1. Punjab Waives Loans of up to Rs 2 Lakh for Small Farmers
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday announced a waiver of crop loans up to Rs 2 lakh for small and marginal farmers owning up to 5 acres, and a flat Rs 2 lakh relief for all other marginal farmers, irrespective of their loan amount.
Thereby, implementing a major poll promise of the ruling party.
During his speech in the Punjab Assembly, the chief minister said the move would benefit a total of 10.25 lakh farmers of the state’s 18.5 lakh farming families, including 8.75 lakh farmers having land up to 5 acres.
(Source: The Quint)
2. Challenges Ahead for Ageing India
Around 12.5% of India’s population will be 60 years or older by 2030, says a United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) report released on Monday. According to the report, Caring for Our Elders: Early Responses: India Ageing 2017, the population of those who are 60 years or more is likely to increase by three times to around 300 million by 2050.
The demographic transition will leave elderly women more vulnerable in terms of needs such as housing, safety and finances. The incidence of chronic diseases among all elderly will also increase.
(Source: Livemint)
3. Flush With Local Money, Dalal Street Shakes off Fears Over GST and Fed Policy Tightening
The Sensex closed at a record high on Monday led by bank shares as the Reserve Bank of India’s decision to ask lenders to start bankruptcy proceedings against big defaulters raised hopes of a speedy resolution to the bad loans issue.
The bank index rose 1 percent to close at record levels with Kotak Mahindra Bank and HDFC Bank ending at all-time highs. Banks have an over 30 per cent weightage on the benchmark indices.
The Sensex climbed 255.17 points, or 0.8 percent, to end at 31,311.57. The Nifty closed at 9657.55, up 69.50 points or 0.7 percent. The index is 17 points away from its record close of 9675.10 on 5 June.
(Source: Economic Times)
4. New Owners Left Us out in Cold, Say Housing.com's Founders
A battle is brewing between the founders of Housing.com and the online realty search platform’s new owners. Eight of the dozen founders of Housing.com, which Singapore-registered PropTiger acquired this year, have written to the board of the combined entity complaining about not being offered equal purchase terms for their shares.
This “differential treatment of same class of shares is a violation of our rights as shareholders,” these founders have asserted in their letter, which ET has reviewed. The eight founders, who together own about 5% of Housing.com, also complained about not being formally informed about the company’s acquisition by PropTiger and have sought a “copy of the scheme”.
(Source: Economic Times)
5. IT Is a Worry! Headhunters See up to 90% Jump in Mid-Level Tech Resumes
Headhunters across the country are seeing an unprecedented jump in the resumes of mid-management IT professionals with firms reporting a spike of anywhere between 15 percent to 90 percent with one firm witnessing an increase of as much as 250 percent over the previous year.
This underlines the fact that the current instability in the country’s $150-billion software services exports industry has impacted the middle bracket the most – those with 7-15 years of experience. According to four leading headhunter firms ET spoke to, the jump in CVs from the mid layer is striking and they attribute it to the changing skills landscape with emergence of phenomenon such as automation and robotics.
(Source: Economic Times)
6. GST Countdown: Change in Return Filing Dates Won't Impact Availment of Credit, Experts Say
In what comes as a big relief for taxpayers and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Network, the GST Council has eased the timeline for filing tax returns under the new indirect tax regime by a month.
For the month of July and August, businesses will have to file taxes on the basis of a simple return, Form GSTR-3B, consisting of a summary of outward and inward supplies. Earlier, the deadline for filing details of goods and services supplied i.e. GSTR-1 was 10 August and for filing details of inward supplies i.e. GSTR-2, it was 15 August.
(Source: Bloomberg Quint)
7. Bad Loan Resolution: PMO Takes Stock of Progress
The Prime Minister's Office on Monday held a stock taking meeting with senior officials of the ministries of finance and corporate affairs to review the progress in resolution of NPAs in the light of recent action taken by the Reserve Bank of India on stressed assets.
Prime Minister’s additional secretary PK Mishra had a review meeting on resolution of non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans which have reached unacceptably high level, people familiar with the matter said.
It was a regular stocking meeting on issues related to NPA resolution, sources said, adding that various measures to tackle rising bad loans were discussed.
(Source: Bloomberg Quint)
8. Lanco Infratech First From 'Blacklist' to Face Bankruptcy Action
Lanco Infratech, the power and roads builder, became the first company to face bankruptcy proceedings among the dozen identified by the regulator as IDBI Bank has decided to recover its dues by taking the resolution to insolvency courts, said a person familiar with the matter.
The bank has fund based exposure of Rs 7,799 crore and non-fund based exposure of Rs 3,349 crore as on March 2016, while the overall dues from the company are more than Rs 17,000 crore even as the company's market capitalisation is just a fraction of it.
(Source: Economic Times)
9. Here's How GST Complicates the Employee-Employer Relationship
"How would you treat a car given to employees for their use under GST (goods and services tax)?" a tax head of a car company asked me.
'Why should it be such a big problem?' I wondered. Until I realised the nuances of such a transaction.
Is the car capitalised in the books of the company? Is it registered in the company's or employee's name?
(Source: Economic Times)
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