results

B2B product sparks paradigm shift in site search

We are manufacturers of textiles and status holders. We buy Status Holder Incentive Scrips (SHIS) exclusively of 'Textile/Jute Sector', for import/domestic procurement of capital goods (CG) for our textile manufacturing units. SHIS issued to 'Textile/Jute Sector' are in short supply. Can we purchase SHIS pertaining to other sectors and utilise them for our CG imports/domestic procurement?As per Para 3.16.3 of the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP), SHIS shall be used for import of CG relating to sectors specified in Para 3.16.4 of FTP and para 3.10.8 of Handbook of Procedures, Vol 1. So, you can procure any SHIS and use it for your own purpose.As exporters of terry towels, we pay commission of 10 per cent of FOB value to our foreign agents for the orders booked by them. We were claiming exemption from payment of service tax on the commission amount paid to agents located outside India under Notification No. 42/2012 dated June 29, 2012. As this notification has been rescinded on February 28, 20

'Tax is not payable on services that are provided in non-taxable areas'

MyCFO

Deepak Narayanan

S Venkat

MyCFO has a head count of 130 spread across the National Capital Region, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Coimbatore

Affordable CFO services, for firms that lack resources

CRISIL has analysed the performance of 2,185 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the manufacturing sector, which were rated on the basis of their financials in 2013-14 (financial year April 1 to March 31).The study revealed that MSMEs in the engineering sector - i.e., auto ancillary and components, capital goods, machinery and machine tools, electrical and electronics components and equipment - registered lower growth as compared to other segments.The average income of engineering-based MSMEs increased to Rs 16.89 crore in 2013-14, from Rs 14.33 crore in 2011-12, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.58 per cent. In comparison, the average income for the other manufacturing segments (i.e. excluding engineering) increased to Rs 26.50crore in 2013-14, from Rs 19.11 crore in 2011-12, at a CAGR of 17.74 per cent.MSMEs in the engineering-based segment, manufacturing electrical and electronics components and equipment, grew at a CAGR of 9.18 per cent, followed by those manu

Slow investment a drag on MSMEs in engineering sector

The government has called for Expression of Interest from consulting firms in the role of manufacturing technology partners for the TCSP

Ministry to expand technology centres at Rs 2,200 cr

BS ReporterHyderabad, 16 March Power2SME, touted as the country's first 'buying club' for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), has tied up with Bengaluru-based non-banking finance company (NBFC) Vistaar Financial Services Private Limited to finance procurement transactions of the former's SME clients. A pilot project is already under way with SME clients from the manufacturing sector in Pune and Nashik. This first stage pilot project for NBFC funding will be up to a credit limit of Rs 25 lakh, Power2SME said in a release on Monday. Power2SME, which buys material like inks, chemicals, additives, polymers, textiles, steel, paints, cement, wood and electrical from principal manufacturers and sells them directly to its registered user base of 30,000 SMEs at competitive prices, said raw material costs for manufacturing SMEs ends up amounting to about 80 per cent of their recurring cost. Power2SME is able to increase SME profit margins by 3 per cent to 5 per cent per month by providing raw m

Power2SME ties up with Vistaar to finance SME clients

Experts from the UK and other European nations are on a mission to introduce green and lean initiatives in Indian small and medium-sized enterprises.

Indian SMEs getting green guidance from Europe

Government departments and PSUs here have been caught on the wrong foot for not conforming to the guidelines on procurement of goods from local micro and small enterprises (MSEs).Despite the guidelines spelt out clearly in the MSME Development Policy, 2009, their non-compliance by the concerned departments has irked the chief secretary."It has come to my notice that some of the departments and PSUs are not following the instructions (on procurement from MSEs) strictly. You are requested to reiterate these instructions to all concerned for necessary action in accordance with the government's MSME Development Policy and also to facilitate inspection of tenders and related papers relating to major purchases during last 1-2 years by director, export promotion & marketing", state chief secretary G C Pati said in a letter to secretaries of all departments.The onus is on the MSME (micro, small & medium enterprises) department and director, export promotion & marketing, to report s

Govt departments asked to abide by norms on sourcing from MSEs

BS ReporterHyderabad, 12 March The Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) forum of Hyderabad Software Enterprises Association (Hysea) today sought between 15 and 25 acre within the Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) proposed to be set up in and around Hyderabad for creation of SME clusters, said its vice-president Murali Bollu. "Though SMEs account for 10 per cent of the Rs 64,000-crore software exports from Telangana, they face a whole set of challenges, including low profit margins because of overhead costs and scale. SME clusters would help them overcome most of these challenges," he said at Hysea's Annual Summit and Awards 2015 event today. Earlier in his address, Harpreet Singh, ITE&C secretary to the Telangana government, said T-Hub, the country's largest startup incubation centre being set up at the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) in Hyderabad, would be ready and functional in June. "While head honchos of companies like Cyient Limited and Tech M

Hysea forum seeks 25 acre for SME clusters

We provide services such as web designing and development, server hosting and animation to clients abroad. Are we required to pay service tax?

'Service tax not payable if recipient of service is located abroad'

The five per cent VAT on imitation jewellery had forced small, unorganised players in Rajkot to run their businesses without issuing bills

Rajkot imitation jewellery units upbeat after VAT cut

Electronic payments to MSMEs by large customers will ensure that payments take place within the stipulated time

Faster payments now possible

Strengthening existing institutions is more important, because it will be a long time before the new bank becomes operational, said C Rangarajan, former chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister

Beef up existing FIs instead of creating new ones: Bankers

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