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QBiz: ITR to be Filed by Midnight; Gov to Sell Stakes in 22 Firms

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1. Income Tax Offices to Remain Open Till Midnight on Saturday

The income tax department on Friday said its field offices will remain open till midnight on Saturday to facilitate very senior citizens and those with income below Rs 5 lakh to file tax returns for 2016-17.

The last date for filing of income tax returns (ITRs) was extended from 31 July to 5 August in view of difficulties faced by taxpayers.

In order to facilitate manual filing of returns on 5 August 2017, being a Saturday, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has directed that necessary arrangements be made for receiving income tax returns up to midnight in all income tax offices throughout the country.
Finance Ministry

E-filing of ITR is mandatory for all individuals except those whose income is less than Rs 5 lakh per annum and who are above 80 years of age.

Source: Livemint

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2. SEBI Asks Listed Firms to Inform Exchanges on Loan Default

Tightening its disclosure norms for listed companies defaulting on loan payment from banks and other financial intuitions, market regulator SEBI on Friday asked firms to make such information public within one working day.

This will come into force from 1 October, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said in a circular.

Corporates in India are even today primarily reliant on loans from the banking sector. Many banks are presently under considerable stress on account of large loans to the corporate sector turning into stressed assets, non-performing assets (NPAs). Some companies have also been taken up for initiation of insolvency and bankruptcy proceedings.
SEBI Circular

Source: PTI

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3. Govt Forms Bharat 22 ETF to Sell Stakes in 22 Firms

The government on Friday announced the launch of its second exchange-traded fund (ETF), Bharat 22, which will comprise 22 stocks including those of central public sector enterprises (CPSEs), public sector banks and its holdings under the Specified Undertaking of Unit Trust of India (SUUTI).

Finance minister Arun Jaitley said the ETF will have a diversified portfolio of companies from six sectors with a 20% cap on each sector and a 15% cap on each stock.

While selecting each of these sectors, we have kept in mind sectoral reforms which have had direct impact on the valuation of these shares... We believe that this ETF will be a fairly successful one.
Arun Jaitley

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are essentially index funds that are listed and traded on exchanges like stocks.

Source: Livemint

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4. India's Forex Reserves Surge to Record $392.86 Billion

India’s foreign exchange reserves, or forex reserves, surged by $1.536 billion to touch a new record of $392.867 billion during the week to 28 July, data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed.

In the previous week, forex reserves had increased by $2.27 billion to $391.33 billion.

The surge in India’s forex reserves was driven by rise in foreign currency assets (FCAs).

FCAs, a major component of the overall forex reserves, rose by $1.609 billion to USD 368.759 billion, the RBI data showed. Expressed in US dollar terms, FCAs include effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies such as the euro, the pound and the yen held in the reserves.

Source: PTI

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5. Bank Of Baroda Fourth Lender To Cut Savings Account Rate In A Week

Four lenders cut rates on savings deposits this week as banks are flush with funds even seven months after demonetisation forced people to turn in most of their cash. The central bank’s repo rate cut on Wednesday further reduced the cost of funds.

Bank of Baroda cut rate on savings account deposits worth up to Rs 50 lakh by 50 basis points on Friday to 3.5 percent a year (a basis point is one hundredth of a percentage point). For deposits worth more than Rs 50 lakh, the rate continues to remain at 4 percent, the bank said in a notification on the stock exchanges.

It joins State Bank of India Ltd., Karnataka Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank to lower rates on savings deposits. SBI, the country’s largest lender surprised the market on Monday by reducing interest on savings account deposits worth up to Rs 1 crore by 50 bps to 3.5 percent.

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6. Heli-Taxi Service: Fly From Bangalore Airport to Software Hub in 15 Minutes

Bengaluru is set to launch a helicopter taxi service from its international airport to Electronics City, helping passengers save hours in commute and beat the city’s bumper-to-bumper traffic.

The service, to begin in three months with one helicopter by Thumby Aviation, will eventually expand to connect Whitefield, the HAL airport, and some of the 90-odd highrise buildings that have rooftop helipads, based on the demand from people.

A 55-km road journey from the airport to Electronics City, home to several technology firms such as Infosys, Wipro and HP, takes over two hours by cab, costing around Rs 2,500, while the chopper journey would reduce it to 15 minutes.

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7. Jignesh Shah Cries Conspiracy After SEBI’s Insider Trading Order

Jignesh Shah, founder of India’s largest commodity exchange Multi Commodity Exchange Ltd., said the market regulator’s order holding his close relatives and former colleagues guilty of insider trading is unfounded and without basis.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India has ordered to impound the losses Shah and 12 others averted by selling shares of MCX when the National Spot Exchange Ltd. scam unravelled between April 2012 and July 2013. The regulator said in an August 2 order that an investigation found that the trades occurred when they had unpublished price-sensitive information.

NSEL, promoted by Shah’s Financial Technologies of India Ltd., now called 63 Moons Technologies Ltd., was ordered to shut down after a probe found that the exchange allowed trading on the stock that didn’t exist in warehouses. NSEL failed to pay investors Rs 5,600 crore.

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8. IndianOil to Buy 50% in Gujarat-Adani LNG Terminal

The board of Indian Oil Corporation (IndianOil) has given its in-principle approval for acquiring up to 50 per cent equity in GSPL LNG terminal in Gujarat for an estimated Rs 750 crore.

GSPL LNG is a joint venture of Gujarat State Petroleum Corp and Adani Enterprises. Adani and GSPC are equal partners in GSPL LNG.

GSPL LNG is setting up a 5 million tonne per annum (mtpa) liquefied natural gas terminal at Mundra Port in Gujarat at an investment of Rs 5,040 crore. While the company did not give the acquisition cost, an official said roughly 30 per cent of the Rs 5,040-crore project cost is equity and IndianOil would pay for half of it. A final figure would be arrived at after the valuation exercise is completed, the official said.

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9. Flipkart to Sell Refurbished Smartphones Soon

Flipkart plans to start selling refurbished smartphones by Diwali, following the footsteps of US rival Amazon in India, prompted by the high rate of handset returns and the absence of a pricing advantage with the introduction of the goods and services tax, two senior industry executives said.

Flipkart-certified refurbished models will be sold on the online marketplace and offline retail stores, for which discussions have been held with distributors. Flipkart will use its logistics arm Ekart for deliveries.

Even though Flipkart has of late tightened return norms on mobile phones and only allows replacement in case of a defect, it is already saddled with lot of return inventory
Senior Executive, Filpkart 

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