1. GST Rollout Before 16 Sep Is a Constitutional Necessity: Jaitley
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday stated that there is a constitutional necessity to roll out the Goods and Services Tax (GST) before 16 September, if not on 1 April.
Speaking on the sidelines of the 8th Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, Jaitley said that since the constitutional amendments have already been made and accepted, it is necessary to roll out GST by 16 September.
We want it to be rolled out from 1 April, if all the issues are resolved by then. If that doesn’t happen, then it is inevitable to roll it out before 16 September.Arun Jaitley
However, during his address at the seminar ‘GST: A Game Changer’, Jaitley stated that after over a decade of waiting, GST will be implemented from April.
(Source: The Hindu Business Line)
2. India On A ‘Jobless Growth’ Path
India was able to add only 1,35,000 jobs in eight labour-intensive sectors surveyed by the Labour Bureau in 2015, while the number of people working or looking for jobs or the ‘labour force’, grew by over 10 million.
The latest Economic Survey reports that annual employment growth in India was only 0.5 percent during the period 2004-12, while labour force growth was 2.9 percent. Alternative calculations peg employment growth at 1.2 percent and labour force growth at 2.8 percent annually. However, India’s gross domestic product (GDP) has been growing annually, on average, by over 7 percent for quite a few years now.
All of these numbers together point to a clear case of jobless growth. Furthermore, it is common knowledge that a large proportion of the employed, especially in agriculture, are actually underemployed. To fully employ the growing labour force gainfully and productively, India will probably have to create tens of millions of modern-sector jobs over the next few years.
(Source: Bloomberg Quint)
3. Cyrus Mistry Firms File Contempt Application Against Tata Sons
Investment firms owned by the family of Cyrus Mistry on Wednesday filed a contempt application before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) against Tata Sons and its directors including Ratan Tata for alleged violation of the NCLT order in initiating steps to remove him from the board of Tata Sons.
Cyrus Investments Ltd and Sterling Investment sought an injunction against Tata Sons from “convening or holding of the EGM scheduled on 6 February, 2017, or any other date or from transacting any business threat” in the application filed at the NCLT.
In response to the contempt petition filed by the Shapoorji Pallonji firms, Tata Sons group spokesperson said, “there is no contempt. We will make our submissions to the NCLT”.
(Source: The Indian Express)
4. India’s Solar Prices Set to Drop Amid Competition, Lower Costs
The price paid for solar power in India at auction is set to fall below last year’s record lows for the South Asia nation, driven by plummeting panel prices, falling interest rates and competition among developers seeking a slice of the country’s renewables market.
Prices could dip lower than the Rs 4.34 (6 cents) a kilowatt-hour offered in auctions held in the state of Rajasthan a year ago, according to at least one developer of solar projects in India.
“This year we will see prices fall below Rs 4 a kilowatt-hour for sure and it will be viable,” said Rahul Munjal, chairman and managing director of Hero Future Energies Pvt, the clean-energy arm of Hero Group, one of India’s largest automakers.
(Source: Bloomberg Quint)
5. Urjit Patel Urges Government to Cut Borrowing
Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel urged the government on Wednesday to show some progress in cutting high Central and State government borrowing, just weeks before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration is due to unveil its annual budget.
Patel, in a speech at the Vibrant Gujarat summit, said the government debt to gross domestic product ratio was also taking its toll on the country’s sovereign ratings.
India’s total fiscal deficit, combining the levels of the Central and State governments, was among the highest in G20 countries, Patel said, citing International Monetary Fund data. India’s current fiscal deficit is targeted at 6.4 percent of GDP at the combined State and Central level for the year ending March.
(Source: The Hindu Business Line)
6. As Paytm Becomes a Bank, What Happens to the Money in the Wallet?
Over the next five days, the money in 160 million Paytm wallets will show up in a corresponding number of Paytm Payment Bank wallets as the wallet company becomes a payments bank.
The money in the wallets will be transferred to Paytm Payments Bank Ltd on 15 January. This means existing wallets will move from One97 Communication Ltd (the company currently behind Paytm) to Paytm Payments Bank Ltd.
This change does nothing to the money in the wallets. Nothing changes, notes the company. If a person has a balance of Rs 2,000 in her current Paytm wallet, the same will reflect in her new Paytm Payments Bank wallet.
(Source: Livemint)
7. NITI Aayog Bats for Changing 10% I-T Slab
National Institution for Transforming Indian (NITI) Aayog is in favour of keeping the threshold for the income tax (I-T) exemption intact at Rs 2.5 lakh. Instead, they want to extend the tax (10 percent) on the Rs 5 lakh slab to Rs 7 lakh.
Officials said that the Aayog favours expansion of the tax base to enable more people to pay taxes, rather than expanding the exemption limits.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had raised the threshold for income tax exemption to Rs 2.5 lakh from Rs 2 lakh in his very first Budget for 2014-15. At present, there are three slabs – 10 percent for annual income between Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 5 lakh, 20 per cent on annual income from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh, and 30 percent on income above Rs 10 lakh.
The Aayog also advocated job creation being the central theme of the Budget.
(Source: Business Standard)
8. Centre to Rank States on the Basis of Digital Transactions
The Centre will soon rank states on a digital transaction index as part of its big push to make India a less-cash economy.
Government think tank Niti Aayog has begun the exercise by reaching out to states to collate data, which will help it compile the first of its kind index. States will be ranked on the basis of this index.
An official involved in the exercise told ET that the move will give a boost to the government's digital payments drive and help states improve their ease of doing business.
(Source: The Economic Times)
9. 68% Indians Want Service Charge to Be Optional: Survey
Sixty-eight percent of respondents in a country-wide survey say the service charge levied by hotels and restaurants should be optional, while 27 percent opposed it. Five per cent of the 26,000 respondents did not respond in the survey by LocalCircles citizen engagement platform.
Where 61 percent supported the changing the name of service charge to service tip, 33 percent did not agree to this and 6 percent did not comment.
The survey also found that 68 percent people were willing to pay a tip for good service if it goes to the restaurant staff, 26 percent were not willing to pay the tip, while 6 per cent chose can’t say as their answer.
This implies that a majority of people are in favour of paying tips.
(Source: The Financial Express)
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