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The "deliberate concealment of costs" at the business went undetected for two years, leading to a "material" mis-statement of the unit's financial performance in 2006, 2007 and the current year.

When the fraud was revealed in June, Greencore's share price plunged almost 15 per cent, with chief executive Patrick Coveney describing the incident as "a real blow". Operating profits for 2006 were cut by €4 million, the 2007 outcome was cut by €8 million and the estimated impact for the year to September will reduce operating profits by €9 million.

The loss of the Greencore contract will cost PwC around €800,000. PwC received remuneration for this amount and a further €16,000 in non-audit fees from Greencore in the year to September 2007. The company received remuneration of €829,000 and €150,000 in audit-related fees in the previous year.

Greencore said yesterday it was satisfied that the fraud, which led to the sacking of three senior managers, was an "isolated incident". A review by KPMG of the group's financial and internal controls has not identified any other problems.

KPMG has examined 20 of its manufacturing sites, comprising 80 per cent of Greencore's sales, with the remaining sites due to be reviewed by mid-September.

Some of the SEZs , which have already attracted PE funds include DLF, which received $400 million from US hedge fund DE Shaw in DLF Assets Private Ltd, and an IT park near Greater Noida that got $420 million from UK fund Trikona.

Besides, Trinity Capital Plc, a Trikona arm, is planning to invest around $75 million for a 49.4 per cent stake in Luxor Cyber City. The SEZ, to be developed at a cost of $400 million by Luxor and Trinity, spans over 63 acres and will cater to IT/ITeS companies.

Says Ravindra Sannareddy, CMD, Sri City, PE investors are drawn towards multi-product SEZs as they offer various investment opportunities.

The recently-launched Sri City, has also attracted PE investors who will hold 60 per cent in the project. The SEZ is being developed by Chennai-based Sri City Private Limited in Tada, Andhra Pradesh, with an initial investment of Rs 1,000 crore. By 2012-13, the total investment in the project would be Rs 17,500 crore, he informs.

Making The Money Work

*The government would also press upon the EPFO, which has a corpus of Rs 2,40,000 crore, to implement these guidelines

* Currently, the investment guidelines for employees provident fund allow it to invest five per cent directly in equity and 10 per cent in equity-oriented mutual funds

 "The investment guidelines for non-government superannuation trust funds allowing 10 per cent investment in stock markets could be issued in next two-three days," a senior finance ministry official said.

The guidelines would be issued about 11 months after the finance ministry issued draft proposals calling for increase in their capital markets exposure.

The government would also press upon the EPFO, which has a corpus of Rs 2,40,000 crore, to implement these guidelines, the official said, adding that the final decision in this regard would be taken by the Central Board of Trustees (CBT).

Corporate tax collections grew by 50.08% to Rs 41,598 crore as compared to Rs 27,718 crore in April-July, 2007. Personal income tax collections including fringe benefit tax, securities tax and banking cash transaction tax were up by 42.82% to Rs 29,982 crore against Rs 20,993 crore during the corresponding period last year.

Growth momentum in direct tax collections should give some respite to the government, which had revised the 2008-09 target to Rs 3,95,000 crore. Direct tax collections have largely been driven by growth in tax deducted and tax collected at source revenue. TDS/TCS grew by 44.56% at Rs 45,935 crore against Rs 31,776 crore during the corresponding period previous fiscal. Growth in corporate TDS/TCS stood at a whopping 60.6 %.

"Robust growth in direct tax collections is a result of tax education and compliance mechanism put in place by the Income Tax department in the area of TDS/TCS and indicates further improvement in tax administration and tax compliance levels," a Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) statement said.

FBT was up by 44.34% to Rs 1,260 crore in the period under review compared to Rs 873 crore in the corresponding period previous fiscal. STT grew by 15.46% to Rs 2,164 crore against Rs 1,874 crore in April-July, 2007. BCTT rose by 33.75% to Rs 223 crore in April-July, 2008 against Rs 167 crore in the corresponding period previous fiscal.

"We have already held talks with the SEBI and catalogued the practices followed in other countries like Israel for regulation of venture capital funds," said KP Krishnan, Joint Secretary in Ministry of Finance, while talking to reporters on the sidelines of launch of Venture Capital Association of India (VCAI).

He said instead of limiting VC investments in certain areas there was a need to look at them from the point of view of high or low risk investment by these funds.

Venture capital fund is a type of private equity capital typically provided to high potential growth companies for generating a return through an eventual realisation event such as an IPO or trade sale of the company.

The official said there was a need to provide a level- playing field to the domestic venture capital funds vis-a-vis foreign funds with respect to tax benefits and capital requirement norms.

Further, he said the restriction on venture capital funds that they can invest only up to one third of their funds in equity was not required as it put unnecessary limit on them.

Speaking on the occasion, SEBI's whole time member T C Nair said the regulator also had no clue about the number of VC funds operating in India or the amount of money deployed by them.

"As you know we have issued guidelines for currency futures. Three entities have applied for it," SEBI chairman C.B. Bhave told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar organised by Financial Planning Standards Board India here.

Though Bhave did not mention the names of entities, sources said they are NSE, MCX-promoter Financial Technologies and a consortium of HDFC, Kotak and SBI.

When asked about the specific timeframe for the launch of currency futures, Bhave said this was not in SEBI's hands as the three entities are in various stages of preparing software and setting up hardware for the purpose.

However, a key finance ministry source said it would likely to be operational by this month-end. A couple of months back, Bhave had said the attempt of SEBI and RBI was to create exchange-traded currency futures as they are far easier to be regulated and far easier to contain risks than over-the-counter (OTC) market.

Despite several boards - right from the one at the entrance to several inside the main hall - put up by the department and various announcements from time to time, people were seen going here and there with a hassled look.

Renu Gupta, who had come with her daughter, said, "There are boards everywhere and people are helpful too. But it seems they have made some changes in the wards. I first went to counter for ward 45(3), from there they sent me to 45(4), then to 41 and finally accepted my form at 41(2)."

With no separate queues for women, didn't they face any problem?

The EPFO board met, with labour minister Oscar Fernandes in the chair, to take this historic decision. It identified HSBC, ICICI Prudential and Reliance Capital as the three private sector finance companies that would manage, in addition to SBI, EPFO funds to the tune of Rs 2.4 lakh crore. Trade union reps were also present at the meeting and barring the Congress-affiliated INTUC, they submitted a vote of dissent.

The move will save the fund Rs 2.5 crore per annum in fund management fees. At present, EPFO pays Rs 5 crore to SBI. But the new fund managers have quoted lower fees. HSBC quoted the lowest at 0.0063%, followed by ICICI Prudential at 0.0075% and SBI and Reliance Capital at 0.01%. The allocation to the successful bidders will be decided by the EPFO's finance and investment committee

Tuesday's RBI decisions to hike two key policy rates are expected to affect stocks of companies from sectors like banking & financial services, and real estate more than any other sector since these sectors are more vulnerable to higher interest rates than others . However, given that most stocks from these sectors are already badly hammered since their January highs, market players do not see much downside from current levels.

On Tuesday, while BSE's Bankex ended down 8.3%, Realty Index lost 5.5%. And since the beginning of 2008, the banking index has lost a little over 46% and the real estate index 62%.

Market players said with RBI's more hawkish view to rein in inflation by tightening the supply of money, interest rates are expected to go up. In a higher interest rate scenario people borrow less from banks and other lenders and these companies face a tough time. In a higher interest rate scenario, banks also have to make higher provisions for their losses in their bonds portfolio which are marked-to market . A note from Religare Securities said that banks like Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Indian Bank would be the most impacted on this account.

Higher interest rates also lead to higher home loan rates that in turn lead to people deferring their home buying and a drop in demand for homes. However, there are silver linings to the auto sector stocks. Market players said when interest rates go up, people initially show some resistance to buying two wheelers and passenger cars, but demand again picks up with a lag of two-to-four months. ``The slowdown is likely to be temporary in nature,'' a top official at a local brokerage said. The scenario for the real estate sector is slightly different since other than rising interest, the slowdown in the sector is also because of over supply. `` This sector is suffering more because of excesses in the sector, and not much because of rising interest rate,'' said Ambareesh Baliga, VP, Karvy Stockbroking. `` There has also been excessive speculation in the sector during the past few years and now it's cooling off,''Baliga added.

T he income-tax department, which is trying to find new avenues to deduct tax at source to boost direct government revenues, is examining online business transactions very carefully this year, especially in the socalled business-to-business, or B2B, market.

Currently, tax deducted at source (TDS) being collected through online transactions is negligible, said a finance ministry official who did not want to be named. According to a 2006 estimate by eStats India Ltd, an Internet research and consultancy firm, the Indian online B2B market is likely to touch Rs13,550 crore by next year.

The same official said the decision to take a closer look at online business transactions was taken at a conference of senior officials of the incometax department in Bangalore in mid-July.

TDS is the fastest growing segment of direct taxes, the main sources of government revenues. TDS occurs when a payer deducts taxes before the money reaches the payee. One of the most common forms of TDS happens when employers deduct taxes from salaries.

TDS requires relatively little ongoing effort on the part of tax authorities.

"TDS is the best way to collect taxes and also the most cost-effective way," notes Gaurav Taneja, partner at Ernst and Young.

Online business transactions can be loosely split into two categories: B2C, one where retail transactions take place, and B2B, where there is potential for TDS collections.

The new guidelines put out by the apex bank today recommended that banks should not charge high interest rates on personal loans availed of by credit card users. Banks have also been advised to be prudent while issuing credit cards to students and others without any financial means.

The new rules also seek to ban issue of unsolicited credit cards and impose hefty fines on banks that send cards to customers. Should any bank issue an unsolicited card and "activate the same without the consent of the reciepient and the latter is billed for the same, the card issuing bank shall not only reverse the charges forthwith, but also pay a penalty without demur to the recipient amounting to twice the value of the charges reversed," the RBI said in its circular.

Banks will also not be allowed to reject credit card applications outrightly. RBI has directed banks to assign reasons in writing while rejecting credit card applications. This follows complaints that banks indulge in profiling of customers on communal, gender and geographical lines.

Banks have also been asked to adopt methods like embossing of photographs on credit cards and access to a Personal Identification Number by the user in order to prevent forgery.

The RBI has also asked banks to prescribe a ceiling rate of interest, including processing and other charges for credit card users. The apex bank stated that "the total cost to the borrower, including interest and all other charges levied on a loan, should be justifiable having regard to the total cost incurred by the bank in extending the loan."

The decision has been taken following representation from certain domestic and foreign taxpayers, who said they were facing difficulties in complying with the mandatory e-payment of taxes.

REMFs, which were touted as a major instrument enabling retail investors to participate in the booming realty sector, have been delayed partly because the Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and the finance ministry are still trying to sort out the taxability of such scheme.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has agreed to provide it the same tax status as the equity oriented mutual funds, as was requested by the Sebi. This implies that the REMFs will be exempted from dividend distribution tax and investors spared from paying long-term capital gains while selling their shares.

However, according to the Income Tax Act 1961, equity oriented mutual funds are those which have at least 65% direct investment in securities of the listed companies.

Interestingly, under Sebi's guidelines, REMFs must invest a minimum of 35% of their funds directly into real estate assets and the rest into mortgage-backed securities, debt and equity instruments floated by the realty companies, thereby making it difficult for them to qualify as equity oriented mutual funds.

"As per the REMF structure laid out by Sebi, these funds would more-often-than-not be akin to debt funds," an expert said. Unlike equity-linked funds, debt-funds attract both capital gains tax and dividend distribution tax. This creates complications as investors are indirectly being denied the tax incentives given to equity oriented funds, the officials said.

"For a clearer understanding and in order to include REMFs, the finance ministry will have to change the definition of equity oriented mutual funds in the IT Act," Ajit Krishnan tax partner (real estate), Ernst & Young said. He added there were other issues, which were delaying the launch of such schemes.

Analysts note that apart from taxation issues, the instrument is not gaining currency because of a weak stock market. Stocks of real estate companies have been battered badly in the recent months. "The outlook for real estate sector is so bleak that no one wants to float REMFs," says Dhirendra Kumar, CEO, Value Research India Pvt Ltd, a mutual fund research firm.

The markets regulator had approved the REMF guidelines in its June 26, 2006 board meeting and notified these rules  as part of the amended mutual fund regulations in April 2008.

"In a situation like this, encouraging inflow would help ease inflation. Easing of ECB should happen logically. Sooner or later there will be a high-level co-ordination committee on ECB," finance ministry sources told PTI.

The sources said the upcoming HLC would have discussion on relaxing the norms further. The HLC on external commercial borrowing comprises finance ministry officials and representatives of SEBI and RBI.

When asked about the amount of ECB that could be allowed for Indian companies, the sources said the finance ministry suggests policy and RBI considers it and decides the quantum.

"It is the RBI which decides the number," they added.