No reason to doubt govt will meet fiscal deficit targets: RBI Guv backs FM. Throwing his weight behind Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's budget numbers, Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das has said that there is no reason to doubt that the government will be able to cut fiscal deficit to 3.5 per cent of the GDP in the fiscal beginning April 1.
In an interview with PTI, Das said the government has remained within the limits set by the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Committee for the budget deficit. Sitharaman missed deficit target for the third year in a row, pushing shortfall to 3.8 per cent of the GDP in the current fiscal as compared to 3.3 per cent previously planned. The fiscal deficit target for the coming fiscal year starting April 1, has been fixed at 3.5 per cent. The fiscal deficit is the shortfall in a government's income compared with its spending.
It essentially means that the government is spending beyond its means. What can India expect from Satya Nadella's visit as Donald Trump arrives. With Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella all set to visit India next week -- around the same time US President Donald Trump is making his first official visit to this part of the world -- the software giant is looking forward to further consolidate its position in the country.
At a time when the Indian government is focused on digital transformation across sectors and modernise its IT infrastructure, Microsoft may take Nadella's visit as an opportunity to showcase how it can help government achieve its goals across Cloud, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), smart cities, industrial automation and robotics etc. "Government engagement is a major focus for Microsoft top management in India for the past two decades, and all the more now with expanding digital plans and also rising nationalist resistance to global digital and tech companies," leading tech policy and media consultant Prasanto K. Voda Idea: As threat of closure looms, Kumar Mangalam Birla meets DoT secy. Vodafone Idea Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla, MD and CEO Ravinder Takkar on Tuesday called on Telecom Secretary Anshu Prakash amid concerns of its very survival if the government invokes bank guarantee over no payment of adjusted gross revenue (AGR).
The company on Monday paid Rs 2,500 crore on account of its AGR dues and said that another Rs 1,000 crore will be paid by Friday. Coronavirus: FM takes stock of trade issues, sees no impact on prices. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday took stock of the impact of the Coronavirus epidemic in China on trade and said prices were unlikely to rise.
She added that her ministry would hold a meeting and discuss with the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) ways to formulate a response to disruption in exports and imports. Sitharaman said: "We need to ready our ports as the manufacturing sector is affected due to congestions and there might be a rush of raw materials from China when the situation improves in the coming months. " "Tomorrow, each secretary in the Finance Ministry will collate the issues and contact others from different ministeries and with that collated issues we expect to hold a meeting at secretary level. We will talk about a on possible solution and discuss with PMO and announce a response," The finance minister said. Moody's cuts India's 2020 growth forecast to 5.4% amid coronavirus fears. Global rating agency Moody’s said on Monday that India’s economic recovery is likely to be shallow and expand at a lower pace of 5.4 per cent in Calendar 2020 than the earlier estimate of 6.6 per cent.
In a review of the global economy to assess likely to impact on Coronavirus outbreak, Moody’s said it (virus and its spread) has diminished optimism about prospects of an incipient stabilisation of global growth this year. With the virus continuing to spread, it is still too early to make a final assessment of the impact on China (A1 stable) and the global economy. India’s economy has decelerated rapidly over the last two years. the real gross domestic product grew at a meagre 4.5 per cent the third quarter of calendar Q3 2019. Improvements in the latest high-frequency indicators such as PMI data suggest that the economy may have stabilised. A key to stronger economic momentum would be the revival of domestic demand, both rural and urban, in India.
Govt scraps tenders worth Rs 30,000-crore to push Make in India products. Government tenders worth about Rs 30,000 crore were cancelled because of discriminatory practices being followed, a top official said on Monday.
Restrictive and discriminative tender practices prevent participation of domestic companies in government procurement, hurting 'Make in India' initiatives. The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) from time to time has intervened to change conditions in those tenders in order to promote 'Made in India' goods. "Many of the restrictive and discriminative tender practices have been identified.
Almost Rs 30,000 crore (worth) of tenders have been cancelled because of discriminatory practices," DPIIT Secretary Guruprasad Mohapatra said here at a function. Budget disappointing; but fiscal, taxation measures welcome: EAC member. Tata Steel expecting capital expenditure to touch Rs 9,000 cr mark in FY20. Why the new optional tax regime could adversely affect dwindling savings. Gold imports plunge 9% to $24.64 billion during April-January: Govt data. Oil India to move TDSAT against DoT's Rs 48,489 cr demand over past dues. State-owned Oil India is likely to move the TDSAT this week against the telecom department, seeking about Rs 48,500 crore in past dues on the surplus bandwidth capacity it had leased to third parties, its Chairman and Managing Director Sushil Chandra Mishra has said.
Other non-telecom firms, which have also been slapped with similar demands, too are likely to move the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT). Those likely to go to the TDSAT include gas utility GAIL India Ltd, from whom Rs 1.83 lakh crore has been sought, Power Grid Corp that has been slapped with Rs 21,953.65 crore liability and Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers & Chemicals Ltd which faces a payout of Rs 15,019.97 crore. IMG clears BPCL sale bid docs, to be issued after ministerial group nod. Arvind Kejriwal oath ceremony LIVE: Sisodia made deputy, Cabinet retained. RBI board recommends aligning accounting year with fiscal year from 2020-21.
The Reserve Bank board on Saturday recommended aligning the central bank's accounting year, beginning July, with the financial year from 2020-21, an official statement said.
The Central Board of Directors of the RBI at its 582nd meeting reviewed the current economic situation, global and domestic challenges and various areas of operations of the Reserve Bank. The board recommended aligning the financial year of RBI, currently July-June, with the government's fiscal year (April-March) from the year 2020-21. LIVE: Third Indian crew on ship off Japan tests positive for coronavirus. Exports decline by 1.66% year-on-year to $25.97 billion in January. The country's exports dropped 1.66 per cent to $25.97 billion in January, the sixth straight month of contraction, on account of a significant fall in shipments of petroleum, plastic, carpet, gems and jewellery, and leather products.
Imports also fell for the eighth consecutive months, down 0.75 per cent to $41.14 billion in January, widening the trade deficit to a seven-month high of $15.17 billion, according to the government data released on Friday. Gold imports shrunk by about 9 per cent to $1.58 billion during the month under review. Last time, it was in June 2019 when the trade deficit aggregated at $15.28 billion. Of the 30 key sectors, as many as 18 segments showed negative growth in exports during the month. Shipments of petroleum products, plastic, carpet, gems and jewellery, and leather products contracted by 7.42 per cent, 10.62 per cent, 5.19 per cent, 6.89 per cent, and 7.57 4 per cent, respectively, in January. Supreme Court orders telcos to clear AGR dues by Mar 17, threatens contempt. Supreme Court slammed mobile carriers on Friday for non-payment of billions of dollars in government dues and threatened them with contempt proceedings if they didn’t pay up by March 17.
The court, which had asked companies including Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel to pay 920 billion Indian rupees ($12.89 billion) in overdue levies and interest by Jan. 23, had rejected petitions seeking a review of its order last month. "This is pure contempt, 100% contempt," judge Arun Mishra told lawyers for the companies and the government on Friday. The trio of Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio, which is backed by Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, controls more than 90% of India’s mobile market.
Airtel and Vodafone have both flagged going concern risks following the order. AGR dues: DoT withdraws order seeking no coercive action against telcos. The telecom department has withdrawn its order that asked for no coercive action against telecom companies defaulting on statutory dues payment after the Supreme Court on Friday took a strong view of non-compliance with its order. The order also directs field offices to take "immediate necessary action" in compliance with the October judgment of the Supreme Court. The direction by the DoT says its previous order dated January 23, 2020 "stands withdrawn with immediate effect". "It is directed to take immediate necessary action in compliance with the judgement dated October 24, 2019 of the Supreme Court," said the fresh order issued by the DoT soon after the apex court made its observations on Friday.
Tata Sons to take Rs 74,000 cr hit on group's foray into telecom biz. AGR order: After SC rap, DoT asks telcos to clear dues by midnight. After Supreme Court rap, the telecom department began issuing orders, directing companies such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea to clear dues before Friday midnight. The DoT, which faced the ire of the Supreme Court for putting on hold recovery of dues from telecom companies, started issuing circle or zone-wise demand notices to firms, an order seen by PTI said. The order issued on Friday by the UP (West) Telecom Circle asked "all telecom service providers" to clear dues by 11.59 pm Friday. "With reference to subject cited above, you are hereby directed to make the payment of outstanding dues of licence fee and spectrum usage charges by 14.02.2020, 11:59 PM positively," it said.
One of the telecom operators, who did not wish to be named, confirmed the receipt of the said order from the circle. The circular was withdrawn by the telecom department immediately after the Supreme Court took a strong view of non-compliance in payment of dues by telecom companies. Why Delhi poll results are to be seen as polarised despite AAP's huge win. The Aam Aadmi Party's huge victory in the Delhi Assembly elections is being seen as a setback to the BJP.
That the electorate of Delhi refused to get swayed by the saffron party's virulent anti-Muslim tirade is in itself commendable. However, the fact remains that despite its remarkable achievements in delivering a host of services, the AAP could not prevent the BJP from registering a growth in its vote share. The poll outcome reminded me of a cynical remark made by a friend, who asserted that if the BJP manages to increase its tally beyond 3, the elections must be regarded as polarised. MARKET WRAP: Sensex zooms 237 pts, Nifty holds 12,100; metals gain. Rs 81,043 cr GST compensation released to states for Apr-Sep: Govt to RS. The Centre has released Rs 81,043 crore as GST compensation to states for April-September 2019, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur said on Tuesday. In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, he said GST compensation cess collection has shown upward trend since October 2019. GST compensation cess of Rs 7,607 crore was collected in October, Rs 7,727 crore in November, Rs 8,331 crore in December and Rs 8,637 crore in January.
For 2019-20, the amount targeted to be collected from cess in GST was Rs 1.09 lakh crore. Of this, Rs 70,534 crore has been collected between April-December 2019. The amount of GST compensation released to states for April-September 2019 stood at Rs 81,043 crore, Thakur said. For 2018-19 fiscal, the net collection of GST compensation cess stood at Rs 95,081 crore as against the target of Rs 90,000 crore. For 2017-18, the net collection from cess stood at Rs 62,612 crore, as against the target of Rs 61,331 crore. Election result LIVE: AAP sweeps capital; Delhi Congress chief resigns. IL&FS gets approval for claims towards Rs 2,700 crore stalled road projects. Crisis-hit IL&FS Group has received approvals from various government authorities for claims worth about Rs 2,700 crore towards stuck or incomplete road projects, officials said. The NHAI Conciliation Committee recently approved a claim for approximately Rs 707 crore for the ILFS-Fagne Songadh Expressway Limited project (in Gujarat-Maharashtra border area), while the committee had earlier approved claims of Rs 902 crore for the Khed Sinnar Expressway project (in Maharashtra).
Other projects for which claims have been approved include Kiratpur Ner Chowk Expressway Limited for Rs 672 crore (in Himachal Pradesh) and Jorbat Shillong Expressway Limited for Rs 252 crore (Meghalaya). Additionally, the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways had cleared claims of ITNL Road Infrastructure Development Company (IRIDCL) for Rs 144 crore. Easier RBI asset quality norms puts banks at risk, mar transparency: Fitch. Issuing a warning about the adverse effect of relaxing asset quality norms, rating agency Fitch said the move it signifies a gradual shift away from RBI’s effort to enhance the quality and transparency of asset classification in Indian banking system.
The Reserve Bank of India gave 12 more months for the one-time restructuring scheme for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). Mahindra & Mahindra, Ford Motor joint venture gets approval from CCI. The Competition Commission has approved Mahindra & Mahindra's acquisition of majority stake in a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ford Motor Co, which will create a joint venture in the country. Domestic passenger vehicle sales down 6.2% in Jan; car sales slide 8%: SIAM. Domestic passenger vehicle sales declined 6.2 per cent to 262,714 units in January from 280,091 units in the year-ago month, automobile industry body SIAM said on Monday.
Coronavirus impact: Experts see weakest quarter for global growth since GFC. With coronavirus getting a tighter grip on the China and impacting world trade, most analysts have started lowering global growth forecasts as measured by the gross domestic product (GDP) for the first quarter of calendar year 2020 (Q1-2020). Those at UBS, for instance, expect this would be the weakest quarter for global growth since the global financial crisis (GFC) and on par with the Asian crisis in the late 1990s.
Global GDP, according to Arend Kapteyn, global head of economic research at UBS, will take a serious knock and slip to 0.7 per cent in the January 2020 quarter (Q1-2020) from 3.2 per cent in the December 2019 quarter (Q4-2019). Though he expects growth to rebound in the April – June 2020 quarter, the impact could slow the overall 2020 GDP growth by 20 basis points (bps) to 2.9 per cent. Lending from Cash Reserve Ratio buffer to get 5-year exemption: RBI.
The Reserve Bank on Monday said the special lending window with CRR exemption will be open from February 14 and incremental loans disbursed under this facility will have CRR exemption for the next five years. Amazon challenges India antitrust probe, cites 'irreparable' loss. Amazon.com Inc has begun legal action in India to quash an antitrust investigation against the company, saying it could cause "irreparable" loss and damage to its reputation, according to its court filing seen by Reuters. Coronavirus outbreak: Tencent employees asked to work from home till Feb 21. Coronavirus: Over 800 dead in China, toll surpasses SARS epidemic. The number of new coronavirus deaths on the Chinese mainland hit 811 by end of Feb. 8, the National Health Commission said on Sunday morning, surpassing that of the SARS epidemic in 2002/2003. Economy fundamentals strong; markets show faith in Budget 2020: Sitharaman.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday that key macroeconomic parameters of the country were “sound” and the government was working towards the goal of reaching an 8 per cent growth rate. Kejriwal's AAP projected to retain Delhi crown; BJP rejects exit polls. Trent surges 7%, hits 52-week high post Q3 nos; revenue jumps 45% MARKET WRAP: Sensex halts 4-day gaining streak, slips 164 pts; realty falls. Bonanza for shareholders! 60 BSE 500 firms can return Rs 88,600 cr: IiAS.
India's insurance is one of Asia's better long-term stories: Chris Wood. India vs New Zealand 2nd ODI Live score: KL Rahul departs as India lose 4th. India vs New Zealand 2nd ODI Live score: KL Rahul departs as India lose 4th. Byju's raises $200 mn from General Atlantic, current valuation at $8.2 bn. Best of BS Opinion: Delhi Assembly elections, economic slowdown, and more. PNB chief expects a comeback in FY21 with 8-10% credit growth post merger. From riches to rags: Anil Ambani pleads poverty, says his net worth is zero.
Delhi election LIVE updates: Arvind Kejriwal, Ram Madhav among early voters. Govt to reintroduce FRDI Bill, no timeline yet: FM Nirmala Sitharaman. Govt moots revision in rules to enhance audit independence, accountability. RBI may cut rates by 40 bps in FY21 as Budget did little for growth: Fitch. LIC's new business premium crosses Rs 1.5 trn mark, income soars 18% WhatsApp Pay set for phased roll out in India; granted NPCI permission. FinMin working on FRDI Bill but not sure when it will be tabled, says FM. Tata Steel slips into red; reports Rs 1,228 cr net loss in October-December. Oil major Total to invest $510 mn for 50% stake in JV with Adani Green. RBI policy: Monsoon and spending pattern hold key for economic revival. Revival in high-frequency indicators shows modest growth momentum recovery. RBI policy: Repo rate unchanged at 5.15%; MPC retains accommodative stance.
Vodafone Idea set to drop brand 'Idea' from postpaid services. Merger process major challenge for PSBs in near future: SBI Chairman. Pollution regulator threatens to shut 14 thermal plants over emission norms. High-powered jury to select BS annual award winners for year 2019 today. MARKET LIVE: Sensex, Nifty set for a flat start as indicated by SGX NIfty. I-T dept reverses stance on NCLAT's proposed demerger order of Reliance Jio. Bharti Airtel pitches for healthy telecom sector, Vodafone Idea's survival. Budget 2020: DDT cut comes as a boon for firms, bane for shareholders. Budget positive for market, will wait to see Monday reaction: FM Sitharaman. 15th Finance Commission report: Devolution for FY20-21 cut marginally. Nirmala Sitharaman's Budget 2020: Balancing act or leap of faith? 2 tax regimes after Budget: Which one to choose if you claim exemptions.
Economic Survey: 'Counter-cyclical fiscal policy' to boost demand justified. Budget LIVE updates: Cabinet meeting underway, FM's Budget speech at 11 am. Markets cheerful despite slump in GDP growth, Sensex up 7%: Economic Survey. Economic Survey calls for $1.4 trillion infra spending during FY2020-2025. Wealth creation to Thalinomics: All you must know about Economic Survey '20. Fiscal deficit hits 132% of estimate till Dec on slow revenue collection. GDP growth for FY19 revised downwards to 6.1% from 6.8% estimated earlier. Britain all set to leave EU. What next for the country and its people? Jamia firing: Protesters detained; Oppn likely to protest in Parliament. Economic Survey 2020 expects rebound in FY21 with GDP growth at 6-6.5% SBI Q3 preview: Profit could take hit due to DHFL, interest income may rise.
MARKET LIVE: Indices pare gains, Nifty below 12,050; private banks rally. Budget session 2020 LIVE: Economic survey may forecast GDP at 6%-6.5% New IBM CEO Arvind Krishna described as 'brilliant, right person to lead' Abidali Neemuchwala quits as Wipro CEO and MD, cites 'family commitments' US Fed keeps rates steady, flags 'uncertainties' from coronavirus outbreak. Massive protests in Delhi's Jamia Nagar after student injured by armed man.
IOC Q3 net triples to Rs 2,695 cr as inventory gains offset lower margins. Global oil demand could nearly halve if coronavirus threat escalates. Tata Motors posts Q3 net at Rs 1756 cr on strong JLR performance; sales dip. Not fiscal stimulus, other measures needed to boost economy: NITI Aayog VC. Bajaj Auto chairman Rahul Bajaj to step down from executive role.
GST, VAT collection dips as 6 states' tax revenue till November FY20 falls. Bajaj Auto may report double-digit rise in profit, revenue growth in Q3. India's gold demand expected to rebound from 3 year low: World Gold Council. MARKET LIVE: Sensex down 200 pts, Nifty below 12,100; banks, metals drag. Shareholders reject Rakesh Gangwal's special resolution at IndiGo's EGM. DHFL diverted Rs 12,700 cr into 79 shadowy firms linked to promoters: ED. Yemeni rebels claim targeting Aramco's Jizan facilities in retaliation. No case for differential treatment to PSUs on AGR dues matter, says COAI. IndiGo shareholders reject Gangwal's resolution to amend company's AoA.