1. Pay Service Charge at a Restaurant Only If You Are Satisfied
Customers need not pay the service charge added to their food or hotel bill if they are not satisfied with the service staff, according to a notification issued by the Department of Consumer Affairs.
All such establishments will also need to display the same at their premises.
The government in its notification said it had consulted the Hotel Association of India after a number of customers filed complaints that “hotels and restaurants are charging service charge in the range of 5-20 percent in lieu of tips, which a consumer is forced to pay irrespective of the kind of service provided to him”.
The association had, in its response, made it clear that paying service charge is completely at the discretion of the customer, and it can be waived if the customer was dissatisfied with the service.
Source: BloombergQuint
2. Sensex Begins 2017 on Negative Note, Down 132 Points
Stock markets opened on a subdued note on the first trading day of 2017, with the benchmark BSE Sensex falling over 132 points in early trade on profit-booking after recent gains.
The 30-share index, which had gained 415.78 points in the previous two sessions, fell 132.37 points, or 0.50 per cent, to 26,494.09 in early trade on Monday.
Stocks of FMCG, teck, IT and auto were major losers, dragging the key indices down.
Source: Times of India
3. Revenues of IT Companies May Contract 3% This Year
The new year is unlikely to be kind to Indian IT firms. After experiencing a horrible 2016, Indian IT companies had hoped for some respite. But cloud, automation and artificial intelligence are expected to cut into how much companies can earn.
Experts see a 3% contraction in revenue this year due to cloud, automation and cognitive and expect more clients to want to do things themselves rather than outsource.
"If 2016 was difficult I expect 2017 to be harder. We also see a trend of revenue compression driven by automation, cognitive, and cloud, and we expect that this alone will reduce revenues from the existing book of business by 3% in 2017," Peter Bendor-Samuel, CEO of analyst firm Everest Group, told Economic Times.
Source: Economic Times
4. Credit Growth to Improve After Rate Cut, Says SBI
The 90-basis point (bp) rate cut is expected to improve credit growth for the country’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) to 8-9% for the financial year 2016-17. So far, credit has grown at an unimpressive 6.7-6.8% since April 2016, SBI Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya said.
This is a decline, compared with SBI’s loan growth estimate at the beginning of the financial year of 11-12%. The demonetisation move has led to a slump in the economy and is a major reason for the drop in credit demand. SBI is looking at the retail segment to grow its credit portfolio.
Source: Business Standard
5. Gold Import Lowest Since 2003
With the government giving a push to digital transactions following demonetisation and discouraging the purchase of assets using cash, some trends expected to change the gold business have been identified.
The immediate impact of demonetisation has been on gold demand, which went up sharply after the withdrawal of the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on 8 November. While the demand for gold increased immediately after demonetisation, it fell sharply in December. Now for buying jewellery or bullion worth more than Rs 2 lakh, purchasers have to state their permanent account number (PAN).
The import of gold in 2016 in tonnage terms has been the lowest since 2003, according to the GFMS TR. The organisation has estimated the official gold import in 2016 at 492 tonnes, a large part of that being for export.
Source: Business Standard
6. Note Ban Takes Toll on Investment, Manufacturing
The worst fears about demonetisation taking a toll on the economy seem to be coming true.
There has been a sharp fall in new investment proposals since 9 November –the day the government’s decision to invalidate high-value currency notes came into effect, shows data released by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy Pvt Ltd (CMIE).
This sombre prognosis is reaffirmed by the Nikkei Markit India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) which, for the first time in 2016, shows manufacturing contracting in December.
Previously, economists and global financial institutions lowered India’s growth projections for 2016-17 to less than 7%, citing the slowdown in economic activity from the cash crunch in the economy following the scrapping of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 banknotes, which accounted for 86% of the money in circulation.
The Indian economy grew at 7.6% in 2015-16.
Source: Livemint
7. GST Council to Meet Officials From 6 Key Sectors on Tuesday
The all-powerful GST Council headed by the Finance Minister will on Tuesday meet the representatives of six crucial sectors, including IT, telecom, banking and insurance, to assess the implementation hurdles under the new GST regime. Also, a presentation will be made by sector representatives of Civil Aviation and Railways at the two-day GST Council meeting that begins in New Delhi on Tuesday, officials said.
Software association NASSCOM, which is also scheduled to meet the GST Council, will voice its concerns over issues such as tax treatment of software, and also make a case for single registration under the new GST regime.
Source: BloombergQuint
8. Air India to Add 35 New Planes This Year
Air India plans to add 35 new planes this year as the airline prepares for “consolidation and expansion” by flying more international as well as domestic routes, its chief Ashwani Lohani has said.
Emphasising that the “battle has just begun” in terms of revival, Lohani said Air India needs to be competitive in fares with attractive schemes.
“I expect almost 35 new planes to join the Air India family during 2017 and all of us need to be in full readiness to receive them, fill them and fly them,” the Air India CMD said in a New Year message to the employees.
With the addition of the new aircraft, the group would have a fleet of more than 170 planes.
Source: Financial Express
9. Hero MotoCorp Sales Down 34% in December
The country's largest two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp on Monday reported a 34% decline in sales at 3,30,202 units for December.
The company had sold 4,99,665 units in the corresponding period of 2015. The company's plants at Gurgaon, Neemrana and Hardwar were closed on account of annual maintenance shutdown between 26-31 December, Hero MotoCorp said in a statement.
Hero MotoCorp sold a 67,62,980 units of two-wheelers in the period January-December 2016, translating into growth of 4.3% over the previous calendar year (2015) when the company had sold 64,86,103 two-wheeler units.
Source: Economic Times
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