Finance Minister Scores a Win as Lok Sabha Clears New Tax Bill: Your Top India Headlines

The lower house of Parliament has passed the long-overdue tax proposal – the goods and sales tax (GST). Simply put, this is a common nationwide sales tax. What it does is to create one unified all-India market and bring the complicated web of excise, service, entry and octroi taxes under one umbrella. For the country, this will mean a broader tax base and more competitive exports. For you and me, it would depend on what the GST rate is. The global average is 16.5 percent and some Indian experts are predicting the Indian rate at about 27 percent, which Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said is “too high.” But before this happens, the minister has another challenge – the upper house will have to clear it before the proposal becomes official. If passed, some experts say this will be the single biggest tax reform since 1947. Here’s a slightly dated article that will tell you all you want to know about GST.

 You would think news like this would buoy the stock markets. Sadly, no. Both market indices are near their lowest levels this year and the mood is pessimistic to say the least. The global outlook is dismal, oil prices are rising and the government has locked horns with foreign investors, the biggest suppliers of liquidity in the stock market. There are murmurs that the optimism fueled by Modi’s win last year is now petering out. Is the party over, you think?

 The party is not over for the e-commerce guys, though. Flipkart and online furniture store Urban Ladder are in the market for more money. Flipkart has departed from tradition and is actually looking to raise debt this time. It has raised $2.5 billion in equity so far and may be raising $600-$800 million more, reports say. The debt money will be over and above this. Urban Ladder, in which industrialist Ratan Tata has a stake, had raised $50 million a few weeks ago, and wants to raise another $120 million this year.
And Goldman Sachs thinks they will need even more. It has said in a report that online retailers will need to raise $20 billion more to sustain growth over the next five years as India tries to catch up with China as the world’s biggest smartphone market. Phew!
And while on the topic, analysts think the recent Bharti-Future group retail merger may leverage Bharti’s telecom might and push for some play in the e-commerce space.

 And no, I haven’t forgotten about Salman Khan, the biggest non-business story in the papers today. Bollywood’s favorite bad boy has been finally convicted in a 13-year old hit and run case and has got five years in prison. It will be interesting to see what happens to the brands he endorses and the money riding on his movies under production. But, this is not the first time Bollywood has had to face this – another actor Sanjay Dutt was sentenced for five years in 2013 in connection with the a 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case.

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