10 Rathi firms in trouble with the DCA
New Delhi--The department of company affairs (DCA) has ordered investigations against 10 new companies including a few belonging to the Anand Rathi group for alleged involvement in the scam that rocked the stock markets earlier this year.
This is in addition to the 68 companies against which DCA has already begun investigations. Government officials said that that the DCA is investigating if any provisions of the Companies Act, 1956 have been violated by any of these companies.

DCA has ordered inspection of the books and accounts of Rathi Global, Anand Rathi Securities, Navaratan Capital & Securities, Rathi Capital & Services, Amar Raja Batteries, Suresh Rathi Securities and Hitkari Finvest Pvt Ltd.
When contacted, Anand Rathi, chairman, Anand Rathi Securities Pvt Ltd, said, that DCA would look at the accounts of his firms under Section 209A and would look into the minute books of his various concerns.
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Brokers found guilty of fudging accounts by CBDT
New Delhi—In the first clear indictment of brokers by an investigating agency, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has found prima facie evidence that some brokers have manipulated accounts to create artificial losses and diverted profits to loss making companies.
In its submission to the joint parliamentary committee probing the stock scam, CBDT has said that the department has come across instances where some brokers were found to have entered into BOLT transactions, not reported to the stock exchange.
CBDT had conducted search and seizure action under Section 132 of the Income Tax Act on March 23 at the business and residential premises of brokers Ketan Parikh, Nirmal Bang, Anand Rathi, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Shanker Sharma and those of the RS Damani group to detect and ascertain undisclosed income.
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Banks allowed to restructure working capital loans
Mumbai—There is good news for banks. In a recent decision the RBI has allowed banks to restructure their non-performing assets more easily.

At an audit meeting held today between select bank chiefs and senior RBI officials, it was decided that the leeway given to banks to restructure term loans for projects would be applicable to working capital loans also as long as the loans are backed by securities.
The annual audit meeting takes up issues regarding prudential norms and areas of misinterpretation in guidelines.
Under the proposed relaxations, banks whose borrowers are unable to meet the repayment schedule as per the original loan agreement will be allowed to enter into a fresh agreement.
However, the bank will have to show upfront the losses suffered on account of restructuring these loans. For instance, if a bank agrees to defer the repayment period and/or lower the interest rate under the restructuring package, the bank will have to make a provision to the extent of the lower returns obtained from such assets.
The restructured loans would either be categorised as `restructured standard assets’ if a standard asset is restructured from becoming an NPA or `restructured substandard assets’ if a substandard asset is restructured.
Thus, a restructured substandard asset will be a new category apart from standard, substandard, doubtful and loss assets.
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Pay channels; the way of things to come
Mumbai-- Star TV’s chief executive Peter Mukherjea has said that the dispute over whether InCableNet was accurately reporting its number of subscribers -- and paying the proper amount in dues -- had been resolved though he declined to provide details.

The aforesaid dispute had prompted Star India to stop providing programming to InCableNet in Mumbai.
Two weeks ago Star, which is the top private broadcaster in India, cut off programming to the Hinduja brothers owned InCableNet. Star TV India has an estimated 30 million subscribers, the third largest in the world.

This is the first time that a private channel has been able to solve the long-standing problem cable operators of not declaring actual collections to private channels.

Broadcasters like Star TV, Zee TV and Sony Entertainment TV complain they are cheated by cable operators reporting far fewer than their actual number of subscribers.
Cable operators, say they don't really know the number themselves, since "last-mile connections" are provided by thousands of tiny operators who string cables over tree tops to households.
This has carried on for a long tine as broadcasters charged little for programming to boost the number of subscribers and relied on viewer estimates to woo advertisers and boost airtime rates.
Now Indian broadcasters are increasing cable package rates and adding pay-TV channels, reflecting an effort to change their business model to subscription-led from advertisement-driven. This is on the back of heavily funded and technically snazzy game shows, family soap operas etc that have numbers of viewers hooked.
The money spent has now pushed programmers to seek greater returns in cable subscription revenue.
Zee began encrypting the signal of its flagship Zee TV channel about two weeks ago; viewers now have to pay to watch. Sony is expected to follow suit.
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