The government is considering blocking internet protocol (IP) addresses of companies/exchanges on which trading in cryptocurrencies is happening, said a source in the know. Two months ago, the government had said it intended to bring a Bill to ban private cryptocurrencies and introduce India's own digital currency in line with what China and other countries had done. This move is part of that. The government had also proposed to promote technology like blockchain. Industry, however, says banning decentralised currencies like bitcoin and ethereum is not possible.
Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) has urged the government to reduce import duty on gold to 4 per cent from 7.5 per cent and a special package for the sector in the forthcoming Budget to boost shipments. As part of its pre-Budget recommendations, the council has also suggested a reduction in the import duty on cut and polished diamonds; cut and polished precious and semi-precious gemstones from 7.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent. "If (gold) imported at 4 per cent duty rate....working capital amounting to Rs 225 crore would be blocked instead of Rs 500 crore," the council said in a statement.
The Centre has recovered around Rs 95.86 crore from at least 11 crypto exchanges for evading goods and services tax (GST), according to data released by Parliament on Monday. The amount includes interest and penalty. The GST investigation department has detected a total tax evasion of Rs 81.54 crore by crypto exchanges that include WazirX, Coin DCX, CoinSwitch Kuber, Buy Ucoin, UnoCoin and Flitpay, among other exchanges. In a written reply to Lok Sabha, minister of state (MoS) for finance Pankaj Chaudhary said 11 cases of GST evasion by cryptocurrency exchanges have been detected by central GST formations.
The government on Friday came out with new guidelines to prevent misleading advertisements, including those targeting children and making free claims to woo consumers.
The proposed amendments to the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020, that are envisioned to protect consumer interests, may further compound the impact of multiplicity of regulations on the e-commerce sector, the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC) had told the ministry of consumer affairs. IACC, the apex bilateral chamber for Indo-US business, had told the government that the proposed amendments would increase compliance liabilities that risk severely impairing the growth of the sector.
Small stocks of Dalal Street grappled with turbulent times in 2022 as high volatility and higher interest rate regime sapped investors' appetite for these scrips but the horizon ahead seems less cloudy for the New Year. While the 30-share Sensex scaled multiple record peaks with bluechips glittering, small stocks underperformed and the BSE smallcap index declined more than 3 per cent this year. In comparison, the BSE Sensex climbed 2,673.61 points or 4.58 per cent till December 27.
Auto stocks are weighing on the indices.
In an accompanying vision statement, the former finance minister highlighted his track record of serving in the Cabinet, helping to steer the economy through the toughest of times with the COVID pandemic.
After a stellar November that saw companies mop up over Rs 36,000 crore from the primary market via initial public offers (IPOs) and offers for sale (OFS), the current month, analysts said, will test investor's willingness to stay on with their investments as the one-month mandatory lock-in period for anchor investors begins to loosen. A note by Edelweiss Alternative Research suggests that in calendar year 2021 (CY21), 51 companies went public. Of these, 41 issuances' anchor selling dates are already over.
Apple's newest phone iPhone 14 will be made in India as the global tech titan bets big on the manufacturing prowess of the world's second-biggest smartphone market after China.
Industry estimates over 30 tonnes of gold were sold on Akshaya Tritiya this time.
Das filed the complaint on Sunday and alleged that several people were issuing "threats, making sexually coloured remarks and defaming her" through online posts.
'We are having an outsize impact not only on the lives of the customers and livelihood, but also the economy of India.'
The buzz in the IPO market continues with four companies launching their initial share sales this week to raise over Rs 14,628 crore collectively. This comes after four companies -- Devyani International, Krsnaa Diagnostics, Windlas Biotech and Exxaro Tiles-- launched their initial share-sales last week to mobilise Rs 3,614 crore. So far in the current fiscal, 16 companies have raised Rs 30,666 crore through IPOs against Rs 31,277 crore by 30 firms in the entire 2020-21. Going forward, market analysts expect the IPO environment to remain buzzing during the entire 2021-22.
Colgate-Palmolive India (Colgate India) on Wednesday met distributors' body to sort out the issue of price parity between the traditional trade and organised distributors, which are present offline as well as online. These companies include Jiomart, Booker, Udaan and Elastic Run. Colgate India's meeting with distributors comes after the traditional channel stopped supplying its Colgate MaxFresh range of products in Maharashtra.
The ban by the Delhi government was imposed after a large number of ducks at Sanjay Lake and crows at various parks were found dead in the past several days.
E-commerce giant Amazon and Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy's Catamaran Ventures have "mutually decided" to not continue their joint venture (JV) beyond the end of its current term. The JV, Prione Business Services, which has been running successfully for the past seven years, was coming up for renewal on May 19, 2022. The JV enabled over 300,000 sellers and entrepreneurs to go online. It also enabled 4 million merchants with digital payment capabilities, providing these small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and merchants access to millions of customers across the country.
The US has received enough petitions needed to reach the congressionally mandated 65,000 H-1B visa cap for the fiscal year 2022, a federal agency has announced. The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.
People were still frantically searching for their loved ones as police said 19 people were still unaccounted for.
After opening higher, the markets continued to trade in the positive zone in the afternoon session as traders were encouraged by RBI governor Shaktikanta Das's statement that the new resolution framework is expected to give durable relief to borrowers amid the Covid-19 crisis, said Narendra Solanki, head-equity research (fundamental), Anand Rathi.
Citing India's commitment to deep economic reforms and ease of doing business, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted on Monday that this is the best time to invest in the country as policy-making is focussed on the needs for the next 25 years for a 'clean and green' as well as 'sustainable and reliable' growth period. In his special address to the World Economic Forum's online Davos Agenda 2022 summit, Modi underlined a host of reform measures undertaken by his government to stress that it has worked to reduce the administration's interference in business by deregulating many sectors and to clear the way for free trade agreements with different countries. India was once associated with "license raaj", he noted and highlighted the measures, including reduction of corporate tax to boost business and doing away with over 25,000 compliance requirements.
Internshala Trainings is offering free online trainings for 1,000 young professionals who have lost their jobs in the pandemic.
Market players said the new norms were more suited for online brokers, where clients were typically internet savvy.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, will be answering these and many such questions in an online chat with readers on February 5, between 4 pm and 5 pm.
In the past four months, more than 4 million new accounts have been opened, taking the total to 44.3 million.
As the voting process for the new Conservative Party leader formally opened with postal ballots being mailed out to Tory members from Monday, Rishi Sunak vowed to cut the basic rate of income tax by 20 per cent in a few years if he is elected Britain's prime minister.
India's gig workforce is expected to expand to 2.35 crore by 2029-30 from 77 lakh in 2020-21, a NITI Aayog report said on Monday, and recommended extending social security measures for such workers and their families in partnership mode as envisaged in Code on Social Security. The report titled 'India's Booming Gig and Platform Economy' further said gig workers are expected to form 6.7 per cent of the non-agricultural workforce or 4.1 per cent of the total livelihood in India by 2029-30. Gig workers can be broadly classified into platform and non-platform workers.
Premier bourse BSE has added 1 crore registered investor accounts to its platform between June 6 and September 21, taking the total to over 8 crore in a span of just 107 days. On June 6 this year, the exchange had said its registered user base has crossed the 7 crore (70 million) mark, which was an addition of 2 crore registered investor accounts in a little over 12 months (from May 23, 2020). Commenting on the achievement of crossing the 8 crore registered investor accounts on Tuesday, BSE MD and CEO Ashishkumar Chauhan said equity investments, whether directly or through mutual funds, are gaining ground over last one-and-a-half years due to variety of reasons globally, and the domestic market is also following this world trend.
Demand is expected to grow as most customers await a drop in prices.
'In the last 4, 5 years, ever since online companies started online shopping in a big way with heavy discounts, our sales are affected badly.' 'As there is no control over the way the online companies operate, they were able to destroy the domestic retail market to a great extent.'
Black Friday sales in India received a good response as brands dropped their prices making customers queue up outside stores where discounts were steeper. Discounts were offered both online and offline. Most of the international brands in India offered discounts under the Black Friday Sale banner. The Black Friday Sale started in the US on the Friday after Thanksgiving Thursday. The day typically marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season ahead of the festival.
'Investors with as little as Rs 1 can start investing in digital gold.'
With a report on Uber by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) opening a Pandora's box, the company is in a damage-control mode. Distancing itself from the actions of its management pre-2017, Uber, while acknowledging the "mistakes" of the past, has said that under CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, it "is a different company". "There has been no shortage of reporting on Uber's mistakes prior to 2017.
For the fiscal ended 2021, the group has made a loss of Rs 5,943 crore on sales of Rs 11,723 crore, a drop of 66 per cent over fiscal 2020. The group's total debt was up by 7 per cent to Rs 20,742 crore.
Why do investors need a broker to buy stocks which were dematerialised long ago and can be delivered directly into their accounts?
India and Australia on Saturday decided to expand military engagements across services and facilitate greater sharing of critical information in line with their resolve to significantly expand strategic ties.
The government said that far from targeting any US entity, the purpose was to ensure fairness, healthy competition, and to exercise the ability of governments to tax businesses having a nexus with the Indian market through digital operations.
Regaining the lost sheen, sales of gold jewellery and coins are set to touch pre-COVID levels in volume terms on the auspicious Dhanteras as easing pandemic concerns and pent up demand saw consumers flocking to stores to buy the precious metal. Increased footfall at stores and brisk sales online as well as relatively softer gold prices compared to record Rs 57,000 per 10 grams level in August spurred increased buying, especially light weight offerings, on Tuesday. Dhanteras is considered to be auspicious for buying precious metals and other valuable items.
Internet users should be watchful for such attacks including phishing attempts and conduct cyber security audits of their IT systems, officials of Maharashtra Cyber, the state police's cyber wing, said.
Mihir Tanna, Associate Director, S K Patodia & Associates, will answer your personal income tax queries.