India’s foreign exchange reserves rose by USD 1.2 billion to touch USD 401.942 billion in the week to December 1.
India’s foreign exchange reserves increased by USD 1.2 billion to touch USD 401.942 billion in the week to December 1, according to the RBI data.
The surge in reserves was aided by an increase in foreign currency assets, a major component of the overall reserves.
The reserves once again crossed USD 400 billion mark in the previous week, after they rose by USD 1.208 billion to USD 400.741 billion.
The foreign currency reserves increased by USD 1.151 billion to USD 377.456 billion for the reporting week, the RBI said today.
Expressed in the US dollar terms, foreign currency assets include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of the non- US currencies such as the euro, the pound and the yen held in the reserves.
After remaining stable for many months, gold reserves also rose by USD 36.5 million to USD 20.703 billion.
The special drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund rose by USD 4.9 million to USD 1.502 billion.
The country’s reserve position with the Fund also rose by USD 7.4 million to USD 2.280 billion, the Reserve Bank of India said.
Year-on-year disbursements up 10% as of November 24
Credit offtake from banks is gradually gathering steam, going by Reserve Bank of India data. This is underscored by the fact that year-on-year credit growth nudged closer to 10 per cent as on November 24, 2017.
Given the overhang of bad loans, especially in the case of public sector banks, market experts are of the view that these banks had turned risk-averse and reined in lending. However, banks seem to be slowly shrugging off their risk aversion.
In its fifth bi-monthly monetary policy statement, the Reserve Bank of India said: “On the positive side, there has been some pick-up in credit growth in recent months. Recapitalisation of public sector banks may help improve credit flows further.” After plunging to a multi-decade low of 4.1 per cent in May 2017, non-food bank credit has witnessed a rising trajectory every month since June, although it has been lower vis-a-vis the year-ago period.
In June, non-food bank credit growth rose to 4.8 per cent and increased in the following months — July (5.3 per cent); August (5.5 per cent); September (6.1 per cent); October (6.6 per cent). In the fortnight ended November 24, 2017, the banking system’s deposits declined by ₹41,164 crore while credit nudged up by ₹3,524 crore.
After taking a break from buying into Indian equities in August and September, FPIs bought equities in abundance in November.
Foreign investors pumped over Rs 19,700 crore into the country’s stock markets in November, the highest in eight months, mainly due to government’s plan to recapitalise PSU banks and surge in India’s ranking in the World Bank’s ease of doing business.
In addition, such investors put in Rs 530 crore in the debt markets during the period under review.
According to depositories data, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) invested a net amount of Rs 19,728 crore in equities last month.
This is the highest net investment by FPIs since March, when they had poured in Rs 30,906 crore in the equity market.It has been a tremendous journey for the Indian equity markets in 2017. After taking a break from buying into Indian equities in August and September, FPIs bought equities in abundance in November.
The strong inflow could be largely attributed to the government’s decision to recapitalise public-sector banks, which is expected to enhance lending and propel economic growth, said Morningstar India’s senior analyst manager (research) Himanshu Srivastava.
“This is particularly seen as a positive step after the questions have been raised from various quarters on the government’s ability to effectively implement economic reforms. Further, the slow pace of economic growth was also believed to be due to rising non performing assets (NPAs) problem in public sector banks, hence this decision provided a much-needed impetus to FPIs to again look back at Indian equity space,” he added.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced the PSU bank recapitalisation plan of Rs 2.11 trillion, out of which Rs 1.35 trillion will come from recapitalisation bonds, and the rest from markets and budgetary support.
Additionally, the news about India faring well in the World Bank’s Ease of Business index and a jump in core sector growth also turned the tide in India’s favour, Srivastava said.
India gained 30 places in the World Bank’s ease of doing business index for 2018 to 100th among 190 nations.
“These (bank’s recapitalisation plan and world bank’s ranking) and positive developments in the recent times provided a much-needed breather to FPIs who were concerned about the short-term impact of demonetisation and goods and services tax (GST) on the domestic economy and sluggish pace of economic recovery,” he added.
Yet another positive piece of news has come from Moody’s Investor Services, which upgraded its India rating by a notch to ‘Baa2’ from ‘Baa3’ with a stable outlook, citing improved economic growth prospects driven by the government reforms.
Overall, FPIs have invested Rs 53,800 crore in equities so far in 2017 and another Rs 1.46 lakh crore in debt markets.
CBDT signs first ever two Indian APAs with Netherlands in Nov-2017. The total number of APAs entered into by the CBDT has gone up to 186
CBDT signs first ever two Indian APAs with Netherlands in Nov-2017. The total number of APAs entered into by the CBDT has gone up to 186
Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
01-December-2017 11:53 IST
Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) signs two Indian Advance Pricing Agreements (APAs) in November, 2017
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has entered into 2 Bilateral Advance Pricing Agreements (APAs) during the month of November, 2017. These Agreements are the first ever Bilateral APAs with The Netherlands. With the signing of these Agreements, the total number of APAs entered into by the CBDT has gone up to 186. This includes 171 Unilateral APAs and 15 Bilateral APAs.
These two APAs pertain to the Electronics and Technology sectors of the economy. The international transactions covered in these agreements include Distribution, Provision of Marketing Support Services, Provision of Business Support Services, etc.
The APA provisions were introduced in the Income-tax Act in 2012 and the “Rollback” provisions were introduced in 2014. The APA Scheme endeavours to provide certainty to taxpayers in the domain of transfer pricing by specifying the methods of pricing and setting the prices of international transactions in advance. Since its inception, the APA Scheme has been well-accepted by taxpayers.
The progress of the APA Scheme strengthens the Government’s resolve of fostering a non-adversarial tax regime. The Indian APA programme has been appreciated nationally and internationally for being able to address complex transfer pricing issues in a fair and transparent manner.
Will roll out in early 2018 off-highway vehicle Roxor
Automotive major Mahindra & Mahindra broke fresh ground as an Indian multinational when it inaugurated its factory in the original Land of Automobile Manufacture, Detroit.
As Executive Chairman, Anand Mahindra, and the Lt. Governor of Michigan, Brian Calley, cut the ribbon to declare open the plant of Mahindra Automotive North America (MANA), they heralded the first investment in 25 years in a new OEM operation in Detroit.
That this is a major breakthrough for the city, which was badly hit by the financial and housing crisis, was evident from the official turnout at the inauguration. Two members of Congress, the Michigan Lt. Governor and a State Department official were all not only in attendance but also spoke evocatively about the investment.
M&M has invested $230 million and created 250 jobs in the plant, which will have a capacity to produce 10,000 units of Roxor, an off-highway vehicle.
MANA will invest another $600 million in the facility by 2020, adding a further 400 jobs.
The Roxor, designed and developed by MANA, was not unveiled but Richard P Haas, President and CEO, MANA, said that it would be launched in the market early 2018.
Speaking at the inauguration, Anand Mahindra struck a personal note on how he first came to the US in 1973 as a freshman student and how this was his way of giving back to the country for all that he had learnt as a student, which he said he had applied in his business.
Answering a question at a media interaction on whether the next step is to enter the US utility vehicles market Mahindra said that it is “not imminent, though it remains an aspiration”.
“Americans are familiar with Korean brands and the logical step is for Korean group company Ssangyong to come in with its models. But it is for the Ssangyong board to take the call,” he said.
Richard Haas added: “We’re watching how people react to the brand and are preparing for different scenarios. Over the next year or two we’ll learn, understand and move forward.”
Mahindra emphasised that MANA was not playing the volumes game saying that sometimes scarcity works better and that the days of requiring enormous scale to succeed are over.
He explained the rationale for the business as bringing together the engineering expertise of Detroit and a start-up culture.
“We’ve created an incubator here — Richard (Haas) has come with rich start-up experience from Tesla and the operation is based in Detroit to leverage conventional manufacturing skills. MANA will be an asset-light operation with a start-up mentality.”
Around 56% of the registered taxpayers have filed their GSTR-3B returns for October by 20 November, says GSTN
Over 3.9 million assessees filed the summary return for September and over 2.8 million for August.
Taxpayer compliance under the goods and services tax (GST) system is steadily improving with 4.4 million assessees filing summary of the transactions made in October, an improvement of 11% from the filings reported for the previous month, said an official statement from GSTN, the company that processes tax returns.
The statement said the number of taxpayers filing their GSTR 3B returns showed a “marked improvement” with the highest number of assessees filing returns for October till 20th November 2017.
Around 56% of the registered taxpayers have filed their GSTR-3B returns for October by 20 November, it said. The “steady increase” in filings is encouraging, the statement said further, citing chairman Prakash Kumar.
“The trend of taxpayers filing their returns on the last day continues though. Taxpayers are urged to file their returns early to avoid last minute hassles” Kumar said.
Over 3.9 million assessees filed the summary return for September and over 2.8 million for August.
Close to 1.5 million taxpayers filed their returns on 20 November, the highest number of filings in a day.
Punjab topped the list of states in compliance. About 73% of taxpayers in Punjab filed their GSTR 3B returns for October by the deadline.
Federal indirect tax body, the GST Council, has taken a series of steps including deadline relaxations, waiver of late fee, suspension of invoice matching and simplification of forms to encourage voluntary compliance under the new indirect tax regime.
The seven APAs signed over the last month pertain to sectors like FMCG, semi-conductor, information technology, travel and leisure, office furniture and engineering.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has signed seven more advance pricing agreements (APAs) with Indian taxpayers as it looks to reduce litigation by providing certainty in transfer pricing.
The seven APAs signed over the last month pertain to sectors like FMCG, semi-conductor, information technology, travel and leisure, office furniture and engineering.
“The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has entered into seven more Advance Pricing Agreements (APAs) during October 2017. All these agreements are unilateral,” the CBDT said in a statement.
With the signing of these agreements, the total number of APAs entered into by the CBDT has gone up to 184, which includes 171 unilateral and 13 bilateral APAs.
In 2017-18, a total of 32 APAs (2 bilateral and 30 unilateral) have been signed till date.
The APA scheme was introduced in the Income-Tax Act in 2012 and the ‘Rollback’ provision in 2014.
The scheme aims to provide certainty to taxpayers in the domain of transfer pricing by specifying methods of pricing and setting the prices of international transactions in advance.
According to the statement, the progress of the APA scheme strengthens the government’s resolve of fostering a non-adversarial tax regime. The Indian APA programme has been appreciated nationally and internationally for being able to address complex transfer pricing issues in a fair and transparent manner.
