Indian Economy - Current Affairs for November, 2015

India has added 2311 MW green power generation capacity in the current fiscal. GoI has also set a target of 4460 MW of power generation capacity from renewable energy sources such as wind and solar as well as small hydro. In the first 7 months of the current fiscal, 827.22 MW of solar power generation capacity was added, taking cumulative electricity generation capacity from source to 4579.24 MW. Centre is also aiming to add 1400 M solar power generation capacity in the current fiscal.

FDI proposals worth INR 160 crore have been cleared by FIPB on 27th November 2015. Proposals of ScaleneWorks People Solutions LLP, GVK Biosciences and Singapore based GMS Pharma got cleared. They are worth Rs 160 crore.

Finance Ministry has indicated it has entered into 31 Advance Pricing Agreements with Indian subsidiaries of foreign companies working in various segments. CBDT has entered into 11 more APAs. CBDT has now signed 31 APAs out of which 30 are unilateral and one is bilateral. 7 of the 11 new APAs have 7 rollback provisions. The other 4 are for future 5 years.

RBI has permitted foreign players to purchase corporate bonds which are totally or partly in default is a move to boost the nascent distressed debt market. This will lead to an exit for existing investors and promote less stress in the banking sector. Companies currently face USD 640 billion in debt which is greater than 40% of India’s GDP.

This new facility is part of National Judicial Reference System/NJRS an electronic repository of cases under direct taxes, category or income tax in legal forums like ITAT and AAR. IT department has activated PAN based online system enabling taxmen to access cases in jurisdiction in just click of a mouse, building a database of appeals and judgements.

Investment through Participatory Notes has risen to INR 2.58 lakh crore in October and investment in the capital market grew by over USD 39 billion towards the close of last month. Notes are mostly used by international HNIs as well as hedge funds and other foreign institutions enabling investors to take part in Indian market through registered FIIs. Till some years back, P-Notes used to account for 50% of total FII investment and share has fallen after disclosure norms and regulations were tightened by SEBI. P-Notes make around 15 to 20 percent of the total FII investment since 2009 in India.

The Pay Commission headed by Justice Mathur submitted the 7th Pay Commission report to FM Arun Jaitley. The recommendations of the report will be implemented from January, 2016. The report recommends a 23.55 percent hike in allowance, pensions and pays. The hike has the following breakup: 16% increase in pay, 24% increase in pension and 63% increase in allowances. Report recommends a minimum basic pay for central government staff of INR 18,000 per month with maximum pay of INR 2.25 lakh per month. The government has also done away with grade pay and pay bands. 7th Pay Commission recommendations would have 0.65 percent impact on GDP. The Commission will impact 47 lakh serving government employees and INR 1.02 lakh crore in terms of monetary impact. Maximum pay is INR 2,25,000 per month for apex scale and INR 2,50,000 per month for Cabinet Secretaries and others. Ceiling of gratuity was enhanced to INR 20 lakh with ceiling on gratuity to be increased by 25%. DA will rise by 50 percent and 52 allowances will be abolished.

The food industry of the country is pegged to grow 11% annually to reach INR 4 lakh crore by 2018, pas per the research report. The industry is current valued at USD 39.71 billion, according to a joint report by IIM-C and Academic Foundation. Food and grocery are a considerable part of India’s consumption accounting for 31% of the consumption basket. India’s retail market is expected to grow by USD 865 billion by 2023 currently valued at USD 490 billion.

Cumulative value of exports for the period April-October 2015-16 was USD 154292.24 million (INR 992503.57 crore) as against US$ 187288.74 million (INR 1130539.38 crore) registering a negative growth of 17.62 per cent in Dollar terms and 12.21 per cent in Rupee terms over 2014. .Imports during October, 2015 were valued at USD 31120.06 million (INR 202460.88 crore) which was 21.15 per cent lower in Dollar terms and 16.38 per cent lower in Rupee terms over the level of imports valued at USD 39468.76 million (INR 242109.24 crore) in October, 2014.

This is 3.6% higher as compared to the level in the month of September 2014. The cumulative growth for the period April-September 2015-16 over the corresponding period of the previous year stands at 4.0%. Industrial Production for the Mining, Manufacturing and Electricity sectors indices for the month of September 2015 stand at 118.8, 186.7 and 195.7 respectively, with the corresponding growth rates of 3.0%, 2.6% and 11.4% as compared to September 2014.

Central Statistics Office (CSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has revised the Base Year of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) from 2010=100 to 2012=100 w.e.f the release of indices for the month of January 2015.The General Indices (Provisional) for the month of October 2015 for Rural, Urban and Combined stood at 127.7, 124.2 and 126.1 while the CFPI for Rural, Urban and Combined for the same month are 132.0, 133.1 and 132.4 respectively.

The latest quarterly economic forecast has predicted India will be the fastest growing economy in G20 by 2017 with a growth rate of 7.6%. Currently, the UK is the single largest G20 investor in India, having made investment of USD 22.2 billion between 2000 and 2015 -9% of all FDI in the country. In total, G20 nations invested USD73.9 billion in India between 2000-2015 with the UK followed by Japan ($18.3 billion), US (USD 13.7billion), Germany (USD 7.6 billion) and France (USD 4.5 billion). UK companies are the largest employers of Indians.

Government of India on 10th November 2015 announced big bang reforms in the FDI sector alleviating problems across 15 sectors. This includes the sectors of defence, banking, construction, civil aviation, retail and broadcasting. For facilitation of faster approvals for proposals, government has decided inter ministerial FIPB will provide approvals to proposals above INR 5000 crore from 3000 crore. This is one of the most radical reforms in the FDI sector.

Indirect tax collections from April to October equalled INR 3.83 lakh crore meeting 59.2 percent of indirect tax target for the full fiscal. As per the Budget Estimate 2015-16, the government will collect Rs 6.46 crore from indirect taxes- central excise, Customs and service tax.In October 2015, indirect tax revenue collections rose 36.8 percent from a year ago.Collections indicate healthy growth to tax base.

Activities that attract service tax will become more expensive from November 15 as a 0.5% Swachh Bharat cess has been imposed by the centre. Levy has been announced in the Budget for meeting goals of the sanitation and cleanliness drive announced for the nation. In the last budget, service tax rate was increased from 12% to 14%.

RBI on 5th November 2015 issued revised and uniform guidelines on internet banking for licensed cooperative banks such as UCBs, DCBs and StCBs. Guidelines are for View Only and Transactions facility. RBI has provided more privileges to UCBs through the revised guidelines.

Government has approved the amendment for the Double Taxation Avoidance Convention with Turkmenistan. The amendment to the DTAC has been approved by the Cabinet with regard to taxes on income and capital via a Protocol, as per the official release. Protocol makes provisions for globally accepted standards for effective information on tax issues including bank information and data without domestic tax interest. Information sharing between Turkmenistan and India has also been approved with the authorisation of the Competent Authority of the former country and vice versa. As per the statement, the protocol also provides for Limitation of Benefits article to prevent misuse of the convention.

SIT on Black Money on 3rd November 2015 presented its third report to the Union Ministry of Finance. The SIT is headed by Justice MB Shah and the report dealt with shell companies and beneficial ownership.The SIT’s findings were that over 2600 persons are directors on more than 20 companies and at least 20 companies are operating from the same address at 345 places which indicate the violation of Companies Act, 2013.

RBI has fixed public issue price at INR 2684 per gram for sovereign gold bonds for which applications will be accepted from November 5 to 20. Gold bond scheme will offer investors interest rate of 2.75 percent and choice to purchase bods worth 2 grams of gold. This is up to a maximum of 500 grams. Rate has been fixed on account of the simple average of closing price for gold of 999 purity during the week October 22-30 2015.

Central government has notched up fiscal deficit of INR 3.78 lakh crore totalling 68.1% of the full 2015-2016 fiscal target. This was during the period of the first 6 months (April to September), according to data released by the government. By September, government got revenue of INR 5.13 lakh crore which is 45% of FY16 estimate and total spending was pegged at INR 9.11 lakh crore or 51.2 percent. From the total spending, plan spending was estimated at INR 2.54 lakh crore and non plan at INR 6.57 lakh crore. Of the total revenues, GoI has received INR 144 lakh crore through non tax sources and a significant portions of tax revenues have been received during Q4.

In response to declining exports, government has extended duty incentives to various products including textiles and electronics to improve rate of shipments. Increased support for numerous products included additional items under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme. Present revision includes 110 new tariff lines and increased rate or county coverage or both for 2228 existing tariff lines. As per the announcement, under the scheme, government of India has provided duty benefits at 2,3 and 5 percent based upon the product and country. Global support has been given to products such as pharma, project goods, telecom, electronics and railway transport equipment. Contraction for the 10th month in a row, Indian merchandise exports fell at 24.33 percent in September to USD 21.84 billion, due to steep fall in petrol product shipment, iron ore and engineering goods amidst international demand.