Most discussions on GST in the last few months have focused overly on the aspect of GST rates. However, what is less discussed and perhaps equally important, is the aspect of input tax credit (ITC). To understand the concept of ITC, you need to be first clear about the fact that the GST is a …
One of the many benefits of GST is that it is aligned to benefit small and medium sized businesses. Normally, tax proposals at a macro level tend to benefit existing and matured businesses compared to start-up businesses. But GST, in that sense, is a lot more democratic. It not only offers special privileges for small …
On June 21st, the Monetary Policy Committee made its minutes of the monetary policy discussions public. These MPC minutes are extremely valuable as they provide an insight into the thinking of each of the members. This MPC meeting came in the aftermath of weak GDP growth numbers in the aftermath of the demonetization as well …
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) on 14th June 2017 announced a 25 basis points hike in the Fed rate. This takes the overall Fed rate to the range of 100-125 basis points. There was not much of a surprise element in the decision as the CME Fed Watch Tool was already indicating a 95% …
With retail inflation coming in at just 2.15%, we have touched a 5-year low on retail inflation. Low inflation has largely been driven by negative food inflation in the month of May 2017. The impact of food inflation gets more pronounced as it constitutes nearly 50% of the overall CPI inflation. The chart below captures …
The monetary policy announced by the RBI on 07th June may have maintained status quo on rates, but there are certain distinct advantages that are implicit for the rate sensitives. When we are referring to rate sensitives here, we are restricting ourselves to banks, NBFCs and housing companies. While auto companies are also theoretically rate …
The index of industrial production (IIP) for the month of April 2017 came in lower at 3.1% compared to 3.8% in the previous month. However, the big takeaway is that the IIP has finally moved into a new post-demonetization trajectory. The demonetization exercise that began in November 2016 had a lagged impact on the IIP …
The PMI manufacturing and the PMI services for the month of May have stayed above the 50-mark indicating that both are still in expansion mode. For the month of May, while services showed a positive momentum, manufacturing showed a negative momentum. But then, as the chart below depicts, the services sector also witnessed a much …
The Monetary Policy announced by the RBI on 07th June maintained status quo on repo rates. This was largely along expected lines. It was already factored into most estimates that any rate cut decision would predicate on a variety of other factors like the trajectory of CPI inflation, growth traction post-remonetization, health of the banking …
When the NDA government assumed power 3 years ago in the summer of 2014, India’s FDI flows were $36 billion. Over the last 3 years, India has emerged as the largest recipient of FDI flows, pushing China to the second place. For the financial year 2016-17, total FDI flows into India was at $60 billion …
