สรุปข่าวเศรษฐกิจอินเดียประจำวันที่ 5 มีนาคม 2557

Anand Sharma sees exports crossing $300-bn mark

Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma on Tuesday said this financial year, India’s merchandise exports would exceed last year’s $300 billion. He, however, refused to comment on whether these would meet the government’s target of $325 billion. Last year, during the annual review of the Foreign Trade Policy 2009-2014, the government had set an export target of $325 billion. While presenting the 2014-15 interim Budget earlier this month, Finance Minister P Chidambaram had said this financial year, exports would stand at $326 billion. On gold imports, Sharma said soon, the commerce ministry would take up the matter with the finance ministry and seek relaxation of the 80:20 rule imposed by the Reserve Bank of India. Under the rule, import of gold isn’t allowed unless 20 per cent of the previous imports are exported. The norm had left many confused, leading to imports being held up at customs. Sharma also said the commerce department would push for the withdrawal of five per cent duty on the export of iron ore pellets. “Value-added exports must be encouraged,” he said, terming the duty as a “disincentive”. The duty was imposed on January 27.

(Source: Business Standard)

Increase in gas prices to raise ONGC’s revenue by Rs.16,000 cr

Revenues of India’s largest oil and gas exploration company — Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) — will grow by Rs. 16,000 crore and net profit by nearly Rs. 9,600 crore following the increase in domestic gas prices to $8 per unit from $4.2 per unit from April 1, 2014. However, most of this additional revenue would flow back to the government, the company’s largest shareholder, in form of higher taxes, royalty and dividend and the company’s net retention will be Rs. 5,200 crore, DK Sarraf, ONGC’s new chairman and MD said in his first media interaction after taking over the reins of the company on March 1. Sarraf said while the price of $8 a unit appears to be substantial, it is still not sufficient to make all discoveries by ONGC viable. There were still few discoveries in the Mahanadi basin that are not viable at this price and would need a higher price of around $11 a unit, he added.

 (Source: Hindustan Times)

GST meet on March 10 to focus on IT infra

Infrastructure is going to dominate the agenda of the next meeting of the empowered committee of state finance ministers on March 10, after Narendra Modi - the Gujarat chief minister and the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate - flayed the central government last week for not readying an information backbone for the proposed goods and services tax (GST). . GST Network, business processes of GST, IT advisory committee on GST, and modalities on movement of goods and services across states are crowding the talking points for the next meeting here. "In terms of moving ahead with GST Network, whatever is decided now will more or less remain and there will be minimal scope of changes after the formation of a new government," said a finance ministry official, stressing the Centre was ready to implement the tax anytime. The states are also miffed with the Centre for not compensating them for the reduction of the central sales tax (CST). This could come up at the meeting. However, the finance ministry can do little about it till the Budget is presented in July. The states are planning to write to the 14th Finance Commission about it. Finance Minister P Chidambaram had provided Rs 9,300 crore as CST compensation in the previous Budget but he slashed it to Rs 1,940 crore in February's interim Budget and did not provide anything for 2014-15.

(Source: Business Standard)

Government to soon take view on duty refund claims of exporters 

The Commerce and Finance ministeries will soon take a view on the issue of release of duty refund claims of exporters, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma today said.  Exporters have claimed that the duty refund claims have touched Rs 12,000 crore.  Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher said that tomorrow he would meet his revenue counterpart on the matter. "I hope we will resolve the issue," Kher said. Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) has said that liquidity is a big issue for exports and pending claims of refund of service tax, duty drawback, rebate claims and VAT are affecting exports.  Further on the proposed National Investment and Promotion Zones (NIMZs), the minister said the government has notified 16 such zones and master plan for eight have been prepared with the help of global consultants. To reduce imports of electronics products, he said the government has approved setting up of two IT investment regions in Bangalore and Hyderabad. Both have been given the status of NIMZs.  The National Manufacturing Policy (NMP) envisages setting up of NIMZs, which are industrial townships, benchmarked to the best manufacturing hubs in the world.

(Source: Economic Times)

Investors will soon track status of green nod online; move to bring transparency 

The government is in the process of digitising all green clearances so that investors can go online to apply and track the status of their clearances. A similar system is also being mulled for the time-consuming procedures and uncertain outcomes that govern India's mining clearances regime. The green clearances portal could dramatically reduce the several years it takes to get environment and forest nods before executing infrastructure and industrial projects, as officers would be made accountable for ensuring that each stage of the clearance approval process is completed within already stipulated timelines in environmental laws. The environment ministry, which had been slammed by India Inc in recent months for arbitrarily holding up green nods for projects worth lakhs of crores, is keen to bring transparency into the clearance procedures as it would help dispel post-facto questions often raised about its decisions.

(Source: Economic Times)

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