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 Retail investors in IPOs to get compensation: Sebi Sebi said there should be a uniform policy for calculation of the minimum compensation payable to investors Market regulator Sebi on Thursday said retail investors applying for shares in IPOs would need to be compensated if bankers fail to make the allotment despite their eligibility. Besides, the public issue banker would need to pay an interest amount of 15 per cent to the investors for failing to resolve the grievance within 15 days, while they may also face Sebi’s action for such failures. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Thursday said retail investors applying for shares in initial public offerings would need to be compensated if bankers fail to make the allotment despite their eligibility. The public issue banker would also need to pay an interest of 15 per cent to the investors for failing to resolve the grievance within 15 days, while they may also face Sebi’s action for such failures. Putting i

Base year for GDP, IIP to be changed to 2017-18 The government will change the base year to 2017-18 for the calculation of gross domestic production (GDP) and Index of Industrial Production (IIP) numbers.  For retail inflation, the year will be revised to 2018, Union minister D V Sadananda Gowda said on Thursday. “During 2018-19, the ministry is proposing to initiate steps to revise the base years of GDP, IIP and Consumer Price Index (CPI) to accommodate and factor in  the changes that take place in the economic scenario of the country,” the statistics and programme implementation minister said at a conference on Budget provisions. Gowda said the ministry will undertake various steps in the next financial year that will improve the statistical system and help meet the data requirements in the emerging socio- economic scenario. The Business Standard, New Delhi, 16th February, 2018  ......

 Export growth rate dips to 9.07% in Jan Trade deficit balloons to nearly five-year high at $16.3 billion. Growth in exports reduced in January to 9.07 per cent, from 12.03 per cent in December. With exports of $24.38 billion, the growth rate in January dipped to a single digit for the first time in three months. The rate in December more than halved  to 12.4 per cent, from November’s 30.5 per cent. “More than 6 per cent of the growth has been contributed by petroleum products. More importantly, labour-intensive sectors like garments, carpets, handicrafts,  and man-made textiles are exhibiting negative growth, primarily due to liquidity crunch because of funds getting blocked under the goods and services tax  regime,” Ganesh Kumar Gupta, president of the Federation of Indian Exports Organisations, said. Of the 30 major product groups, 20 were in positive territory  in January, against 21 in December. On the other hand, the figures made clear that India is set to overshoot i

 RBI asks banks to accept coins of all denominations from public  Banks should not refuse to accept coins of all denominations from customers and any non-compliance may result into penal action, the Reserve Bank said today.  Despite advisory that none of the bank branches should refuse to accept small denomination notes or coins tendered at their counters, complaints keep coming about non-acceptance of coins by bank branches, RBI said.  The Economic Times, New Delhi, 16th February, 2018  ......

Tax collection assumptions in India's budget ambitious: IMF  The IMF today said the tax collection assumptions in India's budget is ambitious but there is a need to look into the fiscal implications of some of the initiatives that are presently unfunded.  Referring to some of the implementations relating to the goods and services tax (GST) in 2017, IMF Director of Communications Department Gerry Rice said if  these issues persist, tax revenue collection could fall short on the budget.  We think the budget assumes the tax revenue will rise faster than the volume of transactions in the economy. So, its ambitious. It assumes the government would be able to climb higher tax revenue from the same amount of consumption and income,a Rice told reporters at his fortnightly news conference.  There are also some initiatives in the budget that are presently unfunded and fiscal implications of these need to look at a little bit more closely as more details become available,a he sa

LTCG tax will not impact NPS, says PFRDA chairman The LTCG tax proposal in the Budget 2018 will not have much impact on the National Pension Scheme (NPS), says Hemant Contractor, chairman of PFRDA The proposal of long-term capital gains (LTCG) tax will not have much impact on the National Pension Scheme (NPS), a top Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) official has said.“It will not have much impact on us. The investments in the National Pension System are made by our trust (NPS Trust) which is a tax-exempted body. As far as pension investments are concerned, LTCG will not have an impact,” PFRDA chairman Hemant Contractor said here on Tuesday. However, it will have an impact on tier II accounts also known as non-pension account, he said on the sidelines of a conference on the NPS in association with Stock Holding Corp.NPS manages two types of accounts—tier I and tier II. “Tier II has no tax benefits. Tier II account would be impacted but investments corpus

Earnings growth rises to 6 quarter high India Inc reported strong earnings growth in the December 2017 quarter after declines in the previous two quarters. This was largely expected given the lower base effect due to demonetisation in the year-ago quarter. What’s more encouraging is that some analysts believe that the momentum will continue in the coming quarters. Improved sales volume, ability to increase product prices to pass on higher input costs, better project execution and increasing order books are some of the factors that support the optimism. In the December quarter, net profit of a sample of 2,043 companies rose to a sixquarter high of 27.5 per cent year-on-year. Net sales rose by 11.5 per cent. In the previous quarter, sales had risen by 8.7 per cent, while net profit had fallen by 1 per cent. The sample excluded banking and finance companies.After excluding oil and gas companies along with banks and finance entities, sales and profit growth in the December 2017 quart