Daily Financial News Analysis – 12th Sep’19

Table of Contents

Home Loans

Senior finance ministry official saidgovernment is considering a fund for housing loan.
It will provide guarantees for thosewho won’t otherwise be eligible for a housing loan.
Part of a package prepared by thegovernment to help the housing sector.
Lower interest rates
The government is also examining thefeasibility of a stressed asset fund under the package, which will help complete stalled projects.
The credit enhancement fund couldbring more buyers into the housing market, which is saddled with high inventory.
Defaults by many builders ondeliveries have made buyers wary, hurting demand.
Liquidity squeeze gripping nonbankingfinance companies (NBFCs).

Submarine project

₹45,000-crore Indian Navysubmarine project. ‘
Largest ongoing Make-in-Indiainitiative in the defence sector.
The contract, under which anIndian shipyard will be chosen to manufacture six conventional submarines in collaboration with a foreign partner, is in its initial stages.
Vehicle Scrapping Policy
Nitin Gadkari: will announce it shortly
Scrappage centres for commercialvehicles and passenger cars.
Industry stakeholders should also lookat setting up such units for dismantling old two-wheelers.
Automobile sales in the countryrecorded their steepest fall in nearly two decades last month down 23.5% year on year to 1.8 million units.

RCEP Safeguards

India is batting for a specialmechanism.
When imports from an RCEP partnerexceed a particular threshold: transitional safeguards measures auto-trigger and snapback
New Delhi wants to counter a suddensurge in imports for a period of six months.
This threshold would be mutuallydecided by the members and would be applied only on mutually identified select lines.
The snapback provision would allowIndia to revert to the original higher tariffs to counter a sudden surge in imports.
Phantom capital About $15 trillion, or 38%, of theworld’s foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2017 was “PHANTOM CAPITAL”
Tailor-made to trim tax bills ofmultinational corporations, and tax havens were being used to funnel these investments. The share of such investments inreported FDI has shot up by roughly seven percentage points since 2010.
The surge in these investments reflects thefailure of increasing global efforts in curbing tax avoidance.
10 economies host more than 85% of allphantom investments. These nations typically have low tax rates.Luxembourg Netherlands Hong Kong British Virgin Islands Bermuda Singapore Cayman Islands Switzerland Ireland Mauritius
The phantom FDI phenomenon affects“virtually all economies”, no matter their size or level of development.
Across all economies, the averageoutflows towards overseas shell firms represents 25% of the total FDI.
Globalisation creates new challengesfor macroeconomic statistics. sell digital services from tax havenswithout having a physical presence.

Motor Vehicles Act

Gujarat government: reduce by 25-90%, the stiff fines for assorted traffic violation is regrettable.
Several more states, such asKarnataka, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Kerala, might follow Gujarat’s lead.
Of course, under the Constitution, thestates are entitled to set their own rules in such matters, and the Centre cannot really interfere.
The combined result is to undermineIndia’s commitment to the global goal of halving the number of death and injuries from road traffic accidents by 2020.
India has among the highest roadaccident fatalities and injuries in the world, accounting for nearly 12% (1,50,785 persons) of the global total in 2016.
Between 2005 and 2015, the road networkgrew by 44%, the number of registered motor vehicles, by123%, and the number of road accident fatalities, by 54%.
The majority who die in this fashion are inthe prime of their lives.
Strengthening automobile safety standards,improved road infrastructure, awareness programmes and tougher enforcement of traffic rules did not make a serious dent on the toll.
4,64,910 accidents and 1,47,913fatalities were reported by the police in 2017.
India’s problem is not the paucity oftraffic rules and regulations but a general disregard for them.
Raising the cost of violating trafficrules through stiff penalties may seem like exercising the nuclear option but it is the surest way of infusing respect for norms.
The Gujarat government said it actedon ‘compassionate and humanitarian’ grounds. But compassion lies in saving lives through safer conduct on the roads.
States can fix their own penalty rates,given the great disparity in incomes across the land, but honouring the spirit behind the steep rise proposed in the Act.

Opec+ meeting

The Organization of the PetroleumExporting Countries and allied producers led by Russia, a grouping known as Opec+
Ministerial meeting on Thursday. Opec and its allies will discusswhether there is a need for deeper cuts in oil production.
Opec+, agreed last year to cut oilsupply by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) to support prices.
The cuts came into effect on Jan. 1.