1. Arun Jaitley Says Dormant Accounts Have Fallen Below 20% Under Jan Dhan
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on 13 September said that dormant accounts under Jan Dhan Yojana have fallen below 20 percent from 77 percent earlier, as state resources are flowing directly to the targeted population.
“Bulk of dormant accounts have become operational. More the direct benefit transfer expands, more will be the operationalization of accounts,” said Jaitley at an event organised by the United Nations.
Pension scheme, gas subsidy, scholarship, and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) wages are directly transferred to beneficiaries’ account along with MUDRA scheme, saving the state’s resources.
Jaitley stressed that these incentives will help the informal economy in getting integrated with the formal.
Source: Livemint
2. Oil Minister Rules out Intervention on Daily Fuel Price Revision
The government doesn't plan to intervene to check fuel prices that have soared to the highest in three years, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said after shares of oil refiners tumbled on speculation that refining and marketing firms would have to sacrifice margins to cushion consumers. Pradhan remained non-committal on cutting excise duty to check price rise.
"It's up to the Finance Ministry," he said. While defending the higher duty, Pradhan said increased revenue was only going into welfare activities of building more roads, and providing irrigation and drinking water facilities. He said oil companies will continue to have pricing freedom.
"Government has no business interfering in the day-to-day affairs of the companies," Pradhan said on 13 September after meeting top executives of state oil firms.
Source: Economic Times
3. Other Income Lifts Jet Airways's Q1 Earnings
Of the three listed Indian aviation companies, Jet Airways (India) Ltd’s June quarter results, announced on 12 September after market hours, are the least impressive.
The uncomfortable fact is that “other income” growth of 51 percent over the same period last year lent considerable support to its reported stand-alone net profit, which more than doubled to Rs 54 crore. It’s worth noting that the company’s March quarter net profit too got a boost from other income.
What’s more, Jet’s June quarter operating numbers don’t impress either. Ebitdar, a key measure of profitability for airlines, declined almost 15 percent year-on-year to Rs 715 crore. The measure is lower than analysts’ expectations. For instance, Edelweiss Securities Ltd and ICICI Securities Ltd were expecting an Ebitdar of Rs 951 crore and Rs851crore, respectively. Ebitdar is short for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortization and lease rentals.
Source: Livemint
4. SC Tells Jaypee to Pay Rs 50 Lakh to 10 Buyers
The Supreme Court on 13 September asked realty firm Jaiprakash Associates to pay Rs 50 lakh as an interim relief to 10 homebuyers of its Kalypso Court project along the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway.
The builder has been asked to pay Rs 50 lakh to Developers Township Property Owners Welfare Society that represents 10 homebuyers in the case.
The money would be then paid to owners, said Sahil Sethi, senior associate at law firm Saikrishna & Associates, who represented them in the case. Jaiprakash Associates had launched the Kalypso Court project in 2007, which was supposed to have 16 towers and be completed by 2011. However, the work is still pending in most towers.
Source: Economic Times
5. Bharti Airtel, SK Telecom Team up to Develop 5G Technology
India’s market leader Bharti Airtel and and Korea’s SK Telecom on 12 September entered into an strategic alliance that would allow Airtel to leverage SK Telecom’s expertise to build the advanced telecom network and together work in developing fish-generation (5G) technology, Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV), Software-defined Networking (SDN) and Internet of Things (IoT).
The partnership will work across several areas including developing bespoke software to dramatically improve network experience, leveraging advanced digital tools including machine learning, big data and building customised tools to improve network planning based on every customer’s device experience, the Gurgugram-based company in a statement said.
Source: Economic Times
6. Air India Eyes Rs 3,250 Cr Loans to Meet Immediate Fund Crunch
National carrier Air India plans to take short-term loans of up to Rs 3,250 crore to meet "urgent working capital requirements," according to a document.
The disinvestment-bound airline, which is staying afloat on taxpayers’ funds, expects to get the central government's guarantee for the proposed borrowings shortly.
As part of efforts to revive the loss-making Air India, a ministerial panel is working on the modalities for strategic disinvestment of the carrier and its five subsidiaries.
Against this backdrop, the airline seeking short-term loans assumes significance as it implies possible funds crunch.
Source: Business Standard
7. FY19 to See Harsher Earnings Cut; Remain Positive on Markets: Credit Suisse
Despite a near 20 percent rise in the markets in calendar year 2017 (CY17), Credit Suisse remains optimistic on the road ahead and sees no major downside, unless global cues disappoint. In its 'India Market Strategy' report released on 13 September, the global research and brokerage house expects domestic flows to remain robust thanks to improvement in financial savings and support the market on every correction.
That said, Neelkanth Mishra, managing director, equity research at Credit Suisse does caution on more corporate earnings downgrades going ahead. On a calendar year-to-date (CYTD) basis, all sector except metals, Mishra says, have seen EPS cuts, with the sharpest cuts in telecom (from profit to loss), pharma (cut by 35 percent), PSU banks (30 percent) and discretionary (20 percent). In this backdrop, he maintains a negative view on pharma and PSU banks.
Source: Business Standard
8. Clunker Policy May Hit GST Barrier
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) may prove to be a speed-breaker for the government as it moves to bring in a vehicle scrappage policy with the aim of getting 15-year-old commercial vehicles off roads in the first phase.
While the Transport Ministry favours the early introduction of what is also called a clunker plan, the Finance Ministry wants the GST Council to firm up a view on the incentives/tax-breaks that need to be allowed before the policy is implemented, a source said.
The policy is expected to benefit the economy in terms of checking pollution, boosting tax revenues and, most importantly, pumping up new vehicle sales.
For truck buyers, the tax-breaks will help reduce the acquisition cost of new vehicles.
However, the hitch is that the scrappage policy for the auto sector is not top priority for the GST Council, which is weighed down by several implementation challenges, including IT infrastructure.
Source: The Hindu Business Line
9. The Numbers Behind Reliance Jio and Airtel's IUC Spat
In Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd’s books, Bharti Airtel Ltd has made an excess recovery of Rs46,958 crore because the telecom regulator didn’t do away with interconnect usage charges (IUC), as it had suggested earlier.
Jio’s charges are with reference to an affidavit submitted by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to the Supreme Court in October 2011, which had talked of a phase-out of IUC by 2014. Vodafone India Ltd and Idea Cellular Ltd have together accumulated another Rs 57,476 crore on account of the anomaly, according to Jio.
Airtel, of course, has questioned Jio’s calculations in a letter to Trai: “Even if one were to assume the claims made by R-Jio to be correct, the present value of surplus recovery will be only Rs 7,443 crore and not Rs 46,958 crore as claimed by Reliance Jio in its presentation.”
Source: Livemint
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