Another hasty move Ban on condom ads
With reference to “Stressed unlisted firms may get tax incentives” (December 12), this is another instance of hasty and uncoordinated attempts at framing major legislation. Some of the problems like effective date, price benchmark for shares for debt conversion, eligibility of the existing promoters, other coercive proceedings like Debts Recovery Tribunal, and now tax issues pertaining to transfer of shares and for accumulated loss, could have been foreseen by an experienced group of tax and finance bureaucrats.
It stands to reason that imputing a fair market price different than that arrived through a bidding process is illogical. Once such a clarification is done in the statutes, there is no need to make a separate exemption of such transfer or conversion of shares from taxation, either as capital gains or imputed income. Allowing loss carryforward is a mere recognition that a company is a legal entity, and at least for sick company acquisition, the benefit must continue. Of course, the government has to decide how much sacrifice it can absorb, and has to therefore balance the various claims and choose the optimal compromise.
On the eligibility of existing promoters not being willful defaulters, the better way would have been to give them the right of last refusal at 10-20 per cent better net present value than the best outsider bid. If indeed the promoters have emotional attachment or better insider knowledge, a premium is justified. After all, a company goes to the insolvency code-based sale only when all other debt restructure methods of the Reserve Bank of India have failed. P Datta Kolkata kind in India’s history. The PM’s official website also went on to claim that “PM Modi becomes first passenger of India’s first ever seaplane”. Both the claims were exposed by AltNews.in as false, which forced the Prime Minister’s website to retract the claim. The seaplane used by the PM was used for a trial run in which transport minister Nitin Gadkari took a ride. It is surprising that someone would want to use such publicity to solicit votes.
N Nagarajan Secunderabad The latest advisory by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to television channels banning condom ads between 6 am and 10 pm on the grounds that they are “indecent” and can “impact children” is a short-sighted intervention that can undo the gains in public health made by the aggressive condom use campaign. Condom use goes a long way in preventing sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies and abortions. The fact that it is essential to ensure safe sex, avoid teenage pregnancies and succeed in family planning programmes validates condom ads. Condoms are a tribute to human ingenuity.
In this day and age we cannot be so prudish and puritanical to cite condom use as an illustrative example of a degenerate popular culture. As for the embarrassment caused to an orthodox family watching a condom ad together, it is far less consequential than unprotected sex. It is sheer hypocrisy to flock to get a glimpse of Sunny Leone and feel moral outrage at a condom commercial featuring the actress.
The justification put forward for the ban on condom ads is that they are sexually explicit and titillating and do not respect cultural sensitivity. Ads are put to catch your fancy and promote the product. To say that condom ads should not be erotic is like saying that food should not be seasoned to taste. One wishes that Kamasutra is not banished from book shelves and Khajuraho temples are kept shut between 6 am and 10 pm. That condom ads promote promiscuity is a myth that must be exploded. With porn available in smartphones and laptops, the ban makes no great sense. It is advisable “to condom sex” than “to condemn sex”. This comment by a proponent of condom ads should knock some sense into moral prudes.
G David Milton Maruthancode