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Business Standard
23-05-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Dalmia Bharat under I-T lens post HC nod on reopening of assessment
Madras HC rules in favour of tax department on reopening Dalmia Cement's case involving KKR's ₹500 crore investment, triggering fresh scrutiny over round-tripping Dev Chatterjee Shine Jacob Chennai/Mumbai Listen to This Article The Dalmia Bharat group is facing an income tax (I-T) scrutiny following a recent ruling by the Madras High Court, which upheld the reopening of I-T assessment proceedings against Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd (DCBL) in a transaction involving US-based private equity giant KKR & Co. The tax authorities have alleged that an investment of ₹500 crore made by KKR Mauritius Cement Investment Ltd, a KKR & Co investment vehicle, in DCBL in 2010-11 for a 14.99 per cent stake, prima facie suggests round-tripping of unaccounted money by the company. An email sent to the Dalmia Bharat group on Tuesday did
Finextra
20-05-2025
- Business
- Finextra
DCBL releases debt repayment app
DCBL has launched a Customer App to allow people to take the stress out of debt. 0 The app enables users to better manage their finances, at any time of the day or night, at the push of a button. The award-winning debt resolution company has launched its latest technological innovation to improve the support it offers to its customers and improve their financial wellbeing. DCBL's in-house tech team has built the app based on its deep understanding of customers and insights from the industry, which allow it to provide first-class support to each one of its customers. The proprietary app, available on the App Store and Google Play, features an interactive dashboard that allows users to view outstanding payments, access, and link past cases, view corresponding evidence, make payments, update their personal details, and contact the DCBL customer support team for further assistance. DCBL, which has won awards for its technological innovations in the industry, has introduced the app to better support its expansive customer base. The smartphone innovation gives customers full visibility of their debts and allows users to manage them more effectively, while also giving them direct access to its customer support team. DCBL Group Strategy Director, Lee Samuels-Camozzi, said: 'We're on a mission to take the stress out of debt. Providing support and peace of mind to our customers is paramount. Our new app gives users the ability to easily access and manage their finances, around the clock, which has direct benefits to their mental health and wellbeing. 'By listening to our customers, and conducting extensive consumer research, we have created a bespoke app which gives people the power to manage their finances and personal information in their own time. They are also able to ask questions and seek further support around their existing commitments and busy lifestyles. 'The app has been designed to help take the stress out of debt and support customers when they need it most. It accommodates every type of user preference, with customer support available via phone call, email, or WhatsApp. Our specialist Vulnerability & Welfare team can also be contacted through the app to provide help and guidance for anyone feeling the pressures of debt.' In its pursuit of continual improvement, DCBL has expanded its communications and payment channels further, recognising that a growing number of people prefer digital and self-serve options. DCBL's research of 2,000 UK adults found that the vast majority (93%) of people felt more in control of their finances when there was a mobile app available. The benefits of this technology span all age groups, with 86% of 25-34-year-olds saying apps can increase their ability to pay bills on time, whilst 84% of those aged 65+ said digital technology helps them feel in control of their money. Off the back of these findings, DCBL has designed its app to support all ages, income levels and backgrounds, as well as maintaining its existing communications channels. Lee Samuels Camozzi, continued: 'One of the major issues is that people put off paying debts as they think it is a complicated and lengthy process. Our app makes things easy. Users can check balances and make payments around their existing commitments, rather than leaving it to the last minute. It takes the stress out of debt. 'If our customers want to find out more information before paying, they can do so without the need to speak to a member of our team, however, the option to do so is available. The app gives customers the ability to seek further support via telephone or request a call back at a time that suits them.'
The Guardian
02-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘They really are all horrible': displeasure in Runcorn despite Reform's jubilation
The boss, as aides call him, was on his way. It was 2.30am and Nigel Farage had arrived at a Cheshire leisure centre, ready to declare victory in the closely-fought Runcorn and Helsby byelection. But as camera crews gathered, Reform UK officials who were ready to welcome their leader frantically scrambled back to the ballot boxes. The result, it seemed, was too close to call. It would be another three hours before Farage sauntered into the DCBL stadium, looking relaxed despite the knife-edge contest that had left his sleep-deprived aides looking increasingly frazzled. The 61-year-old laughed off claims he had spent daybreak touring Widnes after aborting his earlier grand entrance. He had, he said, been 'having a quiet drink'. By 6am, it was time to toast victory. 'It's a very, very big moment, absolutely no question,' declared the perma-tanned populist, as his party grasped hold of one of Labour's safest seats by just six votes after a dramatic recount. It was the narrowest parliamentary byelection win this century. As Farage's aides celebrated in the stadium car park – one puffing on a large cigar – the leader planned a victory lap of England. His once-fringe party was now centre stage, gaining a fifth MP, hundreds of council seats, a regional mayor and at least seven county councils from Durham to Staffordshire and Lincolnshire. He had decimated Kemi Badenoch's Conservatives and dealt a damaging blow to Labour. On the southern banks of the River Mersey in Cheshire, from the post-industrial town of Runcorn to the Conservative villages around Frodsham, Reform UK had united an uneasy coalition of voters against Labour. One party activist described its supporters as 'those who set their alarm for work in the morning and are angry at those who don't – and those who don't'. Labour, meanwhile, had relied on those who despise Farage – and they span all political shades – but it was not enough to save their 14,700-vote majority. Many had voted for Reform UK as a protest against the government. Others expressed their displeasure more creatively. 'I've never seen so many drawings of penises,' said one seasoned Labour campaigner after examining spoiled ballot papers. The discontent was palpable on Friday in Murdishaw, a 1970s housing estate in Runcorn where barely one in four voted in Thursday's contest – the lowest turnout in the constituency. A 65-year-old retiree, who forgot to vote, was horrified when told by the Guardian that Reform UK had won by just six votes. 'Oh you're kidding me. I'm not happy about that,' she said, adding: 'I forgot all about [the election]. If only I'd remembered.' Underlying Reform UK's dismantling of the historic two-party system in Westminster is a much more troubling trend: the growing numbers of voters detaching completely from politics. 'I don't see any point in any of them. They really are all horrible. Once they've been voted in, they forget about us,' said Tommy Young, 59, outside Murdishaw's Co-op. Reform UK's candidate Sarah Pochin, a former Conservative councillor and local magistrate, becomes the first non-Labour MP elected by Runcorn in more than half a century. But 200 miles across northern England, Reform UK gained its most powerful role yet as Andrea Jenkyns, a former Tory minister, was crowned mayor of the newly created authority of Greater Lincolnshire with a thumping 40,000-vote lead over the Conservatives. Voters will now look to Greater Lincolnshire, Durham and Staffordshire to see what Reform UK can do in power. On the east coast, Jenkyns has pledged to ape Elon Musk's cost-cutting department of government efficiency (Doge) by launching a 'Doge Lincolnshire'. A close ally of Boris Johnson, Jenkyns wasted no time in burnishing her hard-right credentials in her victory speech, telling the count centre in Grimsby that vulnerable asylum seekers should be forced to sleep in tents rather than housed in hotels. 'Tents are good enough for France, they should be good enough for here in Britain,' she said. Speaking at a celebratory rally later on Friday at a working men's club in Co Durham, Farage made a similar point, saying Reform-run areas would 'resist' efforts by central government to house asylum seekers locally. The elections were 'a truly historic landmark', he declared. Back in Cheshire, Conservative voters in the leafy village of Kingsley, which recorded the constituency's highest turnout, were cheering Labour's defeat. 'It's gone from Labour and that's a good thing,' said one cheerful retiree. At Kingsley community centre, Labour voter Steve Easton, 56, said he believed the byelection was won as a result of divisive national concerns such as immigration rather than local issues. 'I think there's been a lot of noise created around this and a lot of noise by Reform,' he said. 'It's this big-picture politics, making statements about illegal immigrants – who are not the same as asylum seekers – and trying to bias the views of the public.'
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bruised Tories and Labour left working out how to tackle Reform
Boy, it was close. Mighty close. Thursday night at the DCBL stadium in Widnes turned into the early hours which turned into Friday breakfast time, as volunteers carried out a full recount of the 32,655 votes cast in the Runcorn and Helsby by-election. Shortly after half five in the morning Nigel Farage turned up, as did the Reform candidate Sarah Pochin and the Labour candidate Karen Shore – and by that point the facial expressions told the story. Reform knew they had won - just. And for Labour, dejection. This is still an emerging picture - Runcorn was the only Parliamentary by-election held on Thursday and there are many more election results to come later today, including in parts of England where the Liberal Democrats expect to make big gains in local councils, for instance. But right now it's the story of Reform UK that rightly dominates. Nigel Farage's latest party is proving, so far at least, that healthy opinion poll figures can translate into actual votes and – in some places at least -- actual victories. Crucially, in terms of the wider political implications, these results are an indication too that Reform can prove to be an equal opportunities threat to both the Conservatives and Labour. The key thing to look at is the trend: Reform are frequently stacking up, whether they won or not, between a fifth and a third of the vote in the some of the key tussles so far. Live: Follow latest on local elections Who won the local election in my area? Sir John Curtice: Reform challenging traditional party dominance What's happened so far and what's still to come? Reform squeaked over the line in the by-election, but it is worth looking at their share of the vote where they didn't win. In the mayoral contests declared so far, they were second in Doncaster with 31% of the vote, they were second on North Tyneside with 29% of the vote and they were second in the West of England with 22% of the vote. They managed 42% in Lincolnshire, where the former Conservative minister Dame Andrea Jenkyns has been elected the county's first elected mayor. Farage will now need to adjust to a new level of scrutiny - scrutiny of a governing record. His rivals hope that that might prove tricky. "How do a bunch of individualists and contrarians actually get on with running stuff?" asked one Labour source I was talking to. A Conservative source texts: "Farage is obviously jubilant. "But once the glow of victory dims, Nigel will be hoping Sarah Pochin and Andrea Jenkyns toe the line." They add "how long might it be before we see the Independent Mayor of Lincolnshire taking her former party to court?,", in reference to Mr Farage's spectacular falling out with his former MP Rupert Lowe. It is a particularly bleak day for the Conservatives. Having already endured a tough set of results overnight, they are braced for more grim news later in their former rural heartlands where the Liberal Democrats smell blood. As for the government, we can already hear how they are trying to recalibrate. There is no doubt they have taken a hit, but perhaps it could have been worse – they did win in Doncaster, North Tyneside and the West of England. Expect to see now a focus on delivery, and projecting a sense of activity. Government folk I speak to point to immigration plans that are in the offing, the spending review, the defence review, their industrial strategy – all coming before the summer. The thing is, when they talk about delivery, it is some of the things they have actually delivered that caused them a headache, such as removing the Winter Fuel Payment from most pensioners. There are plenty more results to come, but make no mistake, these elections will shape the tone, tenor and focus of the political conversation in the months to come; the government and the Tories staring, sleep deprived, hard into the mirror and working out how to respond. Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to keep up with the inner workings of Westminster and beyond.
BBC News
02-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Local elections: Bruised Tories and Labour left working out how to tackle Reform
Boy, it was close. Mighty night at the DCBL stadium in Widnes turned into the early hours which turned into Friday breakfast time, as volunteers carried out a full recount of the 32,655 votes cast in the Runcorn and Helsby by-election. Shortly after half five in the morning Nigel Farage turned up, as did the Reform candidate Sarah Pochin and the Labour candidate Karen Shore – and by that point the facial expressions told the knew they had won - for Labour, is still an emerging picture - Runcorn was the only Parliamentary by-election held on Thursday and there are many more election results to come later today, including in parts of England where the Liberal Democrats expect to make big gains in local councils, for right now it's the story of Reform UK that rightly Farage's latest party is proving, so far at least, that healthy opinion poll figures can translate into actual votes and – in some places at least -- actual in terms of the wider political implications, these results are an indication too that Reform can prove to be an equal opportunities threat to both the Conservatives and key thing to look at is the trend: Reform are frequently stacking up, whether they won or not, between a fifth and a third of the vote in the some of the key tussles so far. Live: Follow latest on local elections Who won the local election in my area?Sir John Curtice: Reform challenging traditional party dominanceWhat's happened so far and what's still to come? Reform squeaked over the line in the by-election, but it is worth looking at their share of the vote where they didn't the mayoral contests declared so far, they were second in Doncaster with 31% of the vote, they were second on North Tyneside with 29% of the vote and they were second in the West of England with 22% of the vote. They managed 42% in Lincolnshire, where the former Conservative minister Dame Andrea Jenkyns has been elected the county's first elected will now need to adjust to a new level of scrutiny - scrutiny of a governing rivals hope that that might prove tricky."How do a bunch of individualists and contrarians actually get on with running stuff?" asked one Labour source I was talking to.A Conservative source texts: "Farage is obviously jubilant. "But once the glow of victory dims, Nigel will be hoping Sarah Pochin and Andrea Jenkyns toe the line."They add "how long might it be before we see the Independent Mayor of Lincolnshire taking her former party to court?,", in reference to Mr Farage's spectacular falling out with his former MP Rupert is a particularly bleak day for the Conservatives. Having already endured a tough set of results overnight, they are braced for more grim news later in their former rural heartlands where the Liberal Democrats smell for the government, we can already hear how they are trying to is no doubt they have taken a hit, but perhaps it could have been worse – they did win in Doncaster, North Tyneside and the West of to see now a focus on delivery, and projecting a sense of folk I speak to point to immigration plans that are in the offing, the spending review, the defence review, their industrial strategy – all coming before the thing is, when they talk about delivery, it is some of the things they have actually delivered that caused them a headache, such as removing the Winter Fuel Payment from most are plenty more results to come, but make no mistake, these elections will shape the tone, tenor and focus of the political conversation in the months to come; the government and the Tories staring, sleep deprived, hard into the mirror and working out how to respond. Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to keep up with the inner workings of Westminster and beyond.
