Today’s Latest Business News Transcript at 10:00 AM on 3 July 2024
Let’s begin. The full Budget for 2024-25 may be presented on July 24 in the Monsoon Session of the Parliament, while the Economic Survey may be tabled on July 23, sources said. While the final decision on the dates will be announced soon, sources said the normal practice is that two sessions of Parliament have at least a 15-day gap between them. The Inaugural session of the 18th Lok Sabha concluded on Tuesday. While the next session could begin on July 18 going by the 15-day norm, sources said the session may begin only on July 22 this time around. President Mumru had earlier said that along with major economic and social decisions, the budget will also see many historic steps.
Meanwhile, the experts suggest that easing growth in gross Goods and Services Tax collections in the current financial year largely depicts that India’s economy has now transitioned into a “stabilised phase” from a “recovery phase”, meaning sub-10% growth may continue in the near-term going forward. Stabilisation phase signifies a maturing tax system, successful implementation of compliance measures, and an economy that has largely recovered from the pandemic’s impact. The GDP growth too is expected to be slower this year, with many economists pegging it at 7%, as against 8.2% in FY24. However, to assume that the high-growth phase of gross collections is over, would be “too-early” and “premature”, say experts.
Moving on. The Reserve Bank of India has proposed that banks who are authorised dealers of foreign exchange should give reasonable opportunity to exporters of being heard before “caution-listing” them. Exporters who fail to realise payments for exports over 24 months are caution-listed. Once a firm gets the tag, then shipments can only be made by it against full advance payment or letter of credit. Under the current rules, all proceeds from exports of goods and services have to be brought back to the country within 270 days or nine months. This is proposed to continue under the new draft. With the new proposed guidelines if an exporter can demonstrate that the delayed payments are still being pursued then he might escape the caution list.
Over to industry. Quick commerce unicorn Zepto which recently raised $665 million at a valuation of $3.6 billion, is likely to go for another round of fund raise of $250 million on the back of investor interest. Sources said that the fresh round is likely to be at a higher valuation of $4.6 billion and the fund raise may even touch $400 million. The round is likely to see General Catalyst coming on board as an investor, sources said. Sovereign funds such as KKR, Singapore’s GIC and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), are also understood to have shown interest, sources added. While Zepto said it doesn’t comment on market speculation, General Catalyst, ADIA, KKR and GIC could not be contacted for comments.
In some more industry news, India’s peak demand for power is expected to touch 260 gigawatts during September or October, power secretary Pankaj Agarwal said on Tuesday, in what implies an unprecedented 20% surge in such demand in just two years. The secretary indicated the steep hike in demand might require an unscheduled revision of the National Electricity Plan 2022-27, notified in May last year. Such plans are usually revised every five years, with a detailed plan for five years, and a perspective plan for the next five. The power ministry, Agarwal said, is now working on the peak power demand projections to update these. The official said that they will be updating the National Electricity Plan very shortly.
On to market. Shares of discount broking firms fell sharply on Tuesday after the Securities and Exchange Board of India came out with guidelines that market infrastructure institutions or MIIs will not differentiate between big and small brokers (by volumes) and charge them uniform fees. MIIs such as exchanges, clearing corporations and depositories have to redesign the existing charge structure and associated processes to bring in this uniformity. Shares of Angel One, the country’s largest brokerage firm, fell nearly 9% while shares of Geojit Financial Services, IIFL Securities and Motilal Oswal Financial Services also declined 3-7%. Among others, 5Paisa Capital, ICICI Securities and Anand Rathi Wealth fell up to 1%.
Lastly, let’s see which are the stocks in focus today. These include Godrej Industries, HDFC Bank, ITC, YES Bank, and Hindustan Zinc among others. Members of the Adi Godrej and Nadir Godrej families will acquire cousin Rishad Naoroji’s 12.65% stake in Godrej Industries as part of the family settlement that was announced two months ago, the firm said in a stock exchange filing on Tuesday. On the other hand, HDFC Bank released its April-June quarter shareholding data on Tuesday, showing that the ownership of foreign institutional investors in the private lender has come down during the quarter under review.