Daily Sector News Today – 11.09.2017
* AUTOMOBILE: The heavy industries ministry will, in three months, come out with a detailed policy on preference for locally-manufactured vehicles in government procurements, Vishvajit Sahay, joint secretary in the department of heavy industry, said.
- The Goods and Services Tax Council has decided to increase the compensation cess on mid-size and luxury cars by 2-7 percentage points, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said.
- Carmakers may have to introduce mandatory airbags in all vehicles from April 2019, six months earlier than the previous deadline of October 2019.
* AVIATION: The civil aviation ministry has announced a series of rules to deal with unruly air passengers, allowing airlines to ground them for three months to two years.
- Government, which is planning to sell a stake in Air India, is considering options such as keeping out at least a part of its $8 bln of debt to help lure investors.
- Air India has deferred the delivery of at least one A320 neo aircraft due to issues with CFM-manufactured engine.
- Air India is better positioned as a full-service airline with "superior product" than its competitors and will strive to position itself slightly above low-cost carriers, Chairman Rajiv Bansal said.
* BANKING: Former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan has expressed concern about how the Banks Board Bureau, which was meant to take decisions on appointments at state-owned banks, had eventually become just one more step in appointments, with the final call still taken by government channels.
- Public sector banks saw their loan book shrink for the first time in at least two decades as advances fell by 1.35 trln rupees in FY17.
- The RBI has clarified that it was using sophisticated currency verification and processing machines to check the "numerical accuracy and genuineness" of the demonetised currency notes.
- At least three large lenders are planning to ask the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to further clip the wings of promoters of companies facing insolvency proceedings.
- A resolution plan finalised for the next set of stressed assets identified by the RBI will be subject to a rating requirement if the plan for resolving bad debts falls outside the scope of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.
* COMMODITIES: The government may increase the import duty on wheat after the "festival season", as demand is expected to rise in the coming days and prices will improve, a senior government official said.
* CORPORATE: Tata Sons will pare the stakes that group companies have in TATA CHEMICALS and TATA POWER CO, and the holding firm will buy shares in each case and consolidate its ownership.
* ECONOMY: Punjab and Karnataka claimed a revenue shortfall of 8 bln rupees and 6 bln rupees, respectively, in July, following the rollout of the goods and services tax.
- In view of the difficulties being faced by taxpayers in filing returns, the GST Council has decided to extend the dates for filing various GST returns for July to Oct 10 for GSTR1, Oct 31 for GSTR2 and Nov 10 for GSTR3.
- The government is in the process of checking the veracity of the around 600 bln rupees of claims made by entities for stocks before the implementation of the goods and services tax.
* PHARMACEUTICAL: The pharmaceuticals department is understood to have proposed to effectively wrestle the powers of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority, vested under Paragraph 19 of the Drug Price Control Order, 2013. (CNBC-TV18)
* OIL AND GAS: India has renegotiated the price of liquefied natural gas it imports from Gorgon project in Australia that will result in savings of more than 100 bln rupees. Essar Group has no plans to sell its Stanlow refinery in the UK.
* RAILWAYS: Indian Railways will use reverse-bidding for high-value purchases of equipment and services. The company is currently developing a software platform to conduct the auctions.
* REAL ESTATE: Lanco Group has decided to exit its real estate investments to refocus on its core business— infrastructure.
* REGULATORY: Registrars to public offers and share transfer agents with portfolios of more than 20 mln rupees will also now need to implement a cyber security framework, the Securities and Exchange Board of India said.
- To bring more transparency in credit rating agencies, Securities and Exchange Board of India has proposed that one credit rating agency cannot hold over 10% stake in another rating agency.
- The Securities and Exchange Board of India is looking to rejuvenate the Securities Lending and Borrowing Scheme mechanism by including more securities, allowing mutual funds to sell short and depositories to lend.
* STEEL: The government has imposed countervailing duty on flat rolled stainless steel products manufactured in China or imported from the country for a period of five years.
* TAXATION: The income tax department has established charges against five persons with unaccounted foreign assets of 50 bln rupees in the British Virgin Islands, a Caribbean tax haven.
* TELECOMMUNICATION: The Telecom Commission has asked the inter-ministerial panel to suggest steps to ease financial stress in the sector for "clarification and more details" on two of its recommendations.
- The Telecom Commission has approved implementation of projects worth 187.92 bln rupees under BharatNet phase 2.
- Bharat Sanchar Nigam will invest 60 bln rupees over the next two years to improve its network.
- The new telecom policy, expected by March, will focus on providing affordable internet access and facilitate domestic manufacturing to curb dependence on imports, Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha said.
- All telecom equipment used by operators will have to undergo mandatory testing and get certified by authorised agencies as per specified norms from Oct 1, 2018, the telecom department said.
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- The Goods and Services Tax Council has decided to increase the compensation cess on mid-size and luxury cars by 2-7 percentage points, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said.
- Carmakers may have to introduce mandatory airbags in all vehicles from April 2019, six months earlier than the previous deadline of October 2019.
* AVIATION: The civil aviation ministry has announced a series of rules to deal with unruly air passengers, allowing airlines to ground them for three months to two years.
- Government, which is planning to sell a stake in Air India, is considering options such as keeping out at least a part of its $8 bln of debt to help lure investors.
- Air India has deferred the delivery of at least one A320 neo aircraft due to issues with CFM-manufactured engine.
- Air India is better positioned as a full-service airline with "superior product" than its competitors and will strive to position itself slightly above low-cost carriers, Chairman Rajiv Bansal said.
* BANKING: Former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan has expressed concern about how the Banks Board Bureau, which was meant to take decisions on appointments at state-owned banks, had eventually become just one more step in appointments, with the final call still taken by government channels.
- Public sector banks saw their loan book shrink for the first time in at least two decades as advances fell by 1.35 trln rupees in FY17.
- The RBI has clarified that it was using sophisticated currency verification and processing machines to check the "numerical accuracy and genuineness" of the demonetised currency notes.
- At least three large lenders are planning to ask the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to further clip the wings of promoters of companies facing insolvency proceedings.
- A resolution plan finalised for the next set of stressed assets identified by the RBI will be subject to a rating requirement if the plan for resolving bad debts falls outside the scope of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.
* COMMODITIES: The government may increase the import duty on wheat after the "festival season", as demand is expected to rise in the coming days and prices will improve, a senior government official said.
* CORPORATE: Tata Sons will pare the stakes that group companies have in TATA CHEMICALS and TATA POWER CO, and the holding firm will buy shares in each case and consolidate its ownership.
* ECONOMY: Punjab and Karnataka claimed a revenue shortfall of 8 bln rupees and 6 bln rupees, respectively, in July, following the rollout of the goods and services tax.
- In view of the difficulties being faced by taxpayers in filing returns, the GST Council has decided to extend the dates for filing various GST returns for July to Oct 10 for GSTR1, Oct 31 for GSTR2 and Nov 10 for GSTR3.
- The government is in the process of checking the veracity of the around 600 bln rupees of claims made by entities for stocks before the implementation of the goods and services tax.
* PHARMACEUTICAL: The pharmaceuticals department is understood to have proposed to effectively wrestle the powers of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority, vested under Paragraph 19 of the Drug Price Control Order, 2013. (CNBC-TV18)
* OIL AND GAS: India has renegotiated the price of liquefied natural gas it imports from Gorgon project in Australia that will result in savings of more than 100 bln rupees. Essar Group has no plans to sell its Stanlow refinery in the UK.
* RAILWAYS: Indian Railways will use reverse-bidding for high-value purchases of equipment and services. The company is currently developing a software platform to conduct the auctions.
* REAL ESTATE: Lanco Group has decided to exit its real estate investments to refocus on its core business— infrastructure.
* REGULATORY: Registrars to public offers and share transfer agents with portfolios of more than 20 mln rupees will also now need to implement a cyber security framework, the Securities and Exchange Board of India said.
- To bring more transparency in credit rating agencies, Securities and Exchange Board of India has proposed that one credit rating agency cannot hold over 10% stake in another rating agency.
- The Securities and Exchange Board of India is looking to rejuvenate the Securities Lending and Borrowing Scheme mechanism by including more securities, allowing mutual funds to sell short and depositories to lend.
* STEEL: The government has imposed countervailing duty on flat rolled stainless steel products manufactured in China or imported from the country for a period of five years.
* TAXATION: The income tax department has established charges against five persons with unaccounted foreign assets of 50 bln rupees in the British Virgin Islands, a Caribbean tax haven.
* TELECOMMUNICATION: The Telecom Commission has asked the inter-ministerial panel to suggest steps to ease financial stress in the sector for "clarification and more details" on two of its recommendations.
- The Telecom Commission has approved implementation of projects worth 187.92 bln rupees under BharatNet phase 2.
- Bharat Sanchar Nigam will invest 60 bln rupees over the next two years to improve its network.
- The new telecom policy, expected by March, will focus on providing affordable internet access and facilitate domestic manufacturing to curb dependence on imports, Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha said.
- All telecom equipment used by operators will have to undergo mandatory testing and get certified by authorised agencies as per specified norms from Oct 1, 2018, the telecom department said.
