Fiat Chrysler chief executive Michael Manley is learned to be one of the potential candidates being considered for the top post at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR). JLR CEO Ralf Speth, who has been with the UK-based automobile major since it was acquired by Tata Motors in 2008, will step down in September as he turns 65, which is the retirement age for executive directors. Manley, a 55-year-old Briton, has been with Chrysler since 2000 when the carmaker was a part of Daimler. He was appointed CEO of Fiat Chrysler in July 2018. Sources said Tata Motors had interviewed Manley in the past for the CEO’s position in India. This role eventually went to Gunter Butschek who joined India’s largest automobile company from Airbus in 2016. Manley, an MBA from Ashridge Management College, is credited with the success of Fiat Chrysler’s Jeep brand’s global expansion. JLR, which was purchased for $2.3 billion, returned to profitability in recent quarters. However, its sales in China, the world’s largest automobile market, has been hit due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Forex reserves swell $3bn to record $476bn
India's foreign exchange reserves swelled by $3.09 billion to a record high of $476.09 billion in the week to February 14, mainly due to a rise in foreign currency assets, according to the RBI data. In the previous week, the foreign exchange reserves had increased by $1.7 billion to $473 billion. Foreign currency assets, a major component of the overall reserves, rose by $2.76 billion to $441.95 billion in the reporting week. Expressed in dollar terms, the foreign currency assets include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units like the euro, pound and yen held in the foreign exchange reserves.
Indian iPhone imports, part supplies see dip
Apple’s woes with the coronavirus outbreak are also playing out in India. The development has started impacting product imports and component supplies to Apple’s phone distributors and supplier factories in India. Sources said that the company has not had any fresh supplies coming in for the past three weeks or more. “If the production in China does not pick up by 50% by the end of February or early March, it could be worrisome. If the output in China remains low, this could surely result in signs of stress on the availability of products and variants, even in India,” research firm IDC’s director Navkendar Singh said. There’s been a decline in supplies of products, which could lead to shortages at showrooms, especially as a large numbers of models are imported here. And while the company does make some products locally, here too, sources said the shortage of parts is hitting production.
I-T dept moves HC against Flipkart’s ITAT ruling
The income tax (I-T) department has taken Walmart-owned Flipkart to high court over its £11 million demand. The case relates to the treatment of discounts as capital expenditure instead of revenue expenditure, according to court listings. Flipkart was issued a notice last month to appear and represent its case following the tax department’s petition. The matter had first moved to the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), which had given a ruling in 2018 allowing Flipkart to treat the marketing expenses and discounts as a loss. The tax demand here is for the financial year 2015-16, which has now got into another legal wrangle. Flipkart had argued earlier that it cannot pay taxes on what it terms as ‘fictional income’. Sources in the court also said the tax department is now pursuing the matter after the ITAT order in favour of Flipkart.
