India's JSW Cement debuts 4.4% higher in premarket trading
The stock opened at 153.50 rupees on the National Stock Exchange of India, compared to its issue price of 147 rupees.
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Reuters
14 hours ago
- Reuters
India confident of meeting fiscal deficit target, despite planned tax cuts
NEW DELHI, Aug 17 (Reuters) - India is confident of meeting its fiscal deficit target of 4.4% for the current fiscal year, according to a government source with knowledge of the matter, despite its plans to cut consumption tax later this year. In the biggest tax overhaul since 2017, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday announced sweeping changes to the complex goods and services tax (GST) regime which will make daily essentials and electronics cheaper. "India's federal and state governments have options to offset any loss of revenue due to lowering of rates," the government source said without providing further details. The source also said it will end the practice of collecting compensation cess by December. The GST compensation cess is an additional levy imposed on certain items to compensate states for any revenue loss incurred due to the implementation. India's finance ministry did not respond to a request for comment sent outside of office hours.
The Guardian
18 hours ago
- The Guardian
Want more productivity, Rachel Reeves? It's time to embrace Mancunian swagger
Over the summer Rachel Reeves has been on a road trip around Britain. From Cornwall and Kent, to Aberdeen, south Wales and Belfast, in search of the solutions for a national economy that is stuck in a rut. Inspired by this tour, the chancellor used a Guardian article last week to set her autumn budget priority: boosting productivity. Tax and spending may dominate news headlines, but this is the real problem facing the country, and no politician of the past two decades has managed to fix it. Productivity is a dull word of vital importance. Growing the measure of output for each hour of work is an economic secret sauce, enabling growth in wages and living standards over the long-run without stoking inflation. On the hunt for solutions, Reeves could have extended her trip. Leaving Westminster on a (most probably delayed) Avanti train from Euston, or an overcrowded TransPennine Express from her Leeds constituency; for the wetter side of northern England, where Manchester is having a moment in the sun. Unlike the rest of Britain, there are signs of life in Greater Manchester's productivity. Between 2004 and 2023, the city region recorded the highest rise in gross value added for each hour worked of any combined authority in the country. London – once the driver of UK growth – has effectively stalled. The capital is still streets ahead in terms of productivity and the UK is still one of the most regionally unequal countries in Europe, with no regions outside London and the south-east of England above the national average. But Manchester is beginning to close the gap – with growth of 31% since 2004. To anyone familiar with the north-west, this will probably come as no surprise. Manchester has changed beyond all recognition in recent years, never mind the past two decades. The Haçienda has been a posh block of flats for longer than it was at the epicentre of the 'Madchester' music scene. The class of '92 swapped Old Trafford for building luxury hotels long ago, petrodollar cash has flooded the east of the city, and Oasis have just added, by some counts, £1bn to the British economy at large. 'Manchester has got this buzz about it,' says Jim O'Neill, the former Goldman Sachs chief economist, and a proud Mancunian, who now chairs the Northern Powerhouse Partnership. 'It's always been there for years in the [city] centre. But most importantly it's now spreading. Some would say it's that Manchester swagger. It all relates to an attitude that 'we can do this; we want to see it happen'. I don't know another part of the country where it has that vibe.' For years Britain's productivity growth has been a dismal disappointment. Before the 2008 financial crisis growth averaged 2% a year, but has trickled to well below 1% since. Figures last week showed growth contracted in the year to June. With the autumn budget not far off, this is fuelling a sense of alarm in the Treasury. Whitehall is abuzz with speculation that the Office for Budget Responsibility is poised to hand Reeves downgraded productivity forecasts – with the potential to blow a £20bn hole in her tax and spending plans. To turn things around, Reeves could take the ingredients behind Manchester's renaissance and apply them elsewhere. She could also double down on the 'Northern Powerhouse' strategy for good measure. Sources close to Labour say that is exactly the plan: Keir Starmer and Reeves are expected to launch an intensified regional growth strategy next month, with the revival of the Northern Powerhouse Rail project as its centrepiece. Those who know Manchester best say there are a few golden threads to the renaissance of Cottonopolis: devolution; political stability and coordination between its policymakers, businesses and institutions; the involvement of its top universities; and sustained investment. Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, says London hasn't entirely cottoned on. The city symbolised by the worker bee has done well, but could have done even more with extra money and power from the Treasury. 'The learning for Whitehall is, if you want productivity growth, and growth more broadly, you have to let go and trust places. And you have to invest. Because you can't get it without investment. '[But] there is a bias against cities outside London and the south, and as long as this remains, the country will not achieve its full potential.' Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion 'I compare Manchester [today] with the city I came back to after uni, and the one I had to leave to get on in life. It's been a major shift. The momentum is there now, and it's what you do with that next.' In truth the Manchester revival has deep roots. The timeline before Burnham's arrival as mayor in 2017 is well known: the 1996 IRA bomb as catalyst for city centre regeneration; the 2002 Commonwealth Games, the opening of Salford Media City, the Lowry, Bridgewater Hall and the expansion of the Metrolink. Led by the city council's former chief executive, Howard Bernstein, and leader, Richard Leese, their 'Manchester family' approach to coordinating investment proves Reeves's theory that public money can 'crowd in' the private sector : Manchester has ranked top outside London for foreign direct investment projects for three of the past five years. However, the transformation isn't all plain sailing. House prices and rents are rocketing, crowding out families from Manchester's poorer suburbs. For those who, like me, grew up around these parts, the skyscraper-sprouting skyline is a source of both pride, but also nagging worry. Could the pace of change sweep away something special, in a city used to doing things differently? And are the proceeds of growth lining Mancunian pockets, or flowing out of the Irwell to an offshore bank account? Burnham is alive to the danger. 'I use the phrase that, the kids can see the skyscrapers from their bedroom window but they currently don't see a path to the modern Greater Manchester economy. The next phase is about making that path.' Still, the addition of glass-fronted flats and office blocks among the converted Victorian mills has helped Manchester to create more jobs at a faster pace than the UK average. They reflect Labour's hopes for Britain more broadly: that a fairer distribution of growth, in theory, will become easier if there is some growth in the first place. Reeves could do with a few more Mancunian economic miracles. The national economy will not come unstuck without Britain's biggest regional cities reaching their full productive potential. In her first conference speech as chancellor last year, along the M62 in Liverpool, Reeves promised a Labour government would mean 'shovels in the ground. Cranes in the sky. The sounds and the sights of the future arriving.' To the next critic who asks when exactly that will come about, a Manchester reference may help.
Reuters
19 hours ago
- Reuters
Modi's tax overhaul to strain finances but boost image amid US trade tensions
NEW DELHI, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's deepest tax cuts in eight years will strain government revenues but are winning praise from businesses and political pundits who say they will bolster his image in an ongoing trade fight with Washington. In the biggest tax overhaul since 2017, Modi's government on Saturday announced sweeping changes to the complex goods and services tax (GST) regime which will make daily essentials and electronics cheaper from October, helping consumers and also companies like Nestle, Samsung and LG Electronics. At the same time, in his Independence Day speech on Friday, Modi urged Indians to use more goods made domestically, echoing calls from many of his supporters to boycott U.S. products after Donald Trump hiked tariffs on imports from India to 50% as of August 27. The tax cut plan comes with costs given GST is a major revenue generator. IDFC First Bank says the cuts will boost India's GDP by 0.6 percentage points over 12 months but will cost the state and federal government $20 billion annually. But it will improve weak stock market sentiment and bring political dividends for Modi ahead of a critical state election in the eastern state of Bihar, said Rasheed Kidwai, a fellow at New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation. "GST reduction will impact everyone, unlike cuts to income tax, which is paid by only 3%-4% of the population. Modi is doing this as he is under a lot of pressure due to U.S. policies," said Kidwai. "The move will also help the stock market, which is now politically important as it has a lot of retail investors." India launched the major tax system in 2017 that subsumed local state taxes into the new, nationwide GST to unify its economy for the first time. But the biggest tax reform since India's independence faced criticism for its complex design that taxes products and services under four slabs - 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%. Last year, India said caramel popcorn would be taxed at 18% but the salted category at 5%, triggering criticism about a glaring example of GST's complexities. Under the new system, India will abolish the 28% slab - which includes cars and electronics - and move nearly all of the items under the 12% category to the lower 5% slab, benefitting many more consumer items and packaged foods. Government data shows the 28% and 12% tax slabs together garner 16% of India's annual GST revenue of roughly $250 billion last fiscal year. Bihar is a key state politically and goes to the polls by November. A recent survey by the VoteVibe agency showed Modi's opposition has an edge largely because of a lack of jobs. "Any tax cut has wide public appreciation. But of course, the timing is purely determined by political exigencies," said Dilip Cherian, a communications consultant and co-founder of Indian public relations firm Perfect Relations. "It seems to be an indication of some mixture of frustration as well as recognition that there is a broad public pushback against high and crippling rates of taxation." Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has seized on his tax announcement, posting on X that on the Hindu festival of lights, Diwali, "a brighter gift of simpler taxes and more savings is waiting for every Indian." Modi has vowed to protect farmers, fishermen and cattlemen, following Trump's surprise tariff announcement on India, after trade talks between New Delhi and Washington collapsed over disagreement on opening India's vast farm and dairy sectors and stopping Russian oil purchases. The latest round of trade talks between the two nations set for August 25-29 has also been called off. ($1 = 87.5080 Indian rupees)
