INDIAN ECONOMY: OVERVIEW, GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT
Trump says it slaps ‘big tariffs’ on American products
US President Donald Trump has criticised India’s “big tariffs” on American paper products and the iconic Harley-Davidson bikes, saying the US has been losing billions of dollars to countries like India, China and Japan.
Addressing a Republican political rally in Wisconsin state’s Green Bay city on Sunday, Trump alleged that every country has been ripping off America for years.
The President has repeatedly claimed that India is a “tariff king” and imposes “tremendously high” tariffs on American products.
“For so many decades we’ve been losing tens of billions of dollars to China and Japan, and India, and name any country and we lost, but we’re not losing anymore,” he said to his cheering supporters.
He said that the US was being charged high tariffs on foreign paper products.
“We charge other countries zero tariffs on foreign paper products, but when Wisconsin paper companies export it abroad… China charged us big tariffs, India charged us big tariffs, Vietnam charge us massive tariffs,” Trump said.
He claimed that people of the US demanded a government that puts America first.
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RBI’s revised guidelines for resolution of stressed assets likely before May 23
The Model Code of Conduct for the Lok Sabha polls is unlikely to have any bearing on issuance of a revised framework for resolution of stressed assets by the Reserve Bank and the guidelines are expected to be announced before May 23, sources said.
Against the backdrop of the Supreme Court quashing an RBI circular, issued on February 12, 2018, a revised set of rules is under works and would be released soon, they said.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court had quashed the RBI’s February 12 circular on stressed loan recognition and resolution of large borrowers over Rs 2,000 crore, terming it as “ultra vires”.
“The model code of conduct exempts RBI’s monetary policy. It is unlikely to attract any action if the RBI issues the revised (February 12) circular,” sources said.
They said the central bank is in very advanced stage and the revised circular should be out before declaration of general elections result.
The counting for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections will take place on May 23.
The RBI is looking into all the concerns raised by various stakeholders including banks and power sector companies and may look to tweak the circular without diluting it completely so that the momentum towards resolution of stressed assets is not affected, sources said.
The February 12 circular had mandated banks to refer an NPA account for insolvency proceedings in case a resolution is not found within 180 days. This was for accounts where the outstanding dues was at least Rs 2,000 crore.
Under the RBI norms, an account is classified as a non performing asset (NPA) if it is not serviced for 90 days.
Sources said various options are being explored for rejigging the NPA framework. One of the options is giving 30-60 days more time in addition to existing 90 days before initiating resolution process for stressed accounts, they added.
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Ask SBI to release one month’s salary to jet staff
The National Aviator’s Guild (NAG), which represents pilots of the grounded carrier Jet Airways, Saturday requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “direct” the airline’s lender State Bank of India to release one month’s salary of all the employees.
In a late evening e-mail to the prime minister, the guild also sought government’s directive to “stop de-registration” of the airline’s aircraft, which are now being leased by other domestic carriers.
“We urge you to direct SBI to release a month’s salary to all employees on an urgent and humane basis. We don’t want to see a repeat of the human tragedy which unfolded post the Kingfisher Airlines demise,” said NAG president Karan Chopra in the e-mail.
Thousands of employees of Kingfisher lost over eight months’ salary after the airline went bust in October 2012.
The guild also sought to expedite the binding bid date for the Jet Airways stake to “preserve” enterprise value of the airline.
It also urged the government to ascertain if there was a “premeditated conspiracy” to delay bid declaration or any other “illegal move” was afoot to allow those who have bid as individual entities to team up as a consortium now.
On Friday, Jet Airways chief executive Vinay Dube had said there was no commitment on the part of stakeholders on paying salaries.
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SC gives RBI last chance to give bank info under RTI
The Supreme Court Friday directed the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to disclose information pertaining to its annual inspection report of banks under the Right to Information (RTI) Act unless they are exempted under law.
A bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao also directed the federal bank to review its policy to disclose information relating to banks under RTI, saying “it is duty bound under the law”.
The bench, which did not go ahead with contempt proceedings against the RBI, made it clear that it was giving a last opportunity to it to comply with provisions of the transparency law.
The bench said it would have taken a serious view to the refusal of RBI to part with information under RTI.
“Any further violation shall be viewed seriously,” the bench said.
In January this year, the top court had issued contempt notice to RBI for not disclosing annual inspection report of banks under RTI. Earlier, the apex court and the Central Information Commission, both had held that the RBI cannot deny information to an information seeker under the transparency law unless the material is exempted from disclosure under the law. The RBI, in its defence, had said that it cannot disclose information as the annual inspection report of the bank contained “fiduciary” information as defined under the transparency law. The bench was hearing a contempt petition filed by RTI activist S C Agrawal against the RBI.
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Homeowners in India roll up sleeves
Lalit Vazirani, a computer programmer from Mumbai, never reckoned on having to turn amateur property developer.
Yet here he is, a decade after putting down a deposit for an apartment near the city’s airport, dealing with architects, taxes, various planning permissions and even court hearings. All because the developer behind the $50 million project has gone bust, and nobody else has stepped in to finish the work.
“We never in our wildest dreams imagined one day we would take on the functions and the role of a developer,” said Vazirani, 45, who bought the two-bedroom unit before construction started. “But fate had other plans.”
Few things illustrate the malaise in India’s property market as starkly as would-be homeowners having to dedicate untold hours to completing the flats they spent years saving up for. While no estimates exist for the number of people in Vazirani’s position, India’s property market is struggling to digest some $65 billion worth of projects in various stages of completion — or, in many cases, non-completion.