Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday raised the personal income tax rebate limit, doled out sops on small savings and announced one of the biggest hikes in capital spending in the past decade as she did a tight rope walk in the Budget between staying fiscally prudent and meeting public expectations in the year before general elections.
Omkeshwar Singh, Head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
This would make India the world's second-biggest nuclear energy market after China
After Yes Bank was placed under moratorium, digital payments were impacted as PhonePe, which depends on the cash-strapped lender for its transactions, could not operate. Even the bank's own net banking facilities have not been operational since last evening. Other fintech operators who rely on Yes Bank to settle their transactions are also down.
Haryana's Additional Advocate General Jagbir Singh Malik said the State will be filing a Special Leave Petition (SLP) against the order before the Supreme Court. The interim order has come as a relief for companies in the state which feel that the Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act, 2020 would have a bearing on their future business operations and investment.
The GST Council on Friday left taxes on COVID-19 vaccines and medical supplies unchanged after the BJP- and Opposition-ruled states sparred over whether tax cut benefits will reach the common man. Congress and other Opposition ruled states have been demanding a reduction in taxes but the central government felt the move may not result in tangible gains for people. "It is one thing to rush to say - do this, it will benefit the common man. But when the technical, fitment and law committees go into the details, you realise that that could have collateral impact on many others," Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said. "I am not talking about the revenue generation aspect, but how many other items will get included in it as a result of which how you are going to implement it," she added.
the three investors that have submitted their final bids are not commercial banks. Among the three, one is a non-banking financial company. Another distinctive feature of the revival is that PMC may lose its cooperative bank characteristic after its reconstruction.
One of the key issues will be tax exemption sought by the ICC for the future global events in India like the 2021 Champions Trophy and the 2023 World Cup.
After the Reserve Bank of India restricted the Sri Guru Raghavendra Co-operative Bank from doing business with immediate effect and capped the withdrawal limit at Rs 35,000, depositors on Tuesday queued up outside the bank's branches in Bengaluru. The regulatory body said the bank will continue to undertake banking business with restrictions until its financial position improves.
As per the RBI directions to PMC Bank, withdrawals have been capped at Rs 1,000 per account and the bank is not allowed to make any fresh loans.
'These firms do not contravene provisions of Chartered Accountants Act, 1949, which bar members of the countries not allowing Indians to practice accountancy in their jurisdiction to become chartered accountants in India,' said the committee, headed by Anurag Agarwal, a joint secretary in the ministry of corporate affairs, and such Indian audit firms cannot be equated with multi-national corporations.
The unexpected interest rate hike by the RBI on Wednesday will have the banking system on average making a 10-15 bps gains on the yields, with private banks making larger gains as 57 per cent of their loans are linked to external benchmark rate and 40 per cent to the marginal cost of lending rates, as per a report. Stating that lenders and borrowers will face volatile times with the Reserve Bank raising the repo rate by 40 bps to 4.40 per cent and the cash reserve ratio (CRR) by 50 bps on May 4 in an off-cycle policy move, India Ratings said the market rates had already been moving higher before the move. The 364-day T-bills have moved up 120 bps and 10-year G-sec by 140 bps since May 2020, when the repo rate was cut to a record 4 per cent, which led to an expectation of a faster and sharper rise in interest rates in the system but the central bank stayed the course to support the fragile economy battered by the pandemic.
Defending the timing of Yes Bank's moratorium, Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das on Friday assured swift resolution to the issues concerning the beleaguered lender. "The resolution (to Yes Bank) will be done very swiftly, it will be done very fast. 30 days which we have given is the outer limit. You will see a very swift action from RBI," Das told reportters in Mumbai.
The central agency is probing Kapoor's role in connection with the disbursal of a loan to a corporate entity and the subsequent alleged kickbacks that were reportedly received in his wife's accounts.
'There has definitely been a breakthrough in the nuclear logjam. It is good to see nuclear energy back on the rails,' says Dr Anil Kakodkar, former chairman, Atomic Energy Commission.
South America-based Synergy Group, one of the suitors, has said slots at London's Heathrow airport are critical to the airline's operations and will decide on participating in the resolution only if it gets clarity. It also wants to form a new company with its assets, employees, and operating permit but minus all liabilities.
Tata Steel was the top laggard in the Sensex pack, cracking over 6 per cent, followed by SBI, IndusInd Bank, HDFC, ICICI Bank and ONGC. Bajaj Auto, Maruti and Asian Paints were the only gainers.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday assured cash-starved Yes Bank depositors that their money is safe and the RBI is working on an early resolution of the issue. "I'm in continuous interaction with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The central bank is fully seized of the matter and has assured they will give a quick resolution. I want to assure every depositor that their money shall be safe. Their monies are safe," Sitharaman told reporters in New Delhi.
The inaugural Formula E race in Hyderabad is scheduled for February 11 next year, joining the likes of New York, London and Rome on the calendar.
R-Cap's demands following PwC's audit report add a fresh layer of worries for MCX investors and could hit valuations marginally.
Being one of the early commentators to flag economic slowdown and caution investors on corporate earnings, Gautam Chhaochharia, head of India research, UBS Securities, in an interview with Hamsini Karthik says the markets remain in an expensive zone despite the recent correction.
'Passengers of the Jet Airways flight will be entitled for compensation for discomfort and trauma, but it may not be Rs 2 million in this incident.'
Those just starting their careers should avoid adding to their liabilities, especially if they already have an education loan. They should think hard before taking a car or home loan.
Sun Pharma's market capitalisation stood at Rs 100,050 crore on December 5, with its share price closing at Rs 417 a piece - lowest since March 2013.
Vodafone's operating loss from India business jumped to 692 million euros in April-September from 133 million euros in the same period last year.
For Dhawan, 'balance on and off the field' is very important, in theory and in practice
Barbeque Nation IPO: The promoters hold 60.24 per cent stake, CX Partners owns 33.79 per cent and Rakesh Jhunjhunwala's investment firm Alchemy Capital holds 2.05 per cent in the company.
The Cabinet has cleared a Bill to set up a government-owned development finance institution (DFI) with initial paid-up capital of Rs 20,000 crore so that it can leverage around Rs 3 trillion from the markets in a few years to provide long-term funds to infrastructure projects as well as for development needs of the country. To put it in perspective, Rs 3 trillion constitutes slightly less than 3 per cent of the Rs 111 trillion to be spent on over 7,000 projects in the National Infrastructure Pipeline from 2019-20 to 2024-25. Besides, the government will give Rs 5,000 crore as grant to the institution, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday told the media after the Cabinet meeting.
At present 100% FDI is allowed, of which up to 49% investment in a company can be done through the automatic route
Mihir Tanna, Associate Director, S K Patodia & Associates, answers your tax queries.
If new goals have emerged, this is the time to make fresh investments.
The combined market capitalisation of the two listed companies of the Sahara group whose assets have been ordered frozen by the Securities and Exchnage Board of India is just Rs 230 crore.
'At a time when the entire India-US relationship needs to be defined by President Trump and Prime Minister Modi, a fresh look at the liability issue has become urgent,' says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan, former Governor for India at the IAEA.
From the resurrected cash-for-votes scandal to a rigged process favouring four foreign vendors -- and from new safety concerns to the special legislation that caps the foreign suppliers' accident liability by burdening the Indian taxpayer -- the nuclear deal's future looks more troubled than ever, says Brahma Chellaney.
How on earth did Dr Manmohan Singh and his ministers conclude that the casualties of a disaster in a nuclear plant would be fewer than the deaths and injuries caused by the Bhopal gas tragedy? And that the compensation could, therefore, be capped at a smaller amount, asks T V R Shenoy.
The government is understood to be mulling an ordinance to impose penalties on anyone possessing the junked Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes beyond December 30 when the deadline to deposit them in banks expires.
The Congress insisted on Monday that the nuclear liability bill was in "public interest" in tune with international paradigms and attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party and Left parties for opposing it, saying they had "blinkered vision".
There will be different ways of returning the money, depending on the profile of the depositors and the amount, predicts Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Joy Thomas stated that one large account -- HDIL -- was the sole reason for the present crisis that led to the regulatory action on Tuesday when Reserve Bank of India superseded its management and placed it under an administrator for the next six months.
"What is the need for such a legislation if the public sector and the government will be the only nuclear operators? What is the purpose of this law or of putting a cap on compensation if it is the government which has to pay?" a senior BJP MP said.The BJP fears that once this Bill is passed the government may allow private players later by effecting an amendment only regarding entry of private operators while leaving the Rs 500 crore compensation cap intact.
