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Economic Survey: Renewable energy push may lead to increase in bad loans The Economic Survey says a shift to renewables may render a part of assets in conventional energy-generation plants idle or result in them being used at a much lower level India’s focus on increasing its renewable energy capacity may further exacerbate banks’ bad loan woes, according to the second volume of the Economic Survey 2016-17, released on Friday. The Survey said the social cost of producing renewable energy is around three times that of producing coal-fuelled electricity at Rs 11 per kilowatt-hour (kWh). Although solar and wind power tariffs have dipped to Rs 2.44 per kWh and Rs 3.30 per kWh, respectively, making renewable energy cheaper than coal-fuelled electricity, these low tariffs do not reflect the costs of integration with the grid, and other costs such as those of stranded assets and land opportunity costs. “A shift to renewables is likely to render a part of the assets in conventional

Economic Survey: Note ban hit informal economy, raised social insurance demand The impact was acute between December and March, but has since faded, thanks mainly to social safety  net programmes like MGNREGS, the Economic Survey said The Narendra Modi government’s demonetisation initiative impacted the informal economy, raising the  demand for social insurance, especially in less developed states, according to the second volume of  the Economic Survey 2016-17 tabled in Parliament on Friday. The impact was acute between December and March, but has since faded, thanks mainly to programmes like  the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), which performed its stated  role of providing a social safety net at times of need, the Survey said in the chapter titled “State  of the Economy: An Analytical Overview and Outlook for Policy”. In a surprise move, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on 8 November that effective from midnight,  Rs 500 and Rs 1,00

Govt has not written off corporate loans Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday asserted that not even a single rupee of the loans taken by  companies has been written off by the government and asked the Opposition to first get the facts  before talking about it. He told the Lok Sabha that writing off a loan was a commercial decision of banks  and added that there has been no scheme of farm loan waiver by the Centre since 2014. The Business Standard, New Delhi, 12th August 2017

GST Network today said it has started the facility for registration of casual  taxpayers -- those who conduct businesses occasionally. A casual taxpayer is a person who occasionally undertakes business transactions in a state/Union  Territory where he/she has no place of business. Goods & Services Tax Network (GSTN) Chairman Navin Kumar said that the registration as 'casual  taxpayer' will be valid for 90 days. A tax payer will also have the option to extend the registration duration once for a maximum of 90  days before the expiry of the initial period for which registration was granted.   "A taxpayer must go for registration as casual taxpayer at least 5 working days prior to the  commencement of business," Kumar said.   Rather than registering as regular taxpayer and being required to file 'nil' returns during off- business months, casual taxpayers can enrol for a limited period of time, GSTN said in a statement.   After a taxpayer

The government expects the goods and services tax (GST) and increased surveillance to boost tax  revenues over the next two years, taking India’s tax-to-GDP ratio close to 12% by FY 20.  The higher revenues are projected to push up capital spend of the government, bring down fiscal  deficit to sustainable 3% of GDP and lower the revenue deficit to 1.4% of GDP by FY 20. The medium- term expenditure framework released by the government on Thursday shows tax-to-GDP ratio rising 30  basis points each in FY19 and FY20 to 11.6% and 11.9% respectively.  The government expects any shocks to tax collections due to the introduction of GST to be absorbed in  the current fiscal. It said “going forward in the years 2018-19 and 2019-20, the gains from expansion  of the tax base due to the introduction of GST and the increased surveillance post demonetisation  will ensure that tax-GDP ratio will increase by 30 basis points in each of the above FYs in  question”.  Higher taxes will allow the

A Bill, which seeks to deal with insolvency of financial service providers, was on Thursday referred  to a Joint Committee of Parliament. ´The Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance Bill, 2017´, was introduced in the Lok Sabha by  Minister of State for Finance Arun Ram Meghwal. Soon after, it was referred to the 30member committee comprising members of both the Lok Sabha and the  Rajya Sabha. The committee is expected to submit its report during the next session. The Business Standard, New Delhi, 11th August 2017 

The Centre on Thursday introduced in the Lok Sabha The Code on Wages Bill which seeks to fix  “universal minimum wage” aimed at benefiting over 400 million unorganised sector workers. The Bill to amend the laws on wages and bonus was introduced by Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya. It seeks to amalgamate four laws —Payment of Wages Act, 1936, Minimum Wages Act, 1948, Payment of  Bonus Act, 1965, and Equal Remuneration Act, 1976. The Business Standard, New Delhi, 11th August 2017