Biz Updates: Southwest Airlines appoints Rakesh Gangwal as chairman, has been co-founder of IndiGo

New Delhi| Billionaire and IndiGo co-founder Rakesh Gangwal has been appointed chairman of American airlines company Southwest Airlines. Gangwal, who joined Southwest’s board in July this year, had also recently bought US$108 million in shares of the airline. His appointment as chairman of the board comes less than a week after Southwest settled issues with Elliott Investment Management, one of the airline’s largest shareholders, which sought sweeping changes to the airline.

On Monday, Southwest announced the appointment of Gangwal as independent chairman of the board of directors and also announced the names of new board committee chairmen.

“We are ushering in the next era of change in the Southwest as we build on its many successes and glorious past”, Gangwal said in a statement. Our critical priority as a newly formed board is to work closely with Bob Jordan and the management team, to get the airline back to better financial performance Jordan is the chairman, chief executive officer, and vice chairman of the board. Recently Gangwal has bought shares of Southwest for US$108 million.

DGTR, the investigative arm of the Ministry of Commerce, has recommended the imposition of anti-dumping duties of up to $339 per tonne on imports of ‘PVC resin’ from seven countries, including China, the US and South Korea, with the aim of protecting domestic producers

The Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) has concluded that ‘PVC suspension resin’ was exported to India at a price below normal value resulting in dumping. Directorate notification says these countries… Domestic industry has suffered huge losses due to imports from China, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the US.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has asked customs officials to disclose the specific nature of the ongoing investigation while issuing letters/summons in export/import fraud cases and complete the investigation within one year.

CBIC said in a direction, ‘‘Officers should maintain a ‘‘balanced’’ approach while investigating tax evasion in import or export of goods so as to avoid disruption in ease of doing business. These are commonly referred to as commercial intelligence/fraud (CI) cases.

CBIC said, ” before starting the investigation, it is important to consider all the information and re-examine the available data to reduce contact with the importer/exporter.’’