1. GST Rates Set to Increase in Biggest Revamp Since Launch
Almost two-and-a-half years since the launch of the Goods & Services Tax, the GST council is expected to discuss major restructuring to raise the base slab from 5% to 9-10%, while doing away with the 12% rate and moving 243 items in this segment to the 18% band. These moves will increase the tax burden on consumers but may generate close to Rs 1 lakh crore in additional revenue.
In addition to the proposed recalibration of rates, several items currently exempted from tax — from treatment in “expensive” private hospitals to hotel accommodation under Rs 1,000 and high-value company home leases — may be brought under the ambit of the tax, sources familiar with deliberations between the Centre and states said.
(Source: The Times of India)
2. Netflix to Invest Rs 3,000 Crore in Indian Original Content
Netflix founder and CEO Reed Hastings announced that the streaming service will spend Rs 3000 crore ‘this year and next’ on producing original content in India. Hastings was speaking at the 17th Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in New Delhi on Friday, 6 December.
Netflix launched in India in 2016, and has since invested in local content in Hindi and other local languages. “Sacred Games travelled all over the world,” Hastings told HT editor-in-chief R Sukumar, tipping his hat to the streamer’s first Indian original series, developed by Vikramaditya Motwane.
He also revealed that the animated children’s show Mighty Little Bheem has been viewed by 27 million households outside India. “People like babies in many countries,” Hastings offered as an explanation.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
3. Vodafone Idea Will Shut Shop if It Doesn’t Get Relief, Says Kumar Mangalam Birla
Vodafone Idea will have to shut shop if the company does not get any relief in the wake of the Supreme Court order to phone companies to pay dues of up to Rs 92,000 crore to telecom department, company chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit.
“If we are not getting anything, then I think it is the end of story for Vodafone Idea,” he said at the HT Leadership Summit. But he indicated that the phone companies did expect more support from the government.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
4. Consumer Sentiment at 5-Yr Low: RBI Survey
Consumer confidence in India has dropped to its lowest since at least 2014, the year PM Narendra Modi first came to office.
The current situation index fell to 85.7 this November from 89.4 in September, according to the RBI consumer confidence survey, where 100 is the dividing line between pessimism and optimism. The future expectations gauge that takes into account the one-year ahead perceptions fell to 114.5 from 118.
The drop coincides with a deepening slowdown and increased worries about employment. The yearlong crisis in the shadow-banking sector has tightened lending, affecting domestic consumption that makes up about 60% of the nation’s economy.
(Source:The Times of India)
5. Cut Stake to Below 10% Immediately, SEBI Tells Three UTI AMC Investors
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) directed the domestic shareholders of UTI Asset Management Co (AMC) — Life Insurance Corporation, State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda — to bring down their stakes below 10% forthwith to comply with crossholding rules, saying they had been dragging their feet.
The regulator also wants their nominees removed from the boards of UTI AMC and UTI Trustee Co before 31 December 2020. If they don’t comply, the shareholding and voting rights of the three in excess of 9.99% would be frozen, it said. The regulator has asked the three shareholders to submit a compliance report within one month. Sebi said it may initiate adjudication proceedings against them for not following the rules. LIC, SBI and BoB didn’t respond to queries.
(Source: Economic Times)
6. Annual Deadline for Ecomm’s FDI Compliance Check: 30 Sept
30 September every year is now a critical date in business calendars of ecommerce majors — that’s the deadline for the likes of Amazon and Flipkart to ready their annual compliance reports as per FDI norms.
Statutory auditors will compile these reports. However, the government has eased an earlier certification rule that required ecommerce firms to submit these reports to RBI. Sources said the change happened because the central bank had questioned the need for its participation in the process.
As of now, the government reviews compliance on the basis of internal reports of ecommerce companies. Ecommerce FDI comes under the ambit of Section 15 of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).
(Source: Economic Times)
7. Coir on Cost-Trimming Spree to Grab Rs 1,200-Crore Geotextiles Market
Coir business is readying to pep up the price-competitiveness of its biggest cash-cow coir geotextiles, by switching to the use of brown fibre and stepping up automation. Gradually moving away from traditional products like coir mats, the industry will also soon sport a diversified basket of products, including needle punched fabric, mulching sheet, coir composite, binder-less board and coir acoustic material, according to the stakeholders at the International Expo Coir Kerala 2019.
Coir geotextiles is a woven net material made of coconut husk. It is increasingly used in bulk to check soil erosion, road-building and renovation of water bodies and landfills. Although geotextiles account for lion’s share of the country’s Rs 2,728-crore coir exports, the share of coir geotextiles in the Rs 1,200 crore domestic geotextile market is less than 40%.
(Source: The Financial Express)
8. One Lakh Temp Jobs Gone in 10 Months till July: ACMA
In tandem with the auto industry, the components sector slowed in the first half of the current fiscal, with sales declining 10 percent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 1.79-lakh crore.
The Automotive Component Manufacturers Association (ACMA) said on Friday that around one lakh temporary jobs were nixed between October 2018 and July 2019.
“The automotive industry is facing a prolonged slowdown,” observed ACMA President Deepak Jain. “Vehicle sales in all segments have continued to plummet over the past year. Considering that the component industry grows on the back of the vehicle industry, a 15-20 per cent cut in vehicle production has, inter alia, adversely impacted the components industry’s performance and investments.”
(Source: The Hindu BusinessLine)
9. Perpetual Licences Coming Soon for Food Businesses
Food business operators (FBOs) may soon get perpetual licences and registrations as the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is looking to do away with the complex year-on-year licence renewal process. This could simplify licensing regime for food companies and thereby help improve their ease of doing business.
As per the proposal, the perpetual licences will be given to food business operators on the basis of e-filing of an annual declaration by registration holders and annual returns by licence holders. Annual returns will be a statement of their annual turnover, product testing protocols adopted among other details which will enable FSSAI to easily ascertain that they are in compliance with the regulations, officials said.
(Source: The Hindu BusinessLine)
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