Make Or Break Time For GST, Ola Wants A Bigger War Chest And Other News

It’s touted as one of the biggest tax reforms that a government has undertaken and the road has been anything but smooth for the NDA government. This time, with time running out, the NDA government has adopted a do-or-die approach to the Goods and Services Tax. With a plan to roll it out by 2017, the government met with state finance ministers to prepare a draft of the GST law, and get a consensus on some of the key issues with the law. Net net, according to FinMin Jaitley, all states but Tamil Nadu are in favor of the new tax system (there were 22 states represented in the meeting) and all states are against the 18 percent cap that the opposition Congress insists on. Meanwhile, here is the draft of the law for comments and feedback.

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Ola Cabs is in the market for money. Now that Uber has declared its intentions to invest  bulk of the $3.5 billion that it raised from a Saudi fund to deepen its presence in India, its biggest local rival is running around building its own war chest. Newspaper reports put Ola’s target fundraise at anything between $300 million and $1 billion. Uber now has a 40 percent market share in the taxi app business, up from 5 percent a year ago (Uber’s numbers), while Ola’s Micro cabs have reversed much of its loss to Uber (say Ola execs). The  of course there’s the global tie up with Didi, Lyft and GrabTaxi, spearheaded by common investor Softbank, to fight Uber. 

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Toyota Motors is now India’s fourth biggest carmaker, pipping Tata Motors to the spot. Here’s the latest ranking:

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Telcos can heave a sigh of relief. TRAI’s demand for powers to penalize them for call drops may be turned down. The telecom ministry is of the view that the telecom regulator has enough powers to protect consumer interests and doesn’t need any more. The issue is in the spotlight after the Supreme Court turned down a TRAI order imposing a penalty on call drops, while a TRAI drive-through test showed most companies failed in the capital.

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Quote of the Day

“I am back, you too get back to work.” Sahara head Subroto Roy who has been flying across the country meeting his employees after being released from jail last month, after two years for running a ponzi scheme. He still owes 117 billion rupees to small investors.

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Absconding industrialist Vijay Mallya has been formally declared an “offender” by a money laundering court hearing a loan diversion case against him. An offender tag makes it easier for India to seek his deportation.

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Niti Aayog, the government planning body, has singled out 32 sick state companies for sale, the first step in its ambitious plan to raise 560 billion rupees from asset sales.

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Food prices are up, with vegetable prices rising 13 percent in May, sending economy watchers into a tizzy. At the same time, the weather department, worried about the pause in the rains, is asking farmers in the drier parts to hold off sowing and wait for rains.

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Cover Image: Meanwhile in the northern state of Punjab, farmers are already sowing rice as the paddy season begins today. 

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