1. GST Council Okays Draft Rules
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council approved draft rules for the proposed levy and agreed to a refund mechanism for Central and state tax holidays that will continue under the new regime, marking further progress toward rolling out India's biggest indirect tax reform by 1 April next year.
The GST Council will now meet for three days next month (18 to 12 October) to settle the few remaining issues and the big question of the tax rate, which is likely to the subject of intense debate. The Centre doesn't want GST to be too high that it's inflationary while the state governments don't want it so low that they lose out on revenue.
(Source: The Economic Times)
2. Petrol Price Hiked By 36 Paise/Litre, Diesel Cut By 7 Paise
The price of petrol was on Friday hiked by 36 paise a litre, the third increase in two months, but that of diesel was cut by 7 paise per litre in line with international trends, according to a statement by Indian Oil Corporation Ltd.
Petrol will cost Rs 64.57 a litre in Delhi from midnight on Friday as against Rs 64.21 currently. Similarly, diesel will cost Rs 52.52 a litre as compared to Rs 52.59 at present.
This is the third increase in rates in petrol in two months, while in the case of diesel, it is the second price reduction this month.
(Source: BloombergQuint)
3. Reliance Jio vs Incumbents : Trai Seeks Daily Updates on Network Congestion
In a move that could further escalate tensions in the telecom sector, India’s top telecom companies flocked to the regulator on Friday with complaints against the tariffs offered by new entrant Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, only to be told to furnish daily reports on network congestion levels pending sorting out of the points of interconnection (PoI) issue.
Representatives of Bharti Airtel Ltd, Vodafone India Ltd and Idea Cellular Ltd, along with a representative of Telenor India, met the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) chairman to express concern about Jio’s aggressive pricing impacting the health of the sector.
(Source: Livemint)
4. Cognizant Tumbles as President Leaves Amid Investigation
Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp tumbled the most in more than four years after a key executive left abruptly amid revelations of an internal investigation into whether some payments in India violated the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Gordon Coburn, who had been at Cognizant for two decades and most recently served as its president, resigned earlier this week, the Teaneck, New Jersey-based company said in a filing Friday.The probe is focused on a small number of company-owned facilities, the company said without elaborating. The stock fell 15 percent to $46.73 at 11:04 am in New York after earlier dropping as much as 17 percent.
(Source: BloombergQuint)
5. Google Said to Tap Lazard to Review Potential Bid for Twitter
Google is working with a financial adviser to consider a potential bid for Twitter Inc, as the social-media company continues to explore a sale, according to a person familiar with the arrangement.
In tapping Lazard Ltd, Google hasn’t indicated it will definitely make an offer for Twitter. But the move suggests that Google is evaluating the option, pitting the search giant against other potential bidders including Walt Disney Co. and Salesforce.com Inc.
Twitter hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Allen & Co. to solicit potential buyers after receiving interest from Salesforce, people familiar with the situation have said.
(Source: BloombergQuint)
6. India Inc Hails Strike, but Wary of Escalation
India Inc. hailed the government's surgical strikes across the border in Kashmir but said the situation shouldn't escalate into a bigger conflagration that may raise the country's risk premium.
The market slump on Thursday after the attacks was a knee-jerk reaction and India's economic fundamentals, which are better than those of many other countries, will dictate investment decisions, said a star-studded panel of executives at an ET CEO Roundtable that included Kumar Mangalam Birla of the Aditya Birla group, Uday Kotak of Kotak Mahindra Bank, Chanda Kochhar of ICICI Bank, Dilip Shanghvi of Sun Pharma, Sachin Bansal of Flipkart, Satyan Gajwani of Times Internet Ltd, Vijay Shekhar Sharma of Paytm and Zarin Daruwala of Standard Chartered Bank. The move may actually improve perceptions about India's stability and the country remains the most interesting market for global investors, said Birla.
(Source: The Economic Times)
7. India’s April-August Fiscal Deficit Reaches 76% Of FY17 Target
India’s fiscal deficit for the April-August period of the current financial year stood at Rs 4.08 lakh crore, or 76.4 percent of the budget estimate for 2016-17, government data showed on Friday. The budget deficit estimate for 2016-17 stood at Rs 5.34 lakh crore, 3.5 percent of the gross domestic product.
The fiscal deficit was 66.5 percent of the full-year target during the same period a year ago.
Revenue from net tax receipts during the period stood at Rs 2.8 lakh crore against budgeted estimate of Rs 10.5 lakh crore. Non-tax receipts generated at the end of August was Rs 1.1 lakh crore, which was 32.5 percent of the budgeted estimate of Rs 3.2 lakh crore, data showed.
(Source: BloombergQuint)
8. Govt Forms Panel to Examine Issues Related to Audit Firms
The government on Friday set up a three-member expert panel, headed by The Energy and Resources Institute (Teri) chairman Ashok Chawla, to examine various issues related to audit firms, including possible adverse impact from restrictive shareholder agreements.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deputy governor NS Vishwanathan and Jubilant Life Sciences Ltd co-chairman and managing director Hari S Bhartia are the other members of the group.
(Source: Livemint)
9. Govt to Ask RIL to Pay for Migrated ONGC Gas
The government will seek compensation from the Mukesh Ambani-promoted Reliance Industries (RIL) for producing natural gas that migrated from an adjoining block of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation.
Besides, the petroleum ministry will conduct an internal inquiry into any lapses by the state-owned company.
Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said his ministry had accepted the proposal by a committee led by AP Shah that had recommended compensation be sought from RIL for the ‘unjust benefit’ it received through migration of gas from ONGC's block in the Krishna-Godavari basin to RIL fields.
(Source: Business Standard)
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