1. Maruti December Sales at All Time High as Discounts Fly High to Reduce Inventory
India’s largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki Ltd, pumped up discounts last month, boosting December retail sales to its highest ever and considerably trimming its inventory.
Maruti’s showroom sales in December was around 2,20,000 units, 18.18 percent higher than around 180,000 units sold in the same month a year ago, according to two people aware of the development.
This is also the company’s highest ever retail monthly sales, the people cited above said on condition of anonymity.
(Source: Livemint)
2. Essel in Talks to Sell Part of Its Roads Portfolio
Essel Infraprojects Ltd is in talks with infrastructure developers and private equity (PE) companies to sell a part of its roads portfolio, three people close to the development said.
The Subhash Chandra-controlled company has placed six road projects on the block and is seeking a combined enterprise value of Rs 11,500 crore, one of the three people said. The company wants to complete the sale by June, the person added, requesting anonymity.
Selling the roads portfolio will help Essel Group generate funds for setting up a plant to manufacture lithium-ion batteries that are used in electric vehicles.
(Source: Livemint)
3. Companies May Soon Be Able to Rectify GST Returns for Non-IT Errors
Indian businesses may soon be able to amend goods and services tax (GST) return mandated for carrying forward tax credit from the previous regime for non-IT related errors as well.
The GST Council has directed a committee for IT grievance redressal to quickly draw up a solution that will give relief to industry. The move will be a reprieve for businesses that had lost credit due to minor, non-technical errors.
A standard operating procedure will be developed by the grievance committee for all the cases where high courts have given a direction, the amount has been wrongly entered or the concerned jurisdictional commissioner has made a recommendation.
(Source: The Economic Times)
4. Airlines May Face Cap on Take-off and Landing Slots in Congested Airports
The government has proposed to cap the number of take-off and landing slots an airline can hold in congested airports. The move, which could turn out to be controversial, is meant to check monopolistic growth of airlines.
This comes after rival carriers accused IndiGo – the largest Indian airline by market share – of using its dominant position to control pricing in the market. According to the plan, an upper limit cap will be set for the percentage of slots an individual airline can hold in any congested airport.
(Source: Business Standard)
5. Fresh Auctions for Power Pacts Likely Soon
The government is likely to launch a fresh round of auction of power purchase contracts while also allowing escalation and fixed charges to power companies in a bid to alleviate stress in the sector.
Ahead of polls and setting in of summer demand, the auctions will help stranded and underutilised power plants sign agreements with state distribution utilities for three years.
(Source: The Economic Times)
6. India's Largest Startup Ecosystem Inaugurated in Kerala
India got its largest startup ecosystem on Sunday, 13 January, when Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated in Kochi a 1.8-lakh-square-feet facility housing incubation set-ups across a string of segments in modern technology.
The Integrated Startup Complex under the Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) includes the ultra modern facilities of Maker Village that promotes hardware startups, the BioNest that promotes medical technologies, BRINC which is the country's first international accelerator for hardware startups; BRIC which aids developing solutions for cancer diagnosis and care, and a Centre of Excellence set up by industry majors such as UNITY.
(Source: PTI)
7. Industry Bodies Worried by ‘Adversarial’ Approach of I-T Dept, Seek Govt Support
Concerned over the large number of prosecution cases being filed by income tax authorities, nearly six regional tax and industry associations have sought the intervention of the Revenue Secretary, highlighting the government’s promise of a non-adversarial tax regime.
“It seems that similar directions have been issued to field officers by the higher-ups, based on which, several prosecution notices have been issued by the Tax Department to mop up tax collections to meet higher targets,” said a joint representation to Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey.
(Source: The Hindu Business Line)
8. Lookout Notice Issued Against 96 Suspects in Rs 5,600 Crore NSEL Fraud Case
The Rs 5,600-crore National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) cheating case is perhaps India's first case where police have issued look out circulars (LOCs) against as many as 96 suspects.
An LOC is issued to all international airports (and other possible international transit points) in a country against an accused feared to leave the borders or arrive from another nation. Those named in the 96 LOC notices in the latest case include 41 brokers.
(Source: The Times of India)
9. RBI Net Seller of Dollars in November, Unwinding $644 Million
The Reserve Bank remained a net seller of dollars in November 2018, as it sold $644 million of the greenback on a net basis in the spot market, according to the latest data from the Central bank.
As against this, in November 2017, the Central bank had purchased $2.570 billion from the spot market and sold $1.706 billion, while in the reporting month, the monetary authority bought $3.127 billion from the spot market, and sold $3.771 billion, the data shows.
(Source: PTI)
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