WILL THE NEGATIVE LIST PASS MUSTER?

“The State governments' proposal to exclude certain services from the list targets the fundamental issue of overlap in taxation by the Central and State governments.”

The Union Budget 2012-13 is likely to witness a revolutionary shift in taxation of services in India with the introduction of the negative list of services.

All non-considered biases caused by the present tax system of services, which plays favourites by taxing some services and leaving others out of the tax net, could be done away with the introduction of this list. The present list is of over 125 taxable services.

The Empowered Committee is understood to have proposed a rider that the Centre will exclude areas or activities which fall within the State's jurisdiction, such as construction, entertainment, restaurants, transport of goods and inland waterways, beauty parlours, health and fitness, etc.

They argued that if States are taxing certain activities or propose to charge such services to tax under the GST regime then the Centre should not cover those services for levy of service tax under the negative list, as it would not provide an additional tax base to State Governments in the GST regime.

The arguments of the state governments to support their stand on carving out certain activities from the Centre's ambit may sound reasonable. However, to what extent it gains support under the present constitutional framework needs to be looked at. The State governments' proposal targets the fundamental issue of overlap in taxation by the Centre and the States, which has been a subject matter of intense debate and litigation for a long time.

Given the way these taxes are computed, the taxable value of the contract across the two taxes exceeds the value of the contract. This is a typical example of double taxation due to overlapping jurisdictions.

The negative list, if introduced in the Budget, without consensus and the accompanying challenges, would require humongous effort and a long time frame at a later date to guide the legislation and taxation of service on to the right path and prove a costly affair both to the assessee and the administrator.

The implementation of point of taxation rules, proposed introduction of negative list with parallel changes to the existing legislations and eventually the implementation of GST are right steps in the direction of reshaping the indirect tax regime in India.

However, a clear consensus on the scope of taxation between the Centre and State is a must before we embark on this journey.

Warren Buffett investment principles :

THE RIGHT PRICE TO PAY:

1.    A GREAT COMPANY AT A FAIR PRICE:

Nobody really knows the specific principles that Warren Buffett applies when deciding the price he will pay for a share investment. We do know that he has said on several occasions that it is better to buy a ‘great company at a fair price than a fair company at a great price’.

This tends to agree with the view of Benjamin Graham who often referred to primary and secondary stocks. He believed that, although paying too high a price for any stock was foolish, the risk was higher when the stock was of secondary grade.

2.    PATIENCE:

The other thing that Warren Buffett counsels, when deciding on investment purchases, is patience. He has said that he is prepared to wait forever to buy a stock at the right price.

 There is a seeming disparity of views between Graham and Buffett on diversification. Benjamin Graham was a firm believer, even in relation to stock purchases at bargain prices, in spreading the risk over a number of share investments. Warren Buffett, on the other hand, appears to take a different view: concentrate on just a few stocks.

3.   WHAT WARREN BUFFETT SAYS ABOUT DIVERSIFICATION?

In 1992, Buffett said that his investment strategy did not rely upon spreading his risk over a large number of stocks; he preferred to have his investments in a limited number of companies.

4.    NO REAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BENJAMIN GRAHAM AND WARREN BUFFETT:

The differences between Graham and Buffett on stock diversification are perhaps not as wide as they might seem. Graham spoke of diversification primarily in relation to second grade stocks and it is arguable that the Buffett approach to stock selection results in the purchase of quality stocks only.

5.    BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY HOLDINGS:

In addition, consideration of Berkshire Hathaway holdings in 2002 suggests that although Buffett may not necessarily believe in diversification in the number of companies that it owns, its investments certainly cross a broad spectrum of industry areas. They include:

• Manufacturing and distribution – underwear, children’s clothing, farm equipment, shoes, razor blades, soft drinks;
• Retail – furniture, kitchenware
• Insurance
• Financial and accounting products and services
• Flight operations
• Gas pipelines
• Real estate brokerage
• Construction related industries
• Media

6.    INTRINSIC VALUE:

Both Warren Buffett and Benjamin Graham talk about the intrinsic value of a business, or a share in it.  That is, to buy a business, or a share in it, at a fair price. But, having regard to the possibility of error in calculating intrinsic value, the careful of investor should provide a margin of error by only buying the business, or shares, at a substantial discount to the intrinsic value. Buffett is said to look for a 25 per cent discount, but who really knows?

7.    DEFINING INTRINSIC VALUE:

Buffett’s concept, in looking at intrinsic value, is that it values what can be taken out of the business. He has quoted investment guru John Burr Williams who defined value like this:

‘The value of any stock, bond or business today is determined by the cash inflows and outflows – discounted at an appropriate interest rate – that can be expected to occur during the remaining life of the asset.’ – The Theory of Investment Value.

The difference for Buffett in calculating the value of bonds and shares is that the investor knows the eventual price of the bond when it matures but has to guess the price of the share at some future date.

8.    DISCOUNTED CASH FLOW (DCF):

This method of valuation is often referred to as the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) valuation method, but, as Buffett has said in relation to shares, it is not easy to predict future cash flows and this is why he sticks to investment in companies that are consistent, well managed, and simple to understand. A company that is hard to understand or those changes frequently does not allow for easy prediction of future earnings and outgoings.

Ultimately, the investor must decide upon their own methods of arriving at the intrinsic value of a share and the margin of error that they want for themselves.