Asia Pacific

Embattled Australian coal tycoon Nathan Tinkler appeared in a Sydney court on Thursday to face a public grilling for the first time over the state of his finances, as creditors seek to recover millions of dollars in unpaid debts, Reuters reported. Tinkler, 37, flew in from his home in Singapore having been threatened with arrest if he failed to present himself in the New South Wales Supreme Court. He lost a last-minute bid to avoid questioning over a A$28.4 million ($29.1 million) debt to junior coal explorer Blackwood Corp Ltd.

There is growing expectation that losses may be imposed on senior bank bondholders as part of the imminent Cypriot bailout, despite a similar option being withheld from Ireland as part of the €64 billion Irish rescue package. Forcing bank bondholders to take a write-down on their debt is under active consideration by euro zone officials, according to a well-placed euro zone source. Depositors in Cypriot banks may also suffer writedowns, the Irish Times reported.

Germany is growing wary of saddling bank-account holders with losses as part of a rescue for Cyprus and no longer insists on a financial contribution from the International Monetary Fund, a close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel said, Bloomberg reported. Michael Meister, deputy parliamentary floor leader of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party, floated concessions that would hasten the wrap-up of nine months of aid talks and lessen the risk that a financial accident in Cyprus, which makes up barely 0.2 percent of the euro-zone economy, could revive European market turbulence.

An increase in Cyprus's corporate tax rate is under consideration as part of negotiations over a proposed official bailout for the island, according to three people with knowledge of the talks, The Wall Street Journal reported. Cyprus's troika of would-be official creditors—the European Central Bank, European Commission and International Monetary Fund—is pressing Nicosia to raise its corporate tax by up to three percentage points from 10% now, the officials said.

President Nicos Anastasiades of Cyprus will ask Athens to hand over €2bn from its own bank recapitalisation package to rescue Cypriot banks with operations in Greece, say officials in Nicosia, the Financial Times reported. The unusual request comes as Cypriot officials desperately try to avert a so-called haircut of bank deposits held on the island as part of a proposed €17bn bailout being negotiated with the EU and International Monetary Fund.

International lenders would like Cyprus to raise its corporate tax and introduce a levy on capital gains and a financial transaction tax to ensure it can repay a euro zone bailout it asked for last year, euro zone officials said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Cyprus needs up to 17 billion euros (14.8 billion pounds) - almost as much as its annual gross domestic product - in emergency loans, mostly to recapitalise its oversized banking sector, hit by a Greek debt restructuring, but also to service debt and government expenses.

A troika of European and international auditors arrived in the Cypriot capital Wednesday, tasked with hammering out a tricky, multibillion euro bailout for the country, The Wall Street Journal reported. The delegation is expected to stay until Friday amid hopes that a final deal—which has been delayed for months—can be reached by the end of March, following last month's election of a new Cypriot president, conservative leader Nicos Anastasiades. The biggest hurdle remains the country's debt sustainability.

A capital gains tax on housing sales was intended to cool China’s sizzling property market, but since it was announced last Friday it has had the exact opposite effect: a panic has been unleashed, the Financial Times reported. Sales have spiked and prices have increased as buyers try to close deals before the 20 per cent tax goes into effect. There has also been a jump in divorces, a practical if rather hard-hearted strategy for exploiting a loophole in the rules.

An Afghan special tribunal convicted and sentenced two former executives and 19 others for roles in the fraud that led to the collapse in 2010 of Afghanistan's largest private bank, but in a surprise decision threw out the most serious charges, The Wall Street Journal reported. Former Kabul Bank Chairman Sherkhan Farnood and former Chief Executive Khalilullah Ferozi were convicted of fraud at the bank and given five-year prison sentences, the court said Tuesday.

India has accused Cadbury PLC of dodging about $46 million in taxes by pretending to produce candy at a factory that didn't exist. A 103-page report by the country's tax authorities, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, accuses Cadbury's Indian unit of manipulating invoices and other documents to get a tax exemption available to companies that began production in new plants in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh by March 31, 2010.