Daily Financial News Analysis – 18th Dec’19

Table of Contents

National Broadband Mission

Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad launched National Broadband Mission.
AIM: to provide affordable and universal access of broadband to all villages by 2022.
Larger narrative: to propel India and push the economy to a five-trillion dollar economy.
He said it is imperative for National Broadband Mission to be a huge success in villages as it will have a transformative impact and give rise to new aspirations.
He said Digital India is creating an enabling atmosphere.

Restructuring of tax slabs isn’t part of the GST Council agenda.
But it could still be discussed being part of the recommendations by a panel of tax officials.
Reasons for the decline in revenue collection.
Consider measures to augment mop-up for the remaining 4 months of the year.
Government needs to collect nearly Rs. 1.14 lakh crore per month for the remaining 4 months to meet its estimates for gross collections.
April-November: average monthly GST collection is a little over Rs. 1 lakh crore.
End of the year shorfall could be around Rs. 50,000 crore.

2020: 112^th India slips 4 ranks
World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index 2020 covers 153 economies.
It will take nearly 100 years to close the gender gap across politics, economic, health and education.
India has closed two-thirds of its overall gender gap (score of 66.8%).
The condition of women in large fringes of India’s society is precarious.
Some countries ranked lower than India have improved more.
Among the 153 countries studied, India is the only country where the economic gender gap is larger than the political gender gap.
Iceland (87.7%) remains the world’s most gender-equal country.

India will not sign any free trade agreement (FTA) in a hurry or to the disadvantage of industry and exporters.
Goyal said that New Delhi is talking to the EU and UK for trade pacts.
Even the first leg of our trade deal with USA is for the benefit of both countries equitably.
RCEP had been reduced to an India-China FTA which nobody wants.
Goyal said industry should focus on becoming part of value chain with Europe, the US, ASEAN nations, Japan and Korea, among others.
Goyal also said that Indian business and industry have been put to disadvantage over the years and instead of addressing some of the real issues that industries face, more and more distress was caused to them.
India’s export faced huge amount of trade barriers in other countries

The government is considering a proposal to double the number of members at the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to 6.
To expedite the disposal of cases at a time when anti-competition or merger and acquisition cases from relatively new areas, including e-commerce, have started coming in.
If the proposal is implemented, the CCI will likely have one principal bench and an additional bench to settle the cases once the three new members are appointed.
The Section 8(1) of the Competition Act, 2002, had stipulated that the CCI would comprise a chairperson and not less than two and not more than six members.
The average number of days taken to dispose of a combination notice dropped to 18 in FY19 from 23 in the previous year, according to the CCI’s annual report.

Industry bodies on Tuesday asked a resource-hungry government to resort to a
1. fiscal expansion of 50-75 basis points in relation to the deficit target
2. spend more on asset creation, especially rural infrastructure
3. cut in the personal income tax rates to boost sagging consumption
CII president Vikram Kirloskar suggested that the current economic situation warrants an expansionary fiscal policy.
Ficci has recommended that income of only Rs. 20 lakh or above be taxed at the peak rate of 30% for individuals, against the current Rs. 10 lakh.
Similarly, income up to Rs. 5 lakh be exempt from tax for all, from the current limit of Rs. 2.5 lakh (for those up to the age of 60).
CII suggested that the government (Central and state) and CPSEs must clear their dues to industry at the earliest and a portal must be set up to capture the all pending payments.
Stakeholders from the agriculture and allied sectors sought steps to boost investment in the sector and enhance market access.
Ajay Vir Jakhar, chairman of Bharat Krishak Samaj
1. existing Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana can be scrapped
2. instead, a separate compensation scheme can be designed and a disaster relief commission can be set up for farmers.
3. GST on all processed food and dairy items should be cut to 5%.
4. suggested that e-NAM can be suitably restructured to make it more effective.