News digest: GST Council meet, Punjabi music, derivatives trading, and more

Flipkart board okays Walmart's $15 bn offer; SoftBank, Tiger Global to exit

The Flipkart board has given its approval to a deal that will see US retail giant Walmart picking up close to 75 per cent in the Bengaluru-headquartered company with an investment of around $15 billion, putting to rest months of speculation surrounding the largest deal in the country’s fast-emerging Internet sector.

The deal could be formalised as early as next week, with the signing of the papers, said a highly-placed source privy to the discussion. 

SoftBank, the largest investor in Flipkart, will cash out its stake of over 20 per cent for close to $4 billion, said another person with a direct knowledge of the deal. This pegs the valuation of Flipkart on the secondary market at around $20 billion, higher than what was initially estimated.  Read more...

GST Council okays single return a month; differences emerge on sugar cess

The GST Council on Friday approved a simplified return filing framework that would require a taxpayer to file only one return every month against three at present. The Council has set a period of six months for the transition to take place.

However, there was no consensus on the proposal to levy Rs 3-a-kg sugar cess, and on incentives to promote digitisation. The former evoked sharp protests from Kerala, West Bengal, and Andhra Pradesh in the three-hour meeting via video conferencing, chaired by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. There was also no consensus on reducing the GST rate on ethanol, currently taxed at 18 per cent. Read more...

A bailout on the cards: DoT takes a call to cut levies as telcos bleed

The government is looking at reducing the spectrum usage charges (SUC) and other levies in a move to help the stressed telecom sector emerge stronger.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has indicated that as part of the national telecom policy, which is likely to be released next month, various levies and charges including SUC would be reviewed in line with the input tax credit available.

Telecom operators pay 8 per cent of their adjusted gross revenue (AGR) as licence fee and SUC is pegged in the range of 3 to 6 per cent depending on the type of airwaves they have. Read more...

RBI to infuse liquidity in bond market as forex reserve dips by $3.22 bn

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has moved to address pressure points in both currency and bond markets.

The central bank’s foreign exchange reserves dipped by $3.22 billion in the week to 27 April, after having fallen by $2.5 billion in the week before, according to the RBI data. This is the sharpest fall in forex reserves since the week ended October 7, 2016, when the reserves had dipped by $4.3 billion. Most of the dip is to check the rupee’s rapid slide, currency dealers say.

The central bank has also tried to soothe the frayed nerves of bond dealers by announcing a secondary market bond purchase of Rs 100 billion. Read more...

Sebi extends trading hours for derivatives market till 11:55 PM from Oct 1

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Friday allowed domestic stock exchanges to extend equity derivatives trading till 11.55 pm, in a move aimed at attracting investors dealing in Indian products on overseas exchanges in Singapore and Dubai. The new timings will also help in better alignment with commodity markets — amid implementation of universal exchanges — which function till 11:55 pm.

Currently, the timings for both the equity cash and derivatives segments are 9 am to 3:30 pm. Since derivatives trading started in 2000, the trading timings of both futures and options (F&O) and cash market have remained linked. Read more...

A section of Punjabi music is distorting the otherwise rich culture

Punjabi-ness is hardly an ideology, nor even a way of life. But an internet search leads to breathless evidence of why it’s “awesome to be Punjabi”, how Punjabis are the “most fun people” and why “everyone should have a Punjabi friend”. 

Moving in the “right” circles gets you invited to lavish Punjabi weddings where you can feast on butter chicken and dance the bhangra to the beats of the dholwala while consuming a copious number of Patiala pegs from sharab di gaddi even after the bar shuts. Read more...