GST collection slips below Rs 1 trillion in March after four months

Goods and services tax (GST) collection fell below the Rs 1-trillion mark in March after a gap of four months, even as disruptions caused by the coronavirus-induced lockdown will get captured only in the coming months.
The numbers pertain to GST paid in February but collected in March, suggesting that collections might turn grimmer going forward.
The GST mop-up in March stood at Rs 97,597 crore, down 8.4 per cent on a year-on-year basis, the data released by the Ministry of Finance showed on Wednesday. The government had targeted a collection of Rs 1.25 trillion in March. GST collection grew by a meagre 3.7 per cent in the full fiscal year 2019-20.
The dismal collection in March is despite the stringent anti-evasion measures introduced by the government, including the blockage of e-way bill and restricting input tax credit to 10 per cent in the case of failure of invoice uploads by suppliers.
Already hit by an economic slowdown, the country went into a 21-day lockdown from March 24 to prevent the spread of Covid-19. All industries that were struggling have become non-operational, which will reflect in the April GST collection figures.
Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac told Business Standard that the April numbers, which would essentially be transactions in March would only be about 15-20 per cent of the March figures.
Pratik Jain, partner, PwC India, said, “It seems that many businesses may not have been able to pay GST because of liquidity issues being faced after the lockdown. As the second half of March 2020 has been significantly impacted due to the Covid-19 outbreak, collections in April are likely to be substantially lower.”
In a major relief for businesses facing lockdown due to coronavirus, the last date for GST return filing for March, April and May 2020 has been extended to June 30, with no interest, late fee and penalty, for companies with up to Rs 5 crore turnover and subsidised interest of 9 per cent, and no penalty or late fees for bigger companies.
M S Mani, partner, Deloitte India, said it was necessary for businesses to conserve cash in order to enable resumption of operations once the lockdown ends. Hence, any deferral of the GST payment timelines by a few months would significantly assist them in this process, Mani said.
Central GST collection for FY20 at Rs 4.95 trillion fell Rs 18,188 crore short of revised estimates for the fiscal year. The finance ministry, in Union Budget 2020-21, had lowered the CGST collection target for FY20 to Rs 5.13 trillion from Rs 5.26 trillion estimated in July.

Of the Rs 97,597-crore revenue in March, the central GST collection stood at Rs 19,183 crore, state GST at Rs 25,601 crore and integrated GST at Rs 44,508 crore, which included Rs 18,056 crore collected on imports, the finance ministry said in a statement.

Slowdown effect? Salary increase in 2020 may be lowest in a decade at 9.1%

Current Affairs
The financial lull is starting to reflect in the pay climbs of India Inc. The normal pay increment in 2020 is anticipated to be 9.1 percent, the least in 10 years, as indicated by the 24th release of Aon Plc's yearly pay increment study. In 2018 and 2019, organizations expanded normal pay by 9.5 percent and 9.3 percent, individually. After the monetary emergency of 2008, the normal climb had drooped to 6.6 percent.
The anticipated increment for 2020 is lower than the normal pay climb that alumni of top Business schools have overseen at around 12 percent. The uplifting news, nonetheless, is that notwithstanding total national output (GDP) development gauges getting amended descending, the normal pay increment for 2020 will be just 20 premise focuses lower than that of the earlier year.
In addition, twofold digit pay increases have not evaporated completely. While the normal for the nation has descended, 39 percent of the organizations are as yet ready to give twofold digit compensation increments in 2020. The current year's number is with regards to the long haul pattern. "The pattern throughout the years has been descending. Up to 2011, the normal pay addition was in high twofold digits. Somewhere in the range of 2012 and 2016, it was at 10 percent in addition, and as of late, it has come down to the 9 percent in addition to stamp," said Tzeitel Fernandes, accomplice and head of remunerations arrangements, India, Aon. She included they saw a state of mind of alert among firms this year.

The study by Aon, a worldwide expert administrations firm, secured in excess of 1,000 organizations, across in excess of 20 businesses. The organizations were part similarly among assembling and administration segments. The temperament inside India Inc, however somewhat tainted than a year ago, isn't totally downbeat...READ MORE

World Bank pegs India's FY20 GDP growth at 5% as credit weakness lingers

Current Affairs
he World Bank has projected a five per cent growth rate for India in the 2019-2020 financial year, but said it was likely to recover to 5.8 per cent in the following financial year.
The growth rate for Bangladesh has been projected to remain above seven per cent through the forecast horizon and, in Pakistan, it is projected to languish at three per cent or less through 2020 as macroeconomic stabilisation efforts weigh on economic activity, the bank said in its latest edition of the Global Economic Prospects.
"In India, where weakness in credit from non-bank financial companies is expected to linger, growth is projected to slow to five per cent in fiscal year 2019/20, which ends March 31, and recover to 5.8 per cent the following fiscal year," the World Bank said on Wednesday.The global economic growth is forecast to edge up to 2.5 per cent in 2020 as investment and trade gradually recover from last year's significant weakness, but downward risks persist, it said.

The US' growth is forecast to slow to 1.8 per cent this year, reflecting the negative impact of earlier tariff increases and elevated uncertainty. The Euro area's growth is projected to slip to a downwardly revised one per cent in 2020 amid weak industrial activity, the bank said in the report."With the growth in emerging and developing economies likely to remain slow, policymakers should seize the opportunity to undertake structural reforms that boost broad-based growth, which is essential to poverty reduction," World Bank Group Vice President for Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions, Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, said."Steps to improve the business climate, the rule of law, debt management, and productivity can help achieve sustained growth," Pazarbasioglu said...Read More

MSE sentiment down for the third quarter in a row: CRISIL-SIDBI survey

Current Affairs
Hit by a drawn out financial droop, the business opinion among smaller scale and little undertakings (MSEs) slid pointedly to 106 in the quarter finished September 30, from 120 in the April-June quarter, as indicated by CRISIL-SIDBI study (CriSidEx).
The perusing on the file for January-March 2019 was 122; it was 128 in the October-December 2018 quarter and 124 in the July-September 2018 quarter. Amish Mehta, head working official, CRISIL, said the discoveries for the September 2019 quarter should be seen with regards to macroeconomic variables, for example, generation cuts via vehicle makers affecting usage of parts.
There was likewise a decrease in both volume and acknowledgment in item connected divisions, for example, steel, and a log jam in utilization, affecting pearls and adornments industry and lodgings, he said. The study demonstrated the desire from the following quarter — October-December — is higher than genuine estimation in the quarter in center. The distinction between perusing for the December 2019 quarter (129) and the genuine (106) is greatest, up until now.
The generation and limit use is probably going to stay stable the following quarter as 28 percent of members from assembling MSEs anticipated an expansion underway, 65 percent saw it as unaltered, and 7 percent anticipated that it should be lower.

Contracting was quieted as just 7 percent of the MSEs detailed increases to their representative base in SQ8, contrasted and 16 percent in SQ7, while 87 percent kept up the base and 6 percent announced decreases. Loan specialists have a worse than average point of view toward the business circumstance...Read More

Lenders call for bids to rescue shadow bank Altico as crisis deepens

Election News
Loan specialists to an Indian shadow bank at the focal point of an industry emergency since it began defaulting three months prior have called for restricting offers from potential rescuers by mid-January, individuals acquainted with the issue said.
Altico Capital India Ltd. is one of the most recent got up to speed in the country's shadow banking emergency, which has developed as moneylenders previously reeling from one of the world's most exceedingly terrible awful advance heaps shy away from expanding more credit.
The shadow bank began defaulting on its advantage reimbursements in September, and its loan specialists are sharp for it to get a value mixture for any obligation rebuilding intend to be cleared, the individuals stated, asking not to be recognized as the talks are private.
Advance Growth at Indian Shadow Banks Seen Hitting Decade Low Potential financial specialists and leasers in Altico, which centers around land loaning and considers Clearwater Capital Partners as a part of its primary investors, are hanging tight for due ingenuity reports and will accept a last approach the valuation and choose any goals plan before the finish of January, as indicated by the individuals.
A representative for Altico declined to remark. There was no quick answer to a messaged solicitation for input to a Clearwater representative and to lead loan specialist State Bank of India, and calls went unanswered.

Alitco's terrible credits spiked to 23.8% of its advance book in the July-September quarter, adding to worries of recuperation for the moneylenders.....Read More

India's problems were always bigger than Modi, started much before 2014

International News
A new narrative about India is suddenly emerging. Until very recently, India appeared a great democracy as well as a rising economic power, a potential partner of the West in its policy of containing China. Writing in Time magazine in 2015, no less a moral and political authority than Barack Obama hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as India’s “reformer-in-chief” who “reflects the dynamism and potential of India’s rise.”
However, the latest, radically different narrative about India holds that the country is flailing, its politics and civil society captured by a Hindu supremacist movement, and its economy trapped in a potentially long slowdown.Evidence that India’s prime minister is not the smart economic moderniser he seemed to many in the West has become steadily incontrovertible, especially after he quixotically withdrew most currency notes in circulation in 2016.
This week, an exhaustively researched report in the New Yorker by Dexter Filkins provided spine-chilling evidence that India is ruled by cold-blooded ideological fanatics, who will use all means to achieve their aims. These can range from perversion of the media, judiciary and military to anti-Muslim pogroms, targeted assassinations of critics, and collective punishment of a minority (as in Kashmir, where a four-month-old lockdown continues).

Such a dramatic reversal of reputations — “from hero to zero,” as the Indian wisecrack goes — is not new in India’s case. For much of India’s seven decades, when it appeared to be on the wrong side of the Cold War, Western commentators regarded the country as a basket case.As Thomas Friedman put it in The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, India was “known as a country of snake charmers, poor people, and Mother Teresa” before it was abruptly re-branded, including by Friedman, as a “country of brainy people and computer wizards.”As India embraced market capitalism, moved away from its Russian friends, and came closer to the West....Read More

Govts tend to suppress data when it is on shaky grounds: Joseph Stiglitz

International News
Joseph Stiglitz, 76, gently placed his walking stick beside the sofa and a stack of papers on the table as he settled in to savour some South Indian breakfast. He was in the city to deliver a lecture organised by a university.
It has been almost three decades since India liberalised and integrated with the global economy. It was the seventh largest economy in the world by gross domestic product (GDP) in 2018. But this growth has slowed, and is expected to shrink further in 2019-20, according to multiple global institutions.
“The data that I have seen reinforces very strong concerns [about the economy],” Stiglitz told IndiaSpend in the course of an interview. “I do not know anybody who is not in the government who is not worried.” Governments tend to “suppress data when it is on shaky grounds”, he added.
While India has been able to benefit from globalisation, there is a view that is “not an uncommon view but an unpleasant one”, that in a regulated market like India foreign players “have a disadvantage because the insiders know how to play the game”.Stiglitz won the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics for his analyses of markets with asymmetric information. He was a member of the Council of Economic Advisers in the US from 1993-95, during the Bill Clinton administration, and its chairperson from 1995-97. Between 1997 and 2000, he served as chief economist and senior vice-president of the World Bank.

Stiglitz has authored multiple books on economics including People, Power, and Profits: Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent; Globalization and Its Discontents Revisited: Anti-Globalization in the Era of Trump; and The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future. In 2011, he was among Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world. He is a professor in the department of economics at Columbia University and founder and president of the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, a think-tank on international development based at the university...READ MORE

Are Indians going to the movies to escape slowdown? PVR's CEO thinks so

International News

Cinemas are seeing brisk business even as India’s economy slows to a six-year low and unemployment swells, according to PVR Ltd., the nation’s largest operator of multi-screen theatres.
Ever since the box-office hit Kabir Singh released in June, even films with small budgets or less-recognizable actors are drawing the crowds, Kamal Gianchandani, chief executive officer at PVR Pictures, said in an interview this month. Results for July-September will “definitely surprise a lot of people,” he said, declining to elaborate.
“I think the slowdown is helping the cinema business,” Gianchandani said. “There is negativity around and people want to escape it.”
If Gianchandani’s prediction is correct, PVR would be defying a slump that has dented demand for almost everything from 7-cent cookies to cars. He joins the likes of Bollywood megastar Shahrukh Khan, who has in the past compared movies to lipstick, saying that both are immune to economic turmoil.
Seventeen of 26 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg have buy ratings on PVR stock, with eight holds and one sell. Similar numbers can be seen for smaller Indian rival Inox Leisure Ltd. PVR will probably outperform Inox on spending per head, analysts led by Karan Taurani at Elara Securities Pvt. said October 4.
Sensing competition from the likes of Netflix Inc. and Reliance Industries Ltd.’s Jio service -- which allow people to watch movies from the comfort of their home -- PVR has partnered with Canadian motion technology player D-Box Technologies Inc. to design seats that sway and jerk in sync with the action on screen, offering a more immersive experience.

 “Our strategy is to ensure we stay relevant in this age where every other day a new streaming service is being launched,” Gianchandani said. “Fortunately, customers are receptive.”....Read More

Why the festival season may not bring much cheer despite tax cuts by govt

International News
Poor demand from Indian consumers could dampen the mood during festivals next month, especially for automobile makers and retailers that count on the season for a sales boost, analysts predict.
Indians typically buy everything from new cars to shoes for themselves and as gifts during celebrations steeped in religion and tradition. Yet the slowest economic growth in six years, unemployment at a 45-year high and tepid private consumption may see sales fall short of recent years, even after the government’s $20 billion tax break to companies earlier this month.
“You can make the product 50% cheaper, but there has to be income to spend,” said Nitin Gupta, an analyst at SBICAP Securities Ltd. in Mumbai. “In the short-term, I don’t see any kind of an income boost. Rather than giving cash to individuals, they have given it to companies.”
Car sales in August fell the most on record and Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. Friday reduced the price on its Baleno RS model by 100,000 rupees ($1,420) to pass on the benefit from the tax cut. Market researcher Nielsen has lowered its 2019 growth estimate for fast-moving goods to 9%-10% from 11%-12%, while a stock gauge of consumer discretionary firms is set for its first annual back-to-back losses since at least 2005.
Even so, the industry’s fortunes beyond the approaching festival season are poised to improve, according to BNP Paribas SA. Plentiful rainfall seen this monsoon season and cash handouts to farmers will help lift rural incomes, helping sales of staples recover in the second half of the year that began April 1, the brokerage said in a recent report.

 Poor demand from Indian consumers may dim festive cheer despite tax cut...READ MORE

Cyclical or structural? Decoding the nature of India's economic slowdown

Current Affairs

India’s real or inflation-adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) grew at 5 per cent in the June 2019 quarter of financial year 2019-20 (Q1FY20), the slowest growth in six years (25 quarters). In nominal terms, the growth stood at 7.99 per cent, lowest since December 2002.
With this, fears of the slowdown being a more structural one than a cyclical one have surfaced.
What is a cyclical slowdown?
A cyclical slowdown is a period of lean economic activity that occurs at regular intervals. Such slowdowns last over the short-to-medium term, and are based on the changes in the business cycle.
Generally, interim fiscal and monetary measures, temporary recapitalisation of credit markets, and need-based regulatory changes are required to revive the economy.
What is a structural slowdown?
A structural slowdown, on the other hand, is a more deep-rooted phenomenon that occurs due to a one-off shift from an existing paradigm. The changes, which last over a long-term, are driven by disruptive technologies, changing demographics, and/or change in consumer behaviour.
Dissecting India’s slowdown

 A slowdown in consumption demand, decline in manufacturing, inability of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) to resolve cases in a time-bound manner, and rising global trade tension...Read More

From growth slowdown to equity outflows: Why the rupee has lost its mojo

Current Affairs

The rupee’s resilience in the face economic headwinds has come to an end, with India’s currency losing its year-to-date gains in the space of just one month.
The country’s massive domestic market is now dragging on the rupee as growth at home slows, foreigners pull cash from local equities and the currency increasingly tracks moves in the yuan as the trade war heats up.
“Even though India is directly less vulnerable to US-China tensions, it can’t remain completely insulated to the wider risk aversion,” said Dushyant Padmanabhan, a forex strategist at Nomura Holdings Inc in Singapore. The economic slowdown and capital outflows don’t bode well for the rupee, he said.
The rupee is set for its worst monthly loss in six years and some analysts warn of more pain to come. JPMorgan Chase & Co expects it to approach the record low hit last October by year-end, while Nomura forecasts the currency to finish 2019 at 72.5 per dollar. That’s weaker than the median estimate of 71 in a Bloomberg survey and Wednesday’s opening level of 71.49.
Here are some of the reasons behind the currency’s rapid reversal:
Growth Slowdown

 Demand for everything from cars to cookies has waned as India’s lingering shadow-banking crisis weighs on private consumption, which accounts for almost 60% of the gross domestic product. And the increasingly bitter trade war has complicated the government’s task of re-igniting Asia’s third-largest economy...Read More

As animal spirits sag, FM's announcements may fall short of spurring growth

Current Affairs

Weakness in India’s investment and consumption activity worsened in July, with economic growth showing little signs of recovery from a five-year low.
A gauge measuring overall activity moved one notch toward weaker territory, as six of the eight high-frequency indicators compiled by Bloomberg fell from the previous month. Car sales slumped the most in almost two decades and latest data showed infrastructure sector output grew at the slowest pace in more than four years.
The weakening came about a month before Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a slew of steps to revive Asia’s third-largest economy. While the measures boosted market sentiment, they are expected to fall short of spurring growth.
The dashboard measures “animal spirits” — a term coined by British economist John Maynard Keynes to refer to investors’ confidence in taking action — and uses the three-month weighted average to smooth out volatility in the single-month readings.
Here are the details of the dashboard:
Business Activity

 After contracting in June, India’s purchasing managers index for services rebounded into growth territory in July. The index rose to 53.8 from 49.6 in June, with the upturn in business activity linked to the budget presented in early July and improved work orders. A reading above 50 indicates expansion.Manufacturing activity also picked up, a separate PMI survey showed, pushing the composite index to an eight-month high of 53.9 in July from 50.8 in June...Read More

With no major fiscal support, govt's growth measures seen falling short

Current Affairs

India’s steps to boost financial market sentiment and support businesses could fall short of shoring up growth in Asia’s third-largest economy.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a number of measures on Friday to help re-ignite an economy that’s slowed sharply on the back of weak consumption and a deteriorating global environment. However, she didn’t outline any major fiscal support -- as businesses had been calling for -- focusing instead on steps to spur foreign funds and lending.
Economists, finance leaders, industry executives and local media raised questions about the effectiveness of the measures, which included scrapping a tax on foreign funds, allowing concessions on vehicle purchases and hastening infusion of an already announced 700 billion rupees ($9.8 billion) of capital in state-run banks.
“These are short-term palliatives,” said Priyanka Kishore, head of India and Southeast Asia economics at Oxford Economics in Singapore. “What India needs is structural reforms to take growth to above 7 per cent.”
Consumers have cut spending in India as they turn more pessimistic about jobs amid a slowdown in growth to a five-year low.
Data due this week is likely to show the economy expanded 5.7 per cent in the quarter ended June, below the 5.8 per cent pace seen in the previous three months.
The withdrawal of the additional tax on foreign portfolio investors may help to spur sentiment in the equity markets. Overseas investors pulled out more than $3 billion from the nation’s stock and bond markets since July.

 But businesses had been hoping for more...Read More

Parle may cut up to 10,000 jobs, slash production as slowdown bites

Current Affairs

Parle Products Pvt Ltd, a leading Indian biscuit maker, might lay off up to 10,000 workers as slowing economic growth and falling demand in the rural heartland could cause production cuts, a company executive said on Wednesday.
A downturn in Asia's third-largest economy is denting sales of everything from cars to clothing, forcing companies to curtail production and raising hopes that the India government will unveil an economic stimulus to revive growth.
A sharp drop in Parle's biscuit sales means the company may have to slash production, which may result in layoffs of 8,000-10,000 people, Mayank Shah, category head at Parle, said in a telephone interview from Mumbai.
"The situation is so bad, that if the government doesn't intervene immediately ... we may be forced to eliminate these positions," he said.
Parle, founded in 1929, employs about 100,000 people, including direct and contract workers across 10 company-owned facilities and 125 contract manufacturing plants.
Shah said demand for popular Parle biscuit brands such as Parle-G had been worsening since India rolled out a nationwide goods and services tax (GST) in 2017, which imposed a higher levy on biscuits costing as low as Rs 5, or 7 cents a pack.The higher taxes have forced Parle to offer fewer biscuits in each pack, hitting demand from lower-income consumers in rural India, which contributes more than half of Parle's revenue and where two-thirds of Indians live.

"Consumers here are extremely price-sensitive. They're extremely conscious of how many biscuits they are getting for a particular price," Shah said...Read More

Tax evasion may derail India's fiscal deficit goal as demand wanes

Company News

India’s slowing economy could easily be the fall guy for Prime Minister Narendra Modi government’s struggles with meeting tax targets. But there’s another culprit: tax evasion.A nationwide consumption tax, introduced in 2017 and widely regarded as a tool to improve tax compliance and boost economic growth, may have failed to plug evasion, according to a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, the auditor of government accounts. The number of Goods and Services Tax returns filed have declined, it showed.
Poorer tax compliance adds to the government’s revenue collection woes amid a broader slowdown in the economy, where demand for everything from cookies to cars has taken a knock. Consumption, which contributes almost 60 per cent to India’s gross domestic product, has been largely hurt by a shadow banking crisis, which in turn has dragged growth down to a five-year low.
The consumption tax was expected to bring in an anti-evasive tax regime, but there are numerous cases of bogus billings, tax evasion and fake invoicing, according to tax consultancy and auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. “I wouldn’t expect this kind of reform and tax regime to become stable quickly,” Pratik Jain, a partner at PwC India, said.
The government’s total tax revenue in the last financial year ended March fell short of target by Rs 1.7 trillion ($24 billion), according to provisional numbers. That’s due in part to GST collection trailing monthly target for most of the year.A revenue miss again will put the fiscal deficit goal of 3.3 per cent of GDP at risk, and limit the government’s ability to spend on infrastructure and welfare programs.

The finance ministry expected GST to help boost GDP growth by as much as two percentage points...Read More

Economic downturn raises default risks, puts stimulus package in focus

Company News

Investors are awaiting stimulus measures from the Indian government as a gloomy economic outlook adds to mounting credit market woes and raises fears defaults will spread.
The government is planning measures to boost the economy and may announce some steps this week to help demand for housing, automobiles, and to spur small businesses, an official said on Friday.
Credit profiles of the nation’s companies worsened to a 19-month low in July, according to a Care Ratings index that tracks 1,601 local firms.
The credit market has been stung by a yearlong shadow banking crisis that started with shock defaults last year by IL&FS group.
Government measures to kick-start the economy may help investors regain confidence after other missed payments by firms including non-bank financier Dewan Housing Finance Corp., travel planner Cox & Kings Ltd. and wind-turbine maker Suzlon Energy Ltd.
India’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate last week for the fourth time in 2019. Reserve Bank of India also lowered its economic growth forecast for the year to March 31 to 6.9 per cent from its 7 per cent forecast in June.
“The problem in the economy is lack of demand, which can’t be addressed by RBI’s rate cuts,” said Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at Care Ratings. “Quality of debt in the country has definitely gone down.

 Indian companies will remain under pressure in the coming months,” if further measures are not taken, he said....Read More

PM Modi's message to India Inc, banks, auto firms: All will be well

Company News

We will do everything possible to make India the world's best investment destination and a better place to do business in, apart from going "as far as possible" to revive the "animal spirits" and make the "entire private sector bullish", Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in an interview with the Economic Times on Sunday .
The prime minister's interview, which focused on key economic topics such as reviving growth, banking, ease of doing business, slowdown in demand and the US-China trade war, among other things, comes amid increasingly vocal concerns over a slowdown in the Indian economy, especially in the automobile sector, which has reported significant job losses.
Here are the top five things the PM said in his interview:
1) All possible support for honest, law-abiding businesses
In a bid to reassure India Inc, Modi said that the government wanted entrepreneurs to enjoy higher productivity and better profits.
The PM said that he wanted to motivate the country's industrialists to "believe in the India story" and in the "long-term potential of the Indian market". Further, he said that entrepreneurs should carry on with their businesses and complete their investment plans without any confusion.
The PM's reassurance comes amid allegations of so-called 'tax terrorism'. After the apparent suicide of Cafe Coffee Day founder V G Siddhartha, who was under investigation by tax authorities, business leaders had expressed anger over the government going too far in its crackdown on tax evasion and fraud.

2) Decisions taken by bankers in good faith won't face 'witch hunt'...Read More

Apollo bullish about growth, to invest Rs 3,800 cr in new Andhra project

International News

Despite the economy facing a downturn Apollo Tyres has earmarked around Rs 3,800 crore for a green field project in Andhra Pradesh. The company is also expanding production of radial truck tyres to 12,000 units a day from the current 6,000 units.
Addressing the shareholders in Kerala, Apollo Tyres' Chairman, Onkar S Kanwar said "India lies on the cusp of a great opportunity. A strong government is in place with a renewed mandate and a commitment to keep India at the top of the global economic order. The environment around us is not easy, with trade wars, protectionism and uncertainty around the world. But India has the potential, the ability and the leadership to break free of these shackles and lead global economic growth".
Apollo's single-minded focus is to realise the Vision 2020 of becoming ‘a premier tyre company with a diversified and multinational presence’, he said. To achieve this vision, the company is focusing on key objectives of ‘building leadership in India’, ‘premiumisation in Europe’, and ‘exploring strategically attractive markets where Apollo is currently not represented’.
Today, the company has a market share of 30 per cent in the OE( original equipment) segment in India for small- and mid-sized cars and the company’s OE fitted tyres are in eight of the top 10 cars sold in India.
"There are certainly uncertain times ahead, yet the team continues to be bullish about the growth prospects," said Kanwar.

 The company has invested close to Rs 4,000 crore in a new Greenfield facility in Hungary and has also earmarked Rs 3,800 crore for a greenfield project in Andhra Pradesh. The facility will cater to both TBR (Truck, Bus Radial) and PCR (Passenger Car Radial) with a capacity of 3,000 TBR tyres per day and 15,000 PCR tyres, respectively...Read More

Global oil prices skid on high US crude production, economic slowdown

Market News:
Oil prices fell on Monday after US energy firms added rigs for the first time this year in a sign that crude production there will rise further.

US spot crude oil futures were at $53.37 per barrel at 0027 GMT, down 32 cents, or 0.6 per cent, from their last settlement.

International Brent crude oil futures were at $61.37 a barrel, down 27 cents, or 0.4 per cent.Analysts said high US crude oil production, which hit a record 11.9 million barrels per day (bpd) late last year, was weighing on oil markets.

In a sign that output could rise further, US energy firms last week raised the number of rigs looking for new oil for the first time in 2019, adding 10 facilities, to 862, Baker Hughes energy services firm said in its weekly report on Friday.


 Beyond oil supply, a key question for this year will be demand-growth.Oil consumption has been increasing steadily, likely averaging above 100 million bpd for this first time in 2019, driven largely by a boom in China...Read More