Daily Financial News Analysis – 3rd Sep’20

Table of Contents

India bans PUBG + 117 apps

Chinese mobile apps banned by the Indian government, tensions between the two countries continue to rise.
Previously the government had banned 59 of the most popular apps including TikTok over national security concerns.
India’s IT Ministry said it had “credible information” the latest batch were acting against India’s interests.
The ministry said it had received many complaints from “various sources” including several reports about “misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorised manner to servers which have locations outside India”.
“The compilation of this data, its mining and profiling by elements hostile to national security and defence of India, which ultimately impinges upon the sovereignty and integrity of India, is a matter of very deep and immediate concern which requires emergency measures.”
Satellite images appear to show that China has built new structures overlooking the Himalayan border region.
The US has also recently taken action against Chinese apps, threatening to ban TikTok and ordering US firms to stop doing business with Tencent’s WeChat platform.
White House trade advisor Peter Navarro has said that the administration also has other Chinese apps within its sights.

Australia’s economy has plunged into its first recession in nearly 30 years, as it suffers the economic fallout from the coronavirus.
GDP shrank 7% in the April-to-June quarter compared to the previous three months.
This is the biggest fall since records began back in 1959 and comes after a fall of 0.3% in the first quarter.
Australia was the only major economy to avoid a recession during the 2008 global financial crisis – mainly due to demand from China for its natural resources.
At the start of this year, the economy was hit by falling economic growth due to an extreme bush fire season and the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak.
This is the worst economic growth in 61 years due to a severe contraction in household spending on goods and services.

Oil prices rose for the third day in a row, supported by hopes of a recovery from the Coronavirus pandemic and fall in US inventories.
In intra-day trade, Brent crude prices were trading around USD 45.80 per barrel while WTI crude prices were around USD 42.90 per barrel.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes, CBDT has issued refunds of over Rs 98,625 crore to more than 26 lakh taxpayers.
These refunds have been issued between 1st April to 1st September this year.
CBDT said, income tax refunds amounting to Rs 29,997 have been issued in over 24,50,000 cases to taxpayers and corporate tax amounting to Rs 68,628 crore have been issued in over 1,68,000 cases.

Maruti Suzuki, Hero MotoCorp and Mahindra & Mahindra are planning a surge in production over the next few months.
Sign of revival from the lockdown months.
Experts said demand is rising for personal transport because of Covid distancing norms while a good harvest thanks to a normal monsoon has boosted farm incomes.

Supply chain continues to be challenging but has eased out in the last few weeks.
An extended inauspicious shraadh period this year — which runs from September 2 to October 15 — may persuade buyers to defer purchases of new vehicles until the middle of next month.

Government: Central ministries and PSUs have cleared payments to the tune of over Rs 6,800 crore owed to micro, small and medium enterprises in the last three months.
Almost three-fourths of the monthly dues have been paid.
The pending amounts will be cleared within 45 days.
The MSME Development Act of 2006 provides that such dues should be paid within 45 days.
The Ministry of MSME said it followed up on this announcement vigorously and took up the matter with the central ministries, CPSEs and state governments.
To make the reporting easy, regular and seamless, a dedicated online format has been made for reporting the monthly payments and pendency, the ministry said.

Udyam Registration Portal developed by Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises has become operational from 01 JUL 2020.
The new process of classification and registration of enterprises has started as already declared vide notification dated 26th June, 2020.

Just like MGNREGA we may soon see a MGUREGA
India is considering extending its flagship jobs program in villages to workers in cities left unemployed by the pandemic-induced lockdowns.
The program, when approved, may be rolled out in smaller cities and initially cost about 350 billion rupees ($4.8 billion).
Under MGNREGA workers in the hinterland can earn a guaranteed minimum daily wage of 202 rupees for at least 100 days a year.
Government is already spending more than Rs 1 trillion on a rural jobs program this year.
Local public-works projects such as road-building, well-digging and reforestation.
Covers more than 270 million people