There is a need to clearly define the responsibility and accountability for the auditors as well as the audit committees, the CEPR said in a report. "The management in all fairness does expect the auditors to catch loopholes. But it becomes almost impossible to detect many of them especially with limited scope and undefined area of work and powers," it added.
Speculations are rife that the interest rate on EPF may be lowered to 8.5% for the current fiscal, a tad lower than 8.65% provided for 2018-19. As per sources, the agenda for the CBT meeting has not yet been finalised and it is difficult to predict EPFO's income projections for the current fiscal, which will be the basis for fixing the rate.
"Barring a few segments, a large number of engineering exports from India can fill up the market vacated by China; so is the case with products like leather and leather goods," Assocham Secretary General Deepak Sood said. He said India can also tap the opportunities in segments like agriculture and carpets.
Venkaiah Naidu called for developing all Indian ports on par with other global ports and said the creation of world-class infrastructure at ports was important for India to become a USD 5 trillion economy. He added that India has an excellent opportunity for port-led development as ports were inevitable for exports and imports.
The Government of India has received Rs 12,82,857 crore up to January 2020. Tax revenue stood at Rs 9,98,037 crore, while non-tax revenue stood at Rs 2,52,083 crore. Non-debt capital receipts stood at Rs 32,737 crore, which includes Rs 18,351 crore of disinvestment proceeds.
India's Q3 GDP performance of 4.7% would have been an improvement, had the Q2 data not been revised upwards. However, the slowing growth doesn't come as a surprise. Manufacturing has remained weak, exports falling and consumer demand and private investment have taken a hit. For FY20, GDP is now estimated to grow by a decade’s low of 5%.
Vivaad se Vishwas scheme appears to have come as a blessing for those who came under scrutiny following DeMo.
The slump may have reached its bottom with India's growth expanding at 4.7% in Q3, compared to Q2.
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. The government aims to restrict the gap at 3.3 per cent of the GDP or Rs 7,03,760 crore in the year ending March 2020.
Growth had recovered in December 2019 after remaining in the negative zone for four months. The December numbers were boosted by expansion in the production of coal, fertiliser and refinery products.
"It is not correct farmers' premium has been changed. Farmers premium under the PMFBY is not going to change under any circumstances," PMFBY CEO and Joint Secretary in the Agriculture Ministry Ashish K Bhutani said at an agri-summit organised by BusinessLine newspaper.
Slowdown in the Indian economy has bottomed out and measures taken by the government in the recent budget to improve capacity to spend in rural sector, infrastructure creation and inviting foreign investments will boost growth, State Bank of India Managing Director Dinesh Khara has said.
Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech had offered incentives for sovereign wealth funds of foreign governments in the priority sectors. The government said it will grant 100% tax exemption to their interest, dividend and capital gains income on investment made in infrastructure and other 36 notified sectors before March 2024 and with a minimum lock-in period of 3 years.
Although there are expectations of a rebound happening in the third quarter, most data points unequivocally suggest that the Indian economy is still not out of the woods. There are enough signs that India's troubles may have persisted well into the third quarter. A few forecasts, however, predict that growth will pick up marginally to 4.7% in Q3.
The pickup in India’s growth last quarter from 4.5% in the previous three months probably came from a rebound in farm output, an improving services industry and rising government spending. But the recovery remains uneven, with a slew of high-frequency indicators showing consumption -- which accounts for 60% of gross domestic product -- is still weak.
The spread of coronavirus is pushing the world economy toward its worst performance since the financial crisis more than a decade ago. Bank of America Corp. economists warned clients Thursday that they now expect 2.8% global growth this year, the weakest since 2009.
New Zealand is a member of RCEP and was pushing for opening up of India’s dairy sector, triggering fears of dumping of dairy products from milk-surplus countries Australia and New Zealand. Opening up of the dairy sector was one of the key concern areas for India in the RCEP talks.
According to International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker, basic wearables dominated the market with a 96.2% share, up 177% YoY in 2019 while smart wearables accounted for 3.8% of the overall shipments rising by 49.5%.
Sugar exports from India are likely to pick up with Indonesia showing interest in importing 1.3 million tonnes by May. The government gives millers an export subsidy of Rs 10,448 per tonne, which should be transferred directly to the bank accounts of farmers to settle arrears. The total accumulated arrears has now come down to Rs 1,700 crore.
The alternative investment fund is taking multiple steps so that it has complete control of the disbursement and the end use of the funds. This is to ensure that there is no diversion of funds. The fund appoints a project management company and quantity surveyors to keep a track of site-level expenses.
The government has asked banks to clear by March 15 about 1.18 lakh pending loan applications under the Prime Minister Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), which promotes self-employment through setting up of micro enterprises.
The move assumes significance amid the ongoing violence in parts of the Capital, where reports have emerged about the Vahan database being used to allegedly identify vehicle owners for targeted violence.
The sector, predominantly driven by shared mobility, co-working, co-living and furniture rentals, is pegged to be an about USD 2 billion industry in the organised-end and growing in double digits, it said. In 2019, the segment was estimated to be about USD 1.5 billion in size in India.
Economists remain divided about whether the economy will rebound or will slow down further in the December quarter. Many estimates so far point towards a modest pick-up, but these may not matter much given that predictions for the previous quarters have gone widely off the mark.
"I met with your minister of commerce (Piyush Goyal) yesterday and we discussed those issues. Of course, New Zealand and India have been busy for some years negotiating through the rubric of RCEP and we will know by the end of the year as to whether India chooses to stay out or participate in RCEP.
"I think it (economy) will bounce back. It has tremendous potential. I see light at the end of the tunnel, it is not far. The economy will kick start soon," mining baron Anil Agarwal said adding the rollout of Goods and Services Tax (GST) had a temporary impact but it is being straightened now.
India has been slow to get involved in Asia’s very sophisticated supply chain for production across countries where China is the epicentre. This has helped India from feeling the real damage of the coronavirus, which has brought many industries, in and outside China, to a standstill.
Having suffered its weakest expansion in over six years in the September quarter, India's economy probably fared slightly better in the December quarter, before suffering a relapse due to the impact of the coronavirus globally, analysts said.
Participation in BOT projects — where private developers build a road using their own funds, operate it and then transfer it to the govt after a specified period — has been declining for five years now. Investors have been wary of putting money given the high risk factors, changing traffic flow on account of new roads coming up over the years being a major one.
Two senior tax officials said the department has sent thousands of notices this year, including to jewellers, demanding an estimated Rs 1.5-2 lakh crore in taxes. The Central Board of Direct Taxation and the Finance Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and the government has not spoken about the tax demands on the jewellers.
The idea, one of their more exciting ones in the runup to Make in Odisha, could be developped through SPV or in partnership mode with IDCO, the parastatal agency for land acquisition, taking the lead. Industry however has suggested that the state acquire the land and provide basic utilities, like water and power connections, build internal roads, ATMs and carve out plots.
The Indian economy is not fully benefitting from the structural decline in inflation, institutionalisation of inflation target and fiscal deficits broadly in check. The steep decline in inflation has lowered nominal revenue growth of companies from the high teens to the mid-single digits post 2013.
Last month, the government had banned exports of all kinds of personal protection equipment including N-95 masks and masks used to protect people from air-borne particles amid the Covid-19 outbreak in China.
India’s economic growth slipped to a 26-quarter low of 4.5% in July-September from 5% in the first quarter. The statistics office lowered the FY19 GDP growth rate to 6.1% from the provisional estimate of 6.8% and has forecast 5% growth in FY20, its slowest pace in 11 years.
Like farmers, the government has extended the facility of Kisan Credit Card (KCC) to fisheries and animal husbandry farmers in the budget for 2018-19 to help them meet their working capital needs. Till the last week of November 2019, only 8,400 fishermen were given the facility of KCC.
“The government is aiming to strike balance between the interests of farm producers and consumers through this monitoring system that will generate nationwide database of agri commodities,” said food processing minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal while launching the portal.
The government is working to rank States on the basis of their efforts to promote micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), a senior official said.
The government had imposed ban on onions in September last year when the prices of the bulb had crossed Rs 150 per kg in some retail markets. The government also had imposed stock limit and imported onions from Egypt, Afghanistan and Turkey to tame the prices.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharman on Wednesday said the government is keeping a close watch on the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the Indian economy.
The government has approved Rs 162 crore under Operation Green scheme which has an outlay of Rs 500 crore to stabilize the supply of tomato, onion and potato (TOP) crops and to ensure their availability round the year without price volatility.
John Madew, Senior Trade and investment Commissioner at the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) said delegation is keen on leveraging business opportunities in India in light of the growing significance of India -Australian economic relations.
The government on Wednesday approved the exemption of India Ports Global Ltd from the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) guidelines for smooth execution of Chabahar Port project.
The downward spiral in growth momentum has resulted in a slew of initiatives from the policymaking side, including a cumulative rate cut of 1.35 percentage point by the Reserve Bank in 2019, and a sharp cut in direct taxes for corporates by the government.
Cotton Corporation of India launched Indian cotton brand named Hira in Mumbai today.
In a keynote address at a discussion on India's Union Budget 2020, Panagariya said in the next fiscal year, India's GDP growth is expected to be 6 per cent and then it will get back to 7-8 per cent which has been the case in the last 15-16 year period.
The new method to calculate GDP includes dynamic indicators like Sensex & nominal effective exchange rate.
States with electricity utilities that lose more than 15% of revenue due to archaic networks, power theft and sloppy billing and collections would be pushed to seek private participation in their distribution network as part of the country’s planned second wave of power reforms, Power Secretary Sanjiv Nandan Sahai said.
"They (Trump and Modi) agreed to promptly conclude the ongoing negotiations, which they hope can become phase one of a comprehensive bilateral trade agreement that reflects the true ambition and full potential of the bilateral commercial relations", the White House said late on Tuesday, giving no details on what would be included in the deal.
Signs that the economy has put the worst behind it should give policy makers some respite. RBI has eased policy, while the govt has widened budget deficit goals to spur growth, which is set to be the weakest in more than a decade this year. The latest health check for the economy is due Friday, when GDP data for Q3 will be published.
Agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar said the number of farmers taking insurance cover was likely to eventually increase.
