The deceleration in GDP [gross domestic product] which started in the second quarter of financial year [FY] 2018-19 and has continued till the first quarter of current year with the rate of growth plunging to 5 year low of 5% has led to consternation in industry and trade circles leaving a sizeable section of the fraternity worried that this trend might continue till the end of the year. This will mean further aggravation of the income and employment concerns. The government has rightly gone into introspection mode and has demonstrated its willingness to respond to the situation. The finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman has held a series of consultations with industry and trade and come up with a number of measures...
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Blog
Rate cut transmission – benchmarking alone won’t help
On September 4, 2019, the Reserve Bank of India [RBI] has made it mandatory for all banks to link new floating-rate loans – to retail customers and micro, small and medium enterprises [MSMEs] – to an external benchmark. The external benchmark could be the repo rate [rate of interest that the apex bank charges on money lent to banks – also known as ‘policy rate’], yields on 3-6 month treasury bills as published by the Financial Benchmarks India Private Ltd [FBIL] or any other benchmark rate published by FBIL. The decision will be applicable to all fresh loans under ‘floating rate’ given from October 1, 2019. Borrowers with a floating rate loan who are eligible to pre-pay without pre-payment charges...
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PSBs – capital erosion continues unabated
During her second interactive session with the media on the state of the Indian economy and measures to give a boost, finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman announced a number of bold reforms in the banking sector with major focus on consolidation of 10 public sector banks [PSBs] into 4 big entities – an overarching objective being to make them globally competitive and act as a foundation for achieving US$ 5 trillion milestone. Sitharaman informed about a substantial reduction in their gross non-performing assets [GNPAs] from 11.6% of total loans as on March 31, 2018 to 10.3% on March 31, 2019 [courtesy, huge recovery of over Rs 300,000 crore made possible largely by concerted action under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC)...
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Reform PPAs, stop fleecing consumers
The government has set up a committee to reform power purchase agreements [PPAs] [it is a contract between generators and power distribution companies (PDCs) setting the terms of electricity purchase by the latter from the former even as the tariff is approved by the state electricity regulatory commission (SERC)] in a manner as to make power available at ‘competitive price’ and give relief to consumers. The move looks laughable when seen in juxtaposition with the extant tariff policy environment as also the position on ground zero with regard to the architecture of PPAs already signed. On tariff policy, under directions from the state governments [they own and control PDCs], PDCs sell electricity to certain category of households and farmers at...
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RBI surplus transfer – much ado about nothing
On the face of it, the decision of the Reserve Bank of India [RBI] – India’s apex bank which manages the currency and payment systems as also the borrowings of the Government of India [GOI] and of state governments besides supervising or regulating banks – to transfer a whopping surplus of Rs 176,000 crore to GOI for the year 2018-19 [for RBI, the accounting year is on July-June basis] gives an impression that the latter has got a bonanza. While, some argue that the centre has ‘stolen’ the money from the RBI [e.g. Congress], others aver that this is easy money which the centre will use for bridging its fiscal deficit. The reactions are exaggerated. First, of the total amount Rs...
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Infrastructure investment hits slow lane
In her maiden budget presented to the Parliament on July 5, 2019, the finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman laid a road-map for catapulting the Indian economy to US$ 5 trillion by 2024-25. The most crucial component of this road-map is investment in infrastructure to the tune of a mammoth Rs 100,00,000 crore or US$ 1.4 trillion. In the follow through, in an interactive session with the media held on August 24, 2019, she announced setting up of a high level inter-ministerial committee to work out a detailed action plan, operational details including identification of projects. During its first term also, Modi – government gave overriding importance to building infrastructure. Indeed, it achieved a fair amount of success with a cumulative investment...
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CSR levy – an anathema to free enterprise
In a country where tens of millions persons live in abject poverty, suffer from acute malnutrition, live in unhygienic conditions and don’t get opportunity for even basic education, corporate social responsibility [CSR] is an idea which caught the imagination of the both the dispensations under UPA – II and Modi – 1.0/2.0 . When, a company generates profits using the country’s resources besides relying on the capital and labor provided by the public, it needs to pay back to the society. This may be the underlying logic behind CSR levy. The government expects that a company above a threshold in respect of net-worth, turnover and net profit, should spend a given percentage of its net profit on activities such as...
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Gas reforms – holistic approach needed
The Union Cabinet is considering far reaching reforms in the gas sector. These include inter alia setting up of a local gas trading platform to facilitate price discovery, stripping power sector off its priority status in the allocation of domestic natural gas and hiving off the transportation unit of the Gas Authority of India Limited [GAIL] – a public sector undertaking [PSU] which currently holds an overwhelming share of the gas pipeline network. The stated objective of these reforms is to enable energy companies to invest in exploration and development of gas fields in India so as to increase indigenous production and ensure that the country achieves self-sufficiency in this major source of clean energy [currently, 50% of our gas...
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Unshackle the GM seed innovator
Bhartiya Kisan Sangh [BKS] a farmers’ organization linked to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh [RSS] – an ideological front of the ruling BJP – has written to the Prime Minister, N Modi bringing to his attention to large-scale use of unapproved genetically modified [GM] new seeds and their deleterious impact on crop, soil and the environment. They have called for punitive action against companies which are making these seeds available to farmers. The reference in the association’s complaint is purportedly to the presence of Cry1Ac gene [besides more alien pest-protecting genes] in brinjals taken from a farmers’ field in a village in Fatehabad district of Haryana. Cry1Ac gene is a protein produced from insertion of soil bacterium, bacillus thuringensis [Bt] into the...
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Merge all subsidies into DBT
At present, tens of millions persons [including undeserving] are getting a variety of subsidies from the government. These cost hundreds of thousand crore seriously impairing its ability to maintain fiscal deficit [excess of total expenditure over total revenue] within the target range mandated by the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management [FRBM] Act. The manner of administering these subsidies is marked by ‘adhocism’ and ‘arbitrariness’. It leads to mis-allocation of resources, promotes inefficiency in production, distribution and use, encourages misuse of funds, makes way for controls through the backdoor, enables bureaucrats to meddle in the affairs of the industry and creates fertile ground for nepotism and corruption. Even as Modi – government has vowed to make India a US$ 5 trillion...
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