Table of Contents
GST Math
- September 20 Goods and Services Tax(GST) Council meeting
- Rate reductions aimed at boostingdemand during the festive season.
- Finance Mnistry: wants to estimate therevenue it would lose
- Fitment panel: comprises central andstate officials
- Fitment panel that examines ratechanges is expected to meet shortly
- Among big-ticket consumer items,automobiles, tyres, cement, air conditioners and large LCD televisions are currently in the 28% bracket.
- RBI rate cut: 35 Bps
- Some say now Govt should take a call
Link Loans to Benchmarks
- Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has made itmandatory for banks to link loans to external interest rate benchmarks.
- Aim: to make transmission of monetarypolicy more effective.
- The RBI also suggested a series of ratesthat lenders can choose from as the peg.
- The RBI has already cut the policy rateby 110 basis points this year
- Banking conference last month, Dassaid: the transmission of policy rates at just 29 basis points (bps) this year, compared with a combined repo rate cut of 75 bps (excluding the 35bps cut in August), did not meet RBI’s expectations.
India-US Deal
- 10 Boeing P8I maritime patrolaircraft
- $3.1-billion deal to acquire maritimeaircraft for the Navy.
- Surveillance capabilities in the IndianOcean Region.
- Mandatory clause for at least 30%offsets to domestic companies.
FDI Inflows
- Foreign direct investment (FDI) equity inflows rose 28%in the first quarter of 2019-20.
- $16.3 billion from $12.7 billion in the year-ago period
- Financial
- Banking
- Insurance
- Non-financial/business
- Outsourcing
- Research and development
- Courier
- Technology testing & analysis
- India-bound FDI had dipped 1% to$44.4 billion in 2018-19 from $44.8 billion in the previous fiscal.
- This was the first decline in six years.
- While Mauritius does not provide anytax incentives anymore, a lot of investors use Singapore as their regional headquarters
Services PMI Dips
- The IHS Markit India ServicesPurchasing Managers’ Index (PMI)
- India’s services sector activitysoftened in August as job creation and output expansion moderated.
- Services PMI: declined to 52.4 inAugust, in July it was 53.8.
- Manufacturing PMI: slipping to a 15-month low in August.
- The IHS Markit India Composite PMIOutput Index that maps both the manufacturing and services industries fell to 52.6 in August from 53.9 in July.
- Govt measures: opening up foreigndirect investment in contract manufacturing, easing norms for overseas investors in single brand retail and coal mining, rolling back enhanced surcharge on foreign portfolio investors.
Infra Players
- Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman metrepresentatives from the infrastructure industry.
- Aim: to understand issues faced by them
- Concerns: pace of execution of projects,lack of investor frinedliness, financing and land issues
- This was part of series of sectoralmeetings being held by Sitharaman