สรุปข่าวเศรษฐกิจอินเดียประจำวันที่ 2 พฤษภาคม 2555
Dr. Rahul Khullar, Commerce Secretary, Government of India visits Sri City
Dr. Rahul Khullar I.A.S., Commerce Secretary, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India today visited Sri City, South India's largest, emerging world-class Integrated Business City with a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and Domestic Tariff Zone (DTZ), to study the overall infrastructural developments, investment, employment and potential business opportunities at Sri City.
Dr Khullar visited units of Kobelco Construction (Japan), Shan Solar (India), Amphenol (USA) and Rockworth (Thailand). Sri City is an emerging world-class Business City located 55-kms from Chennai. It has the distinction of being the largest private sector multi-product Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in South India with a Domestic Tariff Zone (DTZ) and a Free Trade & Warehousing Zone (FTWZ) built in functional partnership with the Government of Andhra Pradesh.
Strategically located, Sri City offers the distinct advantage of well-established connectivity by rail, and road with proximity to three seaports and two airports. Today, Sri City as a whole is home to over 70 industries from 22 countries.
(Source: Economic Times, Business World, Reuters India, Btimes)
India's proposed tax rules a 'bid mistake' : Mark Mobius
India is faltering as an investment destination because of significant policy mistakes and stock prices will slide if the nation's credit rating is cut, according to Mark Mobius, one of the world's best-known emerging market investors.
Foreign investors have raised concerns on two Indian provisions seeking to tax indirect investments and combat tax evasion.
The first gives India power to retroactively tax the indirect transfer of assets. The second targets tax evaders via the General Anti-Avoidance Rule (GAAR), putting the onus on investors registered in countries with special tax exemptions with India to prove they do not intend to explicitly avoid tax.
The agency warned the country had a one-in-three chance of losing investment-grade status.
(Source: Financial Express, Business Standard, Economic Times)
Exports contract 5.7% in March, a first since ’09; FY12 deficit at record $185 bn
India’s exports contracted 5.7% to $28.7 billion in March, cementing the assessment that the current fiscal year might see a sharper slowdown in shipments owing to the slump in the US and the EU markets.
The year 2011-12 reported the highest ever trade deficit of $184.9 billion. The exports for the fiscal grew by 21% marginally crossing the target of $300 billion set by the government at $303.7 billion over the previous fiscal. There was an increase in the import bill of 31% at $488.6 billion.
Imports in March rose 24.2% to $42.58 billion. The trade gap in March alone was $13.9 billion.
The government, however, expects that the trade deficit in 2012-13 will be lower as imports of gold and petroleum are not expected to grow at the same pace as last year.
During 2011-12, coal, fertilizer and edible oil imports grew by 80.3%, 59% and 47.5%, respectively, to $17.6 billion, $11 billion and $9.7 billion.
(Source: Financial Express, Business Standard, NDTV, Worldnews, Google News)
Auto sales stutter on excise duty hike
The excise duty hike dragged domestic auto sales during April even though the country\'s largest automaker, Maruti Suzuki India (MSI), driven by spurt in sales of Ertiga and DZire, posted a growth of 4% across segments at 90,255 units compared to 87,144 units in April last year. However, most automakers, including Tata Motors, witnessed a decline in the sales of the passenger cars.
Tata Motors witnessed a decline of 3% in its passenger vehicles segment as sales during April were 22,658 units compared to 23,387 units last April.
Meanwhile, the excise hike seemed to have shifted demand in favour of the two-wheeler segment, which experienced an overall healthy growth as the country\'s largest two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp reported the highest-ever monthly 6.66% increase in its sales for April at 5,51,557 units.
(Source: Financial Express, Business Standard, Smart Investor)
Economic Section
Royal Thai Embassy