1. COVID-19 Relief: RBI Cuts Repo 75 Bps
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday came out all guns blazing to arrest a potential slowdown caused by coronavirus (COVID-19), lowering the policy repo rate by 75 basis points to 4.4 percent, and telling all banks and housing finance companies not to take instalments on term loans for three months.
“Given the COVID-19 stress, the six-member monetary policy committee (MPC) advanced their 31 March -3 April meetings to 24, 26 and 27 March, and voted 4:2 to cut the policy repo rate to 4.4 percent,” said Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das, who addressed the media through video streaming.
External members Chetan Ghate and Pami Dua voted for a 50-basis-point cut, while others, including Das, favoured 75 basis points.
(Source: Business Standard)
2. Repayment of Credit Card Dues Can Be Deferred by 3 Months, Clarifies RBI
The Reserve Bank of India on Friday clarified that financial institutions can allow three-month moratorium on repayment of credit card dues. To provide relief to the middle class amid the disruption caused by the coronavirus lockdown, the Reserve Bank of India allowed banks and other financial institutions to permit moratorium on three months on payment of instalments falling due from 1 March 2020 to 31 May 2020.
The repayment schedule for such loans will be shifted by three months after the moratorium period and interest shall continue to accrue on the outstanding portion of the term loans during the moratorium period, the RBI clarified.
"In respect of all term loans (including agricultural term loans, retail and crop loans), all commercial banks (including regional rural banks, small finance banks and local area banks), co-operative banks, all-India Financial Institutions, and NBFCs (including housing finance companies) (“lending institutions") are permitted to grant a moratorium of three months on payment of all instalments," the RBI said.
(Source: Livemint)
3. SC Nod to 10-Day Sale of 10% of BS-IV Unsold Inventory Post Lockdown
In a relief to automobile dealers, the Supreme Court on Friday allowed the sale of BS IV compliant vehicles for 10 days, except in Delhi-NCR, after the ongoing countrywide lockdown over the coronavirus pandemic is lifted.
The apex court, which had earlier fixed the deadline of 31 March 2020 for sale of BS IV compliant vehicles across the country, passed the order on a plea by Federation of Automobile Dealers' Association (FADA), seeking extension of time for sale of inventory amid coronavirus scare and economic slowdown.
A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Deepak Gupta, which heard the matter on Friday through video-conferencing, made it clear however that no BS IV vehicles will be allowed to be sold in Delhi-NCR from 1 April 2020.
(Source: Business Standard)
4. Coronavirus Relief: SBI Takes Cue From RBI; Cuts Lending Rates by 75 bps
India's largest lender, State Bank of India, on Friday reduced its lending and deposit rates after the Reserve Bank of India significantly reduced the repo rate earlier in the day to deal with the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
SIB reduced its lending rates by 75 basis points, passing on the entire repo rate cut of by the RBI.
Consequently, the lender has also reduced interest rates on retail and bulk deposits by between 20 to 100 basis points across various tenors.
"Rate cut is for borrowers availing loans based on external benchmark-linked lending rate and repo-linked lending rate," the bank said in a statement. The new rates, to be effective from 1 April.
(Source: Business Standard)
5. COVID-19: Cognizant to Give 25% Extra Pay to Two-Thirds of India Workforce
In a bid to help its employees during Covid-19 lockout, Cognizant has announced an additional payment of 25 per cent of the base pay for April for employees up to associate level in India and the Philippines. The company said it will be reviewing this approach monthly.
This applies to more than two-thirds of the India workforce.
The company has allowed work from home for the majority of its offshore teams to ensure employee health and safety, and to maintain continuity of service for clients, while safeguarding their data and protecting access to their systems.
(Source: Business Standard)
6. Moody’s Cuts India’s GDP Growth Outlook for This Year to 2.5%
Moody’s Investors Service on Friday slashed India’s economic growth projection for 2020 from 5.3 percent to 2.5 percent, as the COVID-19 outbreak causes an unprecedented shock to the global economy.
“The governments of India (Baa2 negative) and South Africa (Baa3 negative) have announced 21-day lockdowns. We expect these measures to dampen economic growth in both countries this year. For India, we are now projecting growth rates of 2.5 percent in 2020 followed by 5.8 percent next year," Moody’s said in its Global Macro Outlook.
The rating agency said in India, credit flow to the economy already remains severely hampered because of severe liquidity constraints in the bank and non-bank financial sectors.
(Source: Livemint)
7. Govt Exempts Procurement Agencies, Mandis, Farming Operations From Lockdown
To ensure that farmers do not face problem in harvesting of rabi crops in the coming days, the Centre on Friday exempted mandis, procurement agencies, farm operations, agri machinery hiring centres as well as intra- and inter-state movement of farm implements from the lockdown rules.
The government has also exempted farm workers as well as manufacturing and packaging units of fertilisers, pesticides and seeds from the lockdown order, according to the latest directive issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Fertiliser shops and custom hiring centres of farm machineries have also been allowed to function during the lockdown period, it said.
(Source: Livemint)
8. Zomato Gold Memberships Extended for Free, Fund Set up for Delivery Boys
Amid a nationwide lockdown in India, food delivery giant Zomato has announced a slew of measures to support its partner restaurants and delivery boys. The company has set up a fund to help daily wage workers in the country. Known as 'Feed the Daily Wager', the new initiative of Zomato has received Rs 6.5 crore in the last 24 hours, Zomato co-founder Deepinder Goyal said. The fund has so far collected more that Rs 10 crore.
The popular food delivery company partnered with multiple NGOs across the country to ensure distribution of food packets amid coronavirus outbreak. Each meal kit will contain a a combination of wheat flour, rice and two types of pulses that can be used to cook meals for the family for a week. This is a 100 percent not-for-profit campaign, Zomato said.
(Source: Livemint)
9. Sensex, Nifty End Mixed Despite RBI's Steep Repo Rate Cut
The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes ended on a mixed note despite the Reserve Bank of India's surprise 75 basis points repo rate cut and cash reserve ratio cut of 1 per cent.
Earlier in the day, benchmarks staged a gap up opening and Sensex surged as much as 1,179 points to surpass 31,000 mark and the Nifty 50 index advanced above 9,000 mark. However, the benchmarks erased most of the day's gains despite RBI announcing steep rate cuts as analysts said that the RBI's steps were on expected lines.
"RBI was the last major central bank to cut rates and it had scope for a larger rate cut and these measures came very late," AK Prabhakar, head of research at IDBI Capital told NDTV over phone.
(Source: NDTV)
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