Logistics boost for air cargo

Logistics boost for air cargo

The Government recently took steps to boost air cargo growth in India. The Ministry of Civil Aviation has established the Air Cargo Logistics Promotion Board, which has representation from various industry segments and ministries. Similarly, the recent pilot project for 24×7 customs clearance at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore airports is a step in the right direction and should be extended to other airports too.

India handles far less air cargo than individual airports such as Hong Kong, Shanghai, Incheon, Paris and others, indicating the immense untapped potential in this sector. However,issues such as inadequate infrastructure, process inefficiencies, lack of automation, and complex customs and other clearance procedures hamper growth. Improvements in inter-modal connectivity, automation at air-cargo handling terminals, 24×7 customs operations, perishable cargo infrastructure and so on are required to harness the true potential of air cargo in India.

FDI signals for TV broadcasting

The Government last month raised the FDI limit in TV broadcast services to 74 per cent across the board. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion had proposed uniform FDI limit for broadcast carriage service providers, including Direct-to-Home (DTH), Head-end in the Sky (HITS) and cable TV. Earlier, 49 per cent FDI was allowed in cable TV and DTH, while it was 74 per cent in HITS.

In keeping with the convergence between telecom and broadcast sectors, the FDI cap has been made uniform across broadcast services. For mobile TV, which earlier had no norms, 74 per cent FDI would be permitted.

Digital cable alone is estimated to require nearly Rs 25,000 crore investment over the next five years. The increase in FDI limit may prove a key lever in opening up foreign funding.

However, according to industry participants, the cross-holding restrictions might limit the number of interested foreign players. Moreover, investments would depend on whether the industry is fundamentally attractive, including the Government’s seriousness towards the digitisation effort, and the evolution of other issues such as rise in ARPUs and rationalisation of taxes.

XBRL dos for cost audit reports

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs had extended XBRL reporting to cost audit reports for certain categories of manufacturing companies through circulars issued between May 2011 and January 2012.

It recently released the final version of the XBRL taxonomy and business rules for conversion of cost audit reports. Impacted companies should file cost audit reports and cost records compliance reports from 2011-12 onwards, including any pending reports of the previous years, in XBRL format on or before December 31, 2012.

In line with the XBRL conversion requirements for statutory financial statements, the planned XBRL implementation for cost audit reports does not entail any change in the preparation of such reports and only changes the mode of filing — from ‘pdf’ to machine-readable XBRL format.

Key highlights of the final taxonomy:

Architectural design and features have been adapted from the Commercial and Industrial Enterprises General Purpose Taxonomy under the Revised Schedule VI for financial statements;

503 elements have been created and defined to capture data reported by cost audit reports and their annexures; and

Predefined explicit as well as typed dimensions have been included to capture tabular data of various product groups.

Some issues remain open currently.

The Ministry should provide companies a filing manual prescribing the conversion requirements, updated e-filing forms in XBRL format and a validation tool to verify the accuracy of XBRL filing. Further guidance may perhaps emerge in the coming days.

Companies should carefully understand the final XBRL taxonomy and seek clarifications where needed and plan ahead for the XBRL conversion exercise to avoid last-minute rush.