1. Modi Government to Review Plans to Sell Air India
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government will review plans to sell Air India after his administration’s most high-profile privatisation offer ended in a whimper with no buyers showing interest in the unprofitable flag carrier.
The government will make changes to the plan, if needed, Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said. As the deadline to show preliminary interest expired Thursday, no bidder came forward to propose purchasing 76 percent of Air India Ltd, which was offered along with $5 billion debt, Aviation Secretary RN Choubey told reporters in New Delhi. The process for the next steps will start in two weeks, he said.
“We were certainly looking forward to better participation than this,” he said.
(Source: The Economic Times)
2. Indian Manufacturing PMI Growth Slows in May, Inflationary Pressures Pick Up
Activity in India’s manufacturing sector grew at a weaker pace in May from the previous month, a business survey showed on Friday, 1 June, while inflationary pressures picked up again amid rising oil prices in another sign that an interest rate hike is around the corner.
A slower expansion in output and domestic demand helped push the Nikkei Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index, compiled by IHS Markit, down to 51.2 in May from April’s 51.6. It also lagged a Reuters poll median of 51.5.
But it remained above the 50-mark that separates growth from contraction for the tenth month in a row.
(Source: Reuters India)
3. Idea to Seek Nod For Fundraiser, New Name
Idea Cellular Ltd, which is in the final stages of completing its proposed merger with Vodafone India Ltd, will hold an extraordinary general meeting on 26 June to seek shareholders’ nod to raise funds of up to Rs15,000 crore and change the name of the company to Vodafone Idea Ltd.
The name change would be subject to the approval of the Union government or any other authority as may be necessary, Idea Cellular said in a filing to the exchanges on Friday.
The company has also sought approval to raise up to Rs15,000 crore on a private placement basis by way of non-convertible securities, including but not limited to non-convertible debentures, in one or more tranches, Idea Cellular said.
(Source: Livemint)
4. SBI, PNB, ICICI Bank Raise Lending Rates
Days ahead of RBI’s monetary policy review, India’s three major banks SBI, PNB and ICICI Bank on Friday, 1 June, increased their benchmark lending rates or MCLR by up to 0.1%, making loans costlier for consumers. The new rates are effective from Friday.
India’s largest lender SBI has increased the lending rate by 10 basis points across all tenors up to three years. Now SBI’s overnight and one-month tenors’ Marginal Cost of Funds Based Lending Rate (MCLR) stands at 7.9% as against 7.8%, as per the SBI’s website. The MCLR for a three-year tenor increased to 8.45% from 8.35% earlier.
The state-owned Punjab National (PNB), the country’s second largest lender, raised the MCLR for three-year and five-year tenors to 8.55% and 8.7%, respectively.
(Source: Livemint)
5. PNB May Get Rs 13,000 Crore From Asset Sale, Equity Infusion
Punjab National Bank is expected to receive Rs 13,000 crore from the sale of non-core assets, divestment of stake in subsidiaries and second-tranche of capital infusion in the three months through September, a senior government official told reporters.
This comes after the country’s second-largest state-owned lender reported its biggest-ever quarterly loss in Indian banking history, pulling down its capital ratios below the regulatory minimum. Net loss stood at Rs 13,417 crore in the fourth quarter of 2017-18, a fallout of the Rs 14,000-crore fraud involving jewellers Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, and their firms and the Reserve Bank of India’s new stressed asset framework.
(Source: BloombergQuint)
6. SEBI Bars Vijay Mallya From Securities Market For Three Years
Market regulator SEBI today barred fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya from the securities market for another three years as also from holding directorship in listed companies for five years in the case of illegal fund diversions at United Spirits Ltd.
Besides, the Securities and Exchange Board of India has imposed a one-year ban on two former company officials -- Ashok Capoor and PA Murali.
Through an interim order in January 2017, the regulator had barred Mallya and six former officials of United Spirits, including Capoor and Murali, from the securities markets in the case related to illegal fund diversions.
(Source: BloombergQuint)
7. High Court Grants Temporary Relief To Power Firms From RBI’s Stricter Bad Loan Norms
The Allahabad High Court has ordered that no action be taken against the power companies on the basis of the central bank’s new stressed assets framework till the Finance Ministry hears their contention.
The court provided the temporary relief till a meeting between the companies and the ministry is held this month, according to the order passed by a bench headed by Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court Justice Dilip B Bhosale and Justice Suneet Kumar.
The secretary at the ministry will communicate the date and time of the meeting to all, including the power producers who filed the petition. The relief does not apply to wilful defaulters.
(source: BloombergQuint)
8. Taxman To Pay Up To Rs 1 Crore Reward For Tip-Offs On Unaccounted Wealth
Anyone providing information to the taxman about unaccounted wealth in India can now win a reward of up to Rs 1 crore now.
That’s part of the government’s latest crackdown on tax evasion and black money as it revised an existing reward plan and launched a new ‘Benami Transactions Informants Reward Scheme’, according to a statement by the Finance Ministry.
The information about benami properties held via proxies will have to be given in a prescribed format and should include credible details of the property, name and address of the person in whose name it has been acquired, and evidence for the information that the property is actually held through proxies, according to a statement.
(Source: BloombergQuint)
9. Centre Making Efforts to Tackle Increase in Petrol, Diesel Prices: Nitin Gadkari
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari today said the Centre is making efforts to find long-term solutions to tackle the increase in petrol and diesel prices and suggested that India should move to “alternative” fuels. ‘
The Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways was addressing a press conference here to highlight the Modi government’s achievements in the last four years. The government is making efforts to find long-term solutions to tackle the fuel price hike issue, he said when asked about the soaring prices of petrol and diesel.
“We have already stopped the subsidy on petrol and diesel, and we are giving LPG connections to 8 crore people. “We could give the LPG connections to so many people because we stopped the subsidy on petrol and diesel,” Gadkari said.
(Source: Financial Express)
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