Black money unearthed this fiscal

Black money has been the bane of the Indian government for quite some time now. Indeed, so serious is this issue that it speaks of a parallel economy in existence. For instance, searches conducted by IT department during 2011-12 led to the discovery of undisclosed income of about Rs 14,017 crore. The figure for 2012-13 (upto December 2012) stood at Rs 6,799 crore. More serious is the issue of the money stashed abroad. Here India has been renegotiating its Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAAs) with other countries. The idea is to bring its Article on Exchange of Information at par with international standards. It goes without saying flight of such capital has to be given the urgency it deserves. Efforts have to be made to stop it at all costs. These would mean undertaking some much nee ded financial reforms. For starters, the tax system needs to be made simpler. Further, the base needs to be probably widened. All of this to ensure that instances of tax evasion are reduced. The sooner the government does something meaningful on this front, the better off the country will be.

Sharp drop in interest coverage ratio of Indian companies

                                                               Data source: Mint

 It is believed that the financial health of Indian companies is not as vulnerable as that of their Western counterparts. But on certain parameters they fail to feature favourably even when compared to the subprime crisis era. Take interest coverage ratio -a measure of a company's ability to pay interest on outstanding debt, for instance. As per data from Mint, for the 3,500 companies listed on BSE, this ratio has dropped from 5.9 times in December 2007 to 2.7 times in the quarter ended December 2012. Plus the deterioration has been for stocks across market caps. For mid and small cap stocks in fact, the interest coverage ratios have been lower for about seven-eight quarters now. Investors therefore need to be rather watchful about the debt and cash flow position of companies.