Business News at 05:30 pm on 28th March 2023

The government on Tuesday extended the deadline for linking PAN and Aadhaar by three months to June 30, 2023, to provide some more time to taxpayers, an official statement said. The earlier deadline was ending on March 31. Persons can intimate their Aadhaar to the prescribed authority for Aadhaar-PAN linking without facing repercussions, it added. Under the provisions of the Income-tax Act, 1961, every person who has been allotted a PAN as on July 1, 2017, and is eligible to obtain Aadhaar Number, is required to intimate his Aadhaar to the prescribed authority on or before March 31, 2023, on payment of a prescribed fee. “Failure to do so shall attract certain repercussions under the Income Tax Act w.e.f. April 1, 2023. The date for intimating Aadhaar to the prescribed authority for the purpose of linking PAN and Aadhaar has now been extended to June 30, 2023,” it said.

In a good news for salaried class, retirement fund body EPFO on Tuesday marginally raised interest rate on employees’ provident fund deposits to 8.15 per cent for 2022-23 for its over six crore subscribers. In March 2022, Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation had lowered the interest rate on EPF for 2021-22 to a four-decade low of 8.10 per cent for its subscribers, from 8.5 per cent in 2020-21. This was the lowest since 1977-78, when the EPF interest rate stood at 8 per cent. The apex decision making body of EPFO, Central Board Trustees headed by Union Labour Minister Bhupender Yadav, recommended 8.15 per cent annual rate of interest to be credited on EPF accumulations in members’ accounts for financial year 2022-23, a labour ministry statement said.

In market news, domestic indices opened in green on Tuesday amid positive global cues. The NSE Nifty 50 rose 42.70 pts or 0.25% to 17,028.40 and BSE Sensex 174.7 pts or 0.30% to 57,828.56. Bank Nifty advanced 65.05 pts or 0.16% to 39,496.35. The top gainers on Nifty 50 were Hindalco, HCL Tech, HDFC Life, UPL and Coal India while the top losers were BPCL, Adani Ports, ONGC, Adani Enterprises and Apollo Hospital. Meanwhile, rupee rose 11 paise to close at 82.20 against the US dollar.

Now, latest IPO buzz. Electronic manufacturing services firm Avalon Technologies on Tuesday said it has fixed a price band of Rs 415-436 a share for its Rs 865-crore initial public offering. The three-day initial share-sale would be open for public subscription during April 3-6 and the bidding for anchor investors will open on March 31, the company announced. The IPO comprises Rs 320 crore from fresh issuance of equity shares and Rs 545 crore through an offer for sale of shares by promoters and existing shareholders. Recently, Avalon completed a total pre-IPO placement of Rs 160 crore consisting of 80 crore of primary or fresh issuance and 80 crore of secondary share sales. In the pre-IPO placement, the company garnered Rs 60 crore each from UNIFI Financial Pvt Ltd and Ashoka India Equity Investment Trust Plc and Rs 40 crore from India Acorn Fund Ltd. Proceeds from the fresh issue would be used towards debt payment, funding working capital requirements and general corporate purposes.

Some overseas news now. Nestle will examine its banking relationships following the planned takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS, the food group’s Chief Executive Mark Schneider said on Tuesday. “We have worked closely with Credit Suisse for many decades, in a spirit of trust,” Schneider told broadcaster TeleZueri in an interview to be broadcast later on Tuesday. “We now have to see how to reorganise our banking relationships, both with Swiss and international providers,” Schneider said.

Moving on. Twitter CEO Elon Musk says that only verified accounts will be eligible to be in For You page and vote in polls starting April 15. According to Musk, this is the only realistic way to combat the increasing threat of AI bot swarms. “It is otherwise a hopeless losing battle,” he adds in his tweet. Twitter’s For You page shows tweets based on recommendations of accounts you follow or topics you’re interested in. The microblogging platform earlier this year announced a change in its home screen layout showing two separate timeline feeds for users. While the Following timeline shows tweets from only the accounts you follow, your For You tab shows tweets from all across the platforms. It is a timeline curated by Twitter with content powered by range of signals like how popular it is and how people in your network are interacting with it. It shows tweets based on recommendations of accounts you follow, topics you’re interested in and also content from accounts that you don’t follow.