by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Arun Jaitley
New Delhi : Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will on Friday chair a pre-Budget consultation meeting with financial sector regulators, according to official sources on Thursday.
Finance Ministry sources here said that Jaitley would chair the meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) which is likely to discuss issues related to the fiscal position, external sector environment, financial sector reforms, rising non-performing assets (NPAs), or bad loans, in the banking system and regulatory matters in the run-up to the Union Budget presentation in February.
The FSDC members include the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor as well as heads of regulatory bodies like Sebi for the capital markets and IRDAI for the insurance sector.
Senior Finance Ministry officials would also be attending Friday’s meeting, the sources said.
They also said that apart from offering proposals for the forthcoming Budget, the FSDC would also review the measures taken by the government and the RBI for dealing with NPAs and initiating insolvency proceedings against defaulting promoters.
The government announced on Wednesday that it will undertake additional market borrowing of Rs 50,000 crore in the remaining period of the current fiscal to meet expenditure, raising concerns about it being able to meet the fiscal deficit target for the year.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, News, Politics
Arun Jaitley
New Delhi : Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said the Central government was fully committed to safeguard the interests of the workers, especially those working in the MSME and the unorganized sector.
Holding pre-Budget consultations with representatives of different trade union groups, he said the workers were entitled to minimum wages prescribed by law and asked all the industries concerned to strictly comply with this without fail.
During the meeting, nine of the trade unions jointly gave a common memorandum on behalf of the workers they represent which contained 12 point charter of demands including increased budgetary allocations for social sector, measures to check the prices of essential commodities and stopping disinvestment and strategic sale of public sector undertakings.
They also demanded fixing minimum wages for all workers on the basis of the 15th Indian Labour Conference recommendations, and linked with Consumer Price Index.
Other suggestions included provisions for “same wages for same work”, creation of support system for domestic workers, bringing about Labour Law reforms and creation of a National Fund for unorganised sector workers to provide social security, a statement from the Finance Ministry said.
“Other demands include the raising of the ceiling for income tax purposes for salaried class persons and pensioners up to Rs 5 lakh per annum, and Rs 8 lakh in case of senior citizens,” it added.
They also suggested that income gap between rich and poor be checked by taxing rich people who can afford to pay.
Among the major trade groups present during the meeting included Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, Indian National Trade Union Congress, All India Trade Union Congress, Hind Mazdoor Sabha and National Front of Indian Trade Unions.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, Economy, News, Politics
Arun Jaitley
New Delhi : Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said the Goods and Services Tax (GST) has made doing trade easier as per the feedback he received after visiting trading centres in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh.
He said that the whole country was now a market for the trader, who also does not have to file multiple returns.
Jaitley told reporters here that results in the local body polls in Uttar Pradesh were an affirmation of people’s support for demonetisation and GST.
Referring to the GDP growth rising to 6.3 percent afer a five quarter slump, he said it shows that structural reforms benefit in the medium and long term.
Jaitley said it had been stated earlier that demonetisation would have an impact for one or two quarters and GST for about one quarter.
“The structural reforms have benefit in medium and long term. The change is being understood clearly now,” he said.
Answering a query, he said: “GST has made it easier to do trade and business. Every trader has more opportunity. Now the whole country is his market, it has saved travelling time.”
The minister said a single return is to be fied in place of multiple returns and that too is to put in the software and there is freedom from inspectors.
“Whereever I have gone to trading centres in Gujart, UP, we have got this feedback,” Jaitley said.
He said BJP got a three-fourth mandate in assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand after demonetisation, though some people had said that demonetisation will have a big impact.
“Today’s results in local body elections reaffirm the same,” he said.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, News, Politics
Arun Jaitley
New Delhi : Lauding the upward movement of the GDP number for the second quarter of 2017-18, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the rise in growth after five quarters marks the reversal of the trend and the economy will witness high growth rates in the coming quarters.
“Last five quarters have witnessed downward trend. The 6.3 per cent rise during Q2 of 2017-18 marks the reversal of that trend. This additionally indicates that the impact of demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax is now behind us and hopefully in the coming quarters will take an upward trajectory,” Jaitley said at a press meet here on Thursday.
He said while this was broadly an initial analysis of the figures, “hopefully we can take to higher growth rate in the coming quarters.”
Jaitley said if one looked at the overall picture since May 2014, out of 13 quarters the economy clicked 7 per cent growth eight times. “We have fallen behind 6 per cent only once. This marks a reversal and it has been largely enabled by manufacturing while investment has moved up. These are the two significant features.”
Official data released revealed that a rise in the manufacturing sector’s output pushed India’s growth rate higher to 6.3 per cent during the second quarter of 2017-18 breaking a five quarters slump.
On a sequential basis, India’s GDP growth for Q2 of the current fiscal went up to 6.3 per cent, from 5.7 per cent reported during the first quarter of 2017-18.
In a statement the finance ministry said the real GDP growth for the second quarter of fiscal 2017-18, just released by the CSO, is estimated at 6.3 percent, a substantial increase from 5.7 percent in the first quarter.
Real Gross Value Added growth has shown a similar increase from 5.6 percent in the first quarter to 6.1 percent in the second quarter, despite a deceleration in agricultural growth from 2.3 percent in the first quarter to 1.7 percent in the second.
The deceleration in overall growth witnessed since the first quarter of the last fiscal year has been reversed, the statement added.
“The acceleration in growth this quarter has been helped by a rapid growth in manufacturing which increased from 1.2 percent in the first quarter to 7 percent in the second quarter. Robust growth of 7.6 percent in electricity and other utilities, and 9.9 percent in trade, transportation and communications also powered this acceleration,” the ministry said.
Overall, the services sector recorded a growth of 7.1 percent in the second quarter.
It stated the rate of growth of gross fixed capital formation has also increased from 1.6 percent in the first quarter to 4.7 percent in the second quarter. Real private consumption growth has broadly held steady at 6.5 percent.
“In summary, the economy now seems to have weathered the transitional challenges experienced earlier in the year and appears poised for a durable recovery going forward.”
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Banking, Corporate, Corporate finance, Corporate Governance, Economy, Finance, Markets, Networking, News, Online Marketing, Politics, Social Media, Technology
New Delhi : State Bank of India (SBI) will unveil the country’s first integrated lifestyle and banking digital platform on Friday to be launched here by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, according to a statement from the public sector bank.
YONO, the acronym for ‘You Only Need One’, will be the first digital banking platform to offer customised products and offers from over 60 e-commerce players by leveraging analytics, besides a range of banking and financial services, the SBI release said here.
“In addition…, YONO will also allow customers to meet their lifestyle needs across 14 categories including booking and renting cabs, entertainment, dining experience, travel and stay, medical needs and so on,” it said.
To provide the customised offers and discounts, SBI has partnered with e-commerce players including Amazon, Uber, Ola, Myntra, Jabong, Shoppers Stop, Cox & Kings, Thomas Cook, Yatra, Airbnb, Swiggy and Byjus, it said.
The SBI said the product employs the latest digital technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), predictive analytics and machine learning, and can be accessed through a mobile application and web portal.
“This will also be the first to offer online purchase and view of insurance policies within the portal, without redirecting customer to respective service provider, and to seamlessly access and purchase investment products,” the release said.
“Customers will be able to seamlessly access… services with a single user ID and password. The portal has been designed with minimum possible clicks and easy to understand descriptions,” SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar said in a statement.
—IANS
