by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, News, Politics
New Delhi : Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said India is poised to become $5 trillion economy soon from $2.5 trillion now.
“We are now a $ 2.5 trillion economy, and we are firmly on path to achieve 8 per cent plus growth soon,” Jaitley said while delivering his Union Budget 2018-19 speech here.
“From ease of doing business, our govt has moved to ease of living for the poor and middle class,” he said.
“We hope to grow at 7.2% to 7.5% in the second half of 2017-18,” he added.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Commodities, Commodities News, Commodity Market, Corporate, Corporate Governance, Investing
New Delhi : The National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Ltd (NCDEX) on Sunday unveiled India’s first agri-commodity options in guar seed designed as a hedge for farmers to safeguard against price risks.
The agri-options trading has been launched here by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley at a time when data shows a dip in agriculture growth and the sector is under stress.
Lauding farmers for taking the country out from a situation of shortages in the past, Jaitley, who sounded the opening gong for guar seed trading, said the NCDEX initiative will help farmers get more income from produce.
“This is one of the biggest developments for our agriculture market… Farmers will have the option to trade with this financial instrument,” Jaitley said.
“We come from an age of shortages, a situation which the farmer has changed. That benefits of development should go to farmers is a priority for the country,” he added.
In a video address broadcast at the event, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu said the initiative would enable farmers to get better prices for produce and also make it available for consumers at affordable rates.
“So there should a transparent mechanism for trading and the farmer should be able to sell produce in any part of the country,” he said.
Options are trading derivatives which give the buyer a right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a security or other financial asset at a specific price on or before a certain date.
“Options will protect farmers from downward price movement as well as give them an opportunity to sell their produce at higher prices in case of price increase,” according to NCDEX Chief Executive Samir Shah.
The exchange said in a statement that a large number of informal trading centres in some communities of Rajasthan already practice some form of informal options trading while the guar seed is one of the most liquid contracts on the NCDEX platform.
NCDEX is the second exchange after MCX to launch option trading in commodities following markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (SEBI) approval for such trade last year.
There are already 59 Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) trading on the NCDEX, the exchange said.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Banking, Corporate, Corporate finance, Corporate Governance, Economy, Finance, Markets, News, Politics
New Delhi : The central government’s recent decision to recapitalise public sector banks (PSBs) has led to a surge in credit growth, the government said on Saturday.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that credit growth would go further up once the infusion of capital takes place into the baking system.
According to Financial Services Secretary Rajeev Kumar, the banking sector posted double digit growth on a year-on-year basis in December 2017.
“Surge in credit growth: Sustained momentum post-PSB recap decision — Banking sector posts double digit (10.7 per cent Y-o-Y) growth in Dec’17, up from (7.2 per cent Y-o-Y) in Oct’17, powered by services and retail,” Kumar tweeted.
Later in the day, Jaitley said the lending that the banks do is an indication of how growth will move.
“The latest data has shown that credit growth has moved up. And once the infusion of capital takes place into the banking system, credit growth will further go up,” he said during 75th anniversary celebrations of the UCO Bank.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate finance, Corporate Governance, Finance, News, Politics
Arun Jaitley
New Delhi : Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Tuesday that the Narendra Modi-government has not written off any corporate loans and such assumptions were just “misconceptions”.
“Let me clarify that neither the government nor the banks wrote off any loans,” Jaitley told the Rajya Sabha in response to a question that the government had reportedly written off corporate loans of Rs 55,000 crore (almost $9 billion).
“Only when a loan remains non-performing after four years, and the bank feels that the chances of its recovery are slim, it changes the category of the loan. But the debtor’s responsibility is to pay back remains. The bank does this provisioning to get relief in the Income Tax,” he said.
Replying to supplementaries, the Finance Minister said that in the asset quality review undertaken by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in 2015, it found that in the non-performing loans there were cases where the banks did aggressive lending, or did not do proper risk assessment and there were also cases of wilful default.
“Every such (non-performing) account has a different story. So in these cases whatever action under the law can be taken, is being taken. Where the criminal liability can be fixed, it is being fixed. And where business losses are the reason, the recovery process or the Insolvency procedure are on,” he said.
However, Jaitley avoided a direct answer to a question by Congress leader and former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram who demanded to know as to how many loans given after April 1, 2014 have turned non-performing assets.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Buzz, Corporate finance, Corporate Governance
Arun Jaitley
New Delhi : Ruling out income tax exemption for cooperative banks, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said they were no different from commercial banks and were, therefore, required to be treated at par with them.
“Most of these banks are providing standard banking facilities like opening of letters of credit, bill discounting and collection, lockers and safe deposit vaults, bank guarantees.
“Many of these deal in foreign exchange and have also opened ATM kiosks. These banks are thus no different from commercial banks and therefore are required to be treated at par with them,” Jaitley said in response to a question in the Lok Sabha.
He said that cooperative banks function like any other commercial bank and the principle of mutuality, which was central to granting exemption, did not apply “because their area of operations extends even to non-members”.
“Income-tax is a tax on profits and there is no rationale for exempting profit-making cooperative banks from payment of income-tax,” he said.
—IANS
