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Our Target is to Turn Railways Profitable, Double Its Revenue’ Railway minister Piyush Goyal tells ET his focus is to improve signalling, expand electrified network & add more lines Railway minister Piyush Goyal has set a target of doubling the national transporter’s revenues to Rs 4 lakh crore by 2025 to make it profitable by then. Over this period, the total investment by the railways would be about Rs 9 lakh crore, he said. Our target is to turn the railways profitable so that it doesn’t have to take any gross budgetary support from the government,” Goyal told ET in an interview. “We intend to double revenues by 2025.” The minister said his focus was to increase capacity by improving signalling, expanding the electrified network, adding more lines in congested stretches and enhancing utilisation of assets. “Reducing cost is the most important thing. If we were to electrify large parts of our network, we can easily save around Rs15,000 crore in fuel bill itself,” the mi

Dealers of Imported Sports Goods Under Taxman’s Lens DRI probes whether marketing spends like sponsoring events and roping in brand ambassadors be added to total import cost Does getting a sport star to endorse a brand or sponsoring a sports event be treated as imports? The intelligence arm of the tax department seems to think so. They content many dealers of imported sports goods and equipment unvalued their imports and sign contracts that obligates them to plough a sizeable amount of the value into endorsements and sponsorship deals. Revenue sleuths are investigating whether Indian dealers who import golf kits, table tennis rackets, badminton rackets and shuttlecocks must treat any marketing spend like sponsoring events and roping in brand ambassadors as imports. Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has initiated investigations against dealers of imported golf kits, badminton and table tennis goods of brands like Callaway, Ping, Yonex, Donex, Li Ning and Tietlist. In s

  IIP rises by 4.9% in April; retail inflation inches up to 4.87% in May The industrial growth, measured on the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), was 3.2 per cent in April last year Industrial output expanded by 4.9 per cent in April this year, spurred by higher growth in manufacturing and mining sectors. The industrial growth, measured on the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), was 3.2 per cent in April last year In March this year, industrial production had grown at 4.4 per cent.  As per the data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the manufacturing sector, which constitutes more than 77 per cent of the index, recorded a growth of 5.2 per cent in April, up from 2.9 per cent in the year ago month. The mining sector too expanded by 5.1 per cent, up from 3 per cent in April 2017. The growth in power generation, however, slipped to 2.1 per cent in April this year, from 5.4 per cent in the year-ago month.  Meanwhile, retail inflation inched up to 4.87 in May on

SEBI Weighs Custodians to Shield Retail Investors Worried over vanishing share portfolios, regulator also plans tighter rules for trading settlement Defaulting brokers and vanishing share portfolios have prompted the capital market regulator to consider ways to protect the interests of retail investors who are often at the mercy of unscrupulous brokers misusing clients’ shares without consent. The Securities and Exchange Board of India plans to tighten rules for trading settlement and introduce custodians for retail investors, said two people familiar with the matter.These proposals were discussed in the Sebi’s Secondary Market Advisory Committee meeting recently. The details could not be ascertained because the plan is still on the drawing board. Sebi’s plan is to ensure brokers do not misuse clients’ accounts and sell their shares without nod unless the client has defaulted.The market regulator is considering the introduction of custodians for retail investors — akin to int

Reserve Bank of India to tighten norms for working capital limits Public sector bank executives said the move was expected to provide predictability over cash flow for lenders In a move to instil discipline among large borrowers with working capital facility, the Reserve Bank of India has mooted a proposal that at least 40 per cent of the sanctioned limit should be a term loan component. For borrowers with an aggregate fund-based working capital limit of Rs 1.5 billion and above from the banking system, a minimum level of ‘loan component’ of 40 per cent shall be effective from October 1, 2018, the RBI said in draft norms placed on its website. It has sought feedback from banks and stakeholders till June 26, 2018. The 40 per cent loan component will be revised to 60 per cent with effect from April 1, 2019. For large borrowers, the outstanding ‘loan component’ must be equal to at least 40 per cent of the sanctioned fund-based working capital limit, including ad hoc credit facil

Authority's orders favour firms for anti-profiteering in times of GST The NAA is currently looking into 50 complaints and will issue the orders in the coming weeks Allaying industry’s apprehensions, all three orders passed by the National Anti-Profiteering Authority under the goods and services tax (GST) regime have so far gone in favour of companies. In its latest order, the five member NAA has dismissed complaint against elevator manufacturer Schindler India for charges of profiteering filed by a Delhi business. The complaint pertained to charging of service tax on the payment made to Schindler India before GST implementation on July 1, 2017 and GST for the payment installments made in July when the installation took place. However, since elevators were delivered to the firm before July 1, the tax had been charged without excluding the pre-GST regime excise duty. Hence, the applicant was charged twice — once on the pre-GST excise duty and subsequently on the full value

FinMin extends due date for debt ETF bids from advisers till July 2 The DIPAM had earlier on April 18 issued the RFP for engagement of an adviser for creation and launch of debt ETF asking bidders to submit their bids by May 16The Finance Ministry has extended the deadline for merchant bankers to bid for creation and launch of a debt Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) for PSUs and PSBs till July 2. In the revised request for proposal (RFP) issued on Monday , the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) has tweaked the eligibility criteria for bidders, clarifying that they can also bid in consortium.Accordingly, market regulator Sebi or banking regulator RBI registered "reputed merchant bankers/investment bankers/ consulting firms/financial institutions/asset management companies, either singly or as a consortium," can bid for creation of the ETF till July 2. In the revised request for proposal (RFP) issued on Monday , the Department of Investment and Publi