Confederation of Indian Industry has demanded the removal of Fringe Benefit Tax and various other direct tax reforms
16 national and regional industry bodies and sectoral business lobbies video-conferenced with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday and raised key concerns facing Indian industry in the wake of the 21-day lockdown over coronavirus.
Ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala on Thursday said real estate developers are afflicted with very low return on capital as compared to bluechip stocks. Jhunjhunwala, who runs RARE Enterprises and is set to be a major shareholder in an upcoming airliner, said only the affordable housing developers can look at listing because of the volumes which they can deliver. It can be noted that very few developers like Macrotech Developers formerly Lodha, and DLF are listed on the bourses. Jhunjhunwala cited the case of DLF, saying the stock price plummeted to Rs 80 from Rs 1,300 per piece to illustrate the risks associated.
CII's Institute of Logistics is offering a distance learning diploma and post-graduate diploma courses in supply chain management. The courses have been developed in response to feedback from industrial practitioners.
On November 12, 2021, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) decided to ring in uniformity in asset classification and income recognition across all lending institutions. Shadow banks, or non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), like commercial banks, are to test non-performing assets (NPAs) on a daily basis and upgrade them to "standard assets" only when interest and principal arrears are settled by borrowers. This is going to create all manner of headaches for shadow banks and their clientele. Says Y S Chakravarti, managing director and chief executive officer (CEO), Shriram City Union Finance: "NPA levels will go up, especially of small borrowers.
Business leaders, among others, ask govt to let go of fiscal target, seek stimulus, and direct cash transfer.
'I advise people to stay away from secondary IPOs. There is a big conflict of interest between the exiting and incoming investors'
However, the chief minister made up for her absence by addressing the gathering via state Industry and Finance Minister Amit Mitra's mobile phone.
The chamber has suggested setting up of a committee under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to ensure resolution of the issue between the banks and exporters. Many exporters, who hedged their currency risk by executing forex derivatives contracts with banks, suffered huge losses on fluctuation in the value of rupee and now want that the banks compensate them.
The Confederation of Indian Industry on Thursday relaunched its operations in China on a larger scale by opening its east Asia regional representative office in Shanghai, the commercial capital of the Communist nation.
Rahul Bajaj was transparent, outspoken, and not ready to bend the rules, says R C Bhargava.
Days after the government went public with its intent to examine a Sebi order in the NSE matter, its outgoing chairman Ajay Tyagi on Wednesday made it clear that the markets regulator did not "dilute" any of the quasi-judicial verdicts. The comments assume significance as they come after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, as per reports, recently said the government is examining if Sebi has taken "necessary punitive" action in the case. In a media interview, the FM had said the government was analysing if there had been "enough application of mind in dealing with this" and if after applying its mind, Sebi took adequate corrective steps.
To address the supply crunch, CII has suggested leveraging the existing excess capacity in the Indian industry; rolling back import duty hike to look for alternative sources of imports; expanding credit to manufacturing units with quick loan sanctions, and one-time emergency waiver of non-performing asset regulations for three months.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement that the central government will provide free coronavirus vaccine to states will help ensuring quick rollout of vaccine, uniformity of procurement prices and resuming normal economic activities at the earliest, India Inc said on Monday. Industry chamber PHDCCI said that the increased role of the central government in the vaccination procurement process would help make vaccination drives further effective and maximise the supply in the country in relatively less time. "This would be a crucial step in making the country COVID free sooner than later," it said.
India's top vaccinologist Gagandeep Kang stressed the need to develop better vaccines that can deal with new variants, and strengthening of the regulatory mechanisms.
The industry body said a strong inter-ministerial coordination group is required to resolve sticky issues like the 'mining conundrum' and 'raw material securitisation' for sectors like steel.
Getting to the magic growth, however, will require massive increase in investment in infrastructure, in labour force skills and manufacturing capacity.
The coronavirus pandemic has taught that viruses cannot be taken lightly, and the unpredictability in emerging scenarios of health have to be respected and addressed, Paul noted.
The Council of Islamic Ideology raised serious concerns over not including verses about jihad in the proposed syllabi for public educational institutions.
Backed by the 'China Plus One' sentiment globally, India's textile exports is expected to grow by 81 per cent to $65 billion by 2026 from the pre-Covid level of around $36 billion in 2019, said a report by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and global consulting firm Kearney. This jump is likely to generate 7.5-10 million new jobs. A large chunk of this targeted increase, or around $16 billion may come from the China Plus One sentiment due to India's relatively large strategic depth compared with Vietnam or Bangladesh, the report said.
The Union Cabinet has cleared a proposal to provide Rs 30,600 crore government guarantee for security receipts issued by the National Asset Reconstruction Company (NARCL) as part of resolution of bad loans, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Thursday. The proposed bad bank or NARCL will pay up to 15 per cent of the agreed value for the loans in cash and the remaining 85 per cent would be government-guaranteed security receipts. The government guarantee would be invoked if there is loss against the threshold value.
Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday pitched for formulating a policy for using the Reserve Bank of India's rising foreign exchange reserves for funding road projects, saying the country needs low cost finance for such infrastructure projects. Addressing a virtual event organised by industry body CII, Gadkari further said that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) should also have a financial arm like the power ministry's Power Finance Corporation (PFC). "We have a surplus of dollar reserves in the country. I have decided to talk with the RBI Governor, about how we can formulate a policy by which we can use this foreign exchange reserves for development of infrastructure in the country," he said.
India Inc on Thursday pitched for continuation of reforms while ensuring tax and policy stability in the forthcoming Budget to prop up the economy hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the virtual pre-Budget consultation held with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, industry chambers said that government measures will help firmly entrench the nascent signs of recovery being currently seen in private investment. Capital expenditure by the government through enhanced infrastructure spending should in the meantime continue to support growth, CII president TV Narendran said.
The Confederation of Indian Industry rated the performance of the NDA government on the economic front "excellent" even though the reforms agenda was unfinished.
The UK government is under increasing pressure on Monday to review its COVID-19 vaccine protocol in place for travellers from India, after its updated rules effective from next month failed to recognise Indian vaccines under an expanded list of countries.
As per the survey for January-March 2013, majority of India Inc (54.1 per cent), however, expects no change in their employment levels.
On the eve of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's visit to China, Confederation of Indian Industry has released a survey on Sino-Indian business relations, which reflect growing interest of Indian companies in the Chinese market.
The delegation will participate at the American Film Market.