The numbers are provisional as banks will be able to update the final data by the end of the day, the source said.

MUMBAI: Total tax collection of the Centre, including advance tax collection for the second quarter, fell 22.5 per cent to Rs 2,53,532.3 crore till September 15 of the current fiscal as compared to the year-ago period, according to an income tax department source.

The source shared some details about the provisional data. During the same period ended September 15, 2019, total tax collection stood at Rs 3,27,320.2 crore, the income tax department source from Mumbai zone told PTI over phone on Wednesday.

However, the source refused to share the advance tax numbers separately for the current quarter. The numbers are provisional as banks will be able to update the final data by the end of the day, the source said.

During the first quarter ended June, gross tax collections fell 31 per cent driven down by a massive 76 per cent plunge in advance tax mop-up, as the country was in a full lockdown due to the pandemic.

Of the total collection till September 15, when taxpayers, both individuals and companies, are supposed to pay advance tax for the quarter, personal income tax at the national level stood at Rs 1,47,004.6 crore and corporation tax at Rs 99,126.2 crore, totalling the two major components of the tax revenue at Rs 2,46,130.8 crore, the source said.

The total collection fell 22.5 per cent, led by a 13.9 per cent dip in collections from  Mumbai, which is the largest tax base, contributing to more than a third of the national collection.

The megapolis still continues to be the most affected region by the pandemic. Total collection from the nation’s financial capital fell to Rs 74,789.6 crore, down 13.9 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y), the source said but refused to share advance tax numbers for the quarter.

Of the total mop-up from Mumbai, total personal income tax till September 15, stood at Rs 34,808.8 crore and corporate tax was at Rs 32,921.2 crore.

Among the major tax collection zones, Bengaluru is the only zone where collection grew y-o-y clipping at 9.9 per cent over the past year.

The tech city contributed Rs 40,665.3 crore to the national tax kitty, up from Rs 36,986 crore a year ago, while Kochi reported the worst  collection for the year with a massive 49 per cent plunge in collections at Rs 3,214.7 crore, the source said.

The numbers are provisional as banks will be able to update the final data by the end of the day , the source added.

NEW DELHI: US private equity firm Silver Lake Partners has picked up 1.75 per cent stake in the retail arm of Reliance Industries for Rs 7,500 crore, the Indian firm said in a statement.

“Reliance Industries Limited and Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL) announced today that Silver Lake will invest Rs 7,500 crore into RRVL, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries,” the statement said.

This investment values RRVL at a pre-money equity value of Rs 4.21 lakh crore. Silver Lake’s investment will translate into a 1.75 per cent equity stake in RRVL on a fully diluted basis.

This marks the second billion-dollar investment by Silver Lake in a Reliance Industries subsidiary after the USD 1.35 billion investment in Jio Platforms announced earlier this year.

“Reliance Retail Limited, a subsidiary of RRVL, operates India’s largest, fastest growing and most profitable retail business serving close to 640 million footfalls across its about 12,000 stores nationwide,” the statement said.

With more than USD 60 billion in combined assets under management and committed capital and a focus on the world’s great tech and tech-enabled opportunities, Silver Lake is the global leader in large-scale technology investing.

Its other investments have included Airbnb, Alibaba, Alphabet’s Verily and Waymo units, Dell Technologies, Twitter and numerous other global technology leaders.

After monetising Jio Platforms — which houses the firm’s telecom arm and digital ventures, richest Indian Mukesh Ambani is looking to rope in investors in the retail business.

Reliance may be looking to sell about 10 per cent of Reliance Retail. Late last month, Reliance acquired the retail and logistics businesses of Future Group for Rs 24,713 crore to boost its retail vertical.

Silver Lake was the first US private equity firm to invest in Jio after tech giant Facebook took a 9.99 per cent stake in the company for Rs 43,573.62 crore. Silver Lake bought 2.08 per cent in Jio in two tranches for a total of Rs 10,202.55 crore.

Rival private equity groups KKR, Vista and General Atlantic followed Silver Lake to take stakes in Jio. Other notable investors included Google and Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund Mubadala.

All investors in Jio Platforms including Silver Lake have been offered a chance to explore investing in Reliance Retail.

Ambani had at Reliance Industries’ recent annual general meeting stated that it had been approached by strategic/financial investors for a stake in Reliance Retail.

Commenting on the transaction with Silver Lake, Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries, said, “I am delighted to extend our relationship with Silver Lake to our transformational efforts of building an inclusive partnership with millions of small merchants while providing value to Indian consumers across the country in the Indian retail sector.”

“We believe technology will be key to bringing the much-needed transformation in this sector so that various constituents of the retail ecosystem can collaborate to build inclusive growth platforms. Silver Lake will be an invaluable partner in implementing our vision for Indian Retail,” he said.

Commenting on the investment, Egon Durban, Co-CEO and Managing Partner of Silver Lake, said, “we are pleased to deepen our relationship with Reliance with this investment.

Mukesh Ambani and his team at Reliance have created an outstanding world leader in retail and technology through their courageous vision, commitment to societal benefits, innovation excellence and relentless execution.”

“The success of JioMart in such a short time span, especially while India, along with the rest of the world, battles the COVID-19 pandemic, is truly unprecedented, and the most exciting growth phase has just begun. Reliance’s new commerce strategy could become the disruptor of this decade. We are thrilled to have been invited to partner with Reliance in their mission for Indian Retail,” Durban said.

The transaction is subject to regulatory and other customary approvals. Morgan Stanley acted as financial advisor to Reliance Retail and Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas and Davis Polk & Wardwell acted as legal counsel. Latham & Watkins and Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co acted as legal counsel for Silver Lake.

On Tuesday agencies including Goldman Sachs, Fitch Ratings and India Ratings downgraded their growth estimates, now expecting GDP to contract in the double-digits. 

NEW DELHI:  After India’s worse-than-expected GDP performance in the first quarter—tanking by 23.9 per cent—global ratings agencies have revised their forecasts for the current fiscal year.

On Tuesday agencies including Goldman Sachs, Fitch Ratings and India Ratings downgraded their growth estimates, now expecting GDP to contract in the double-digits. 

Investment bank Goldman Sachs said it expects Indian economy to undergo a deeper recession in FY21 with a contraction of 14.8 per cent, worse than its earlier estimate of 11.8 per cent.

“We now forecast Q3 2020, and Q4 2020 at GDP growth of -13.7 per cent yoy and -9.8 per cent yoy, respectively. Our estimates imply that real GDP falls by 11.1 per cent in calendar year 2020, and by 14.8 per cent in FY21,” the investment bank said in a research note.

However, Goldman Sachs added that it expects a bounce back next year in the June quarter due to favorable base effects.

Fitch Ratings too lowered its forecast for the current fiscal 2020-21, expecting GDP to contract by 10.5 per cent against its earlier estimate of contraction of 5 per cent.

“The severe fall in activity has damaged household and corporate incomes and balance sheets, amid limited fiscal support. A looming deterioration in asset quality in the financial sector will hold back credit provision amid weak bank capital buffers. Furthermore, high inflation has added strains to household income,” Fitch said.

Other forecasters such as Nomura, India Ratings, HSBC have also lowered India’s growth projection.
India Ratings, the Indian subsidiary of Fitch, predicts a sharper fall of 11.8 per cent in India’s real GDP and says recovery will be visible only by third quarter of FY 22.

“Only in the third quarter of FY22, will India’s nominal GDP be bigger than that in Q4 FY20—a loss of nearly two years,” said Devendra Pant, chief economist at India Ratings.

He added that the loss of a tenth in the nominal GDP will result in poor revenue collections, and considerably enlarge the fiscal deficit, which the agency pegs at 8.2 percent of GDP for FY 21. 

Other major ratings agencies have also revised India’s growth forecast downward. Nomura now expects India’s GDP to contract by 9.0 per cent YoY in 2020 against it’s early prediction of 5 per cent, and by 10.8 per cent in FY21 against the earlier forecast of 6.1 per cent.

‘The brand integration not only marks the completion of the largest telecom merger in the world, but will also set the company on its future journey,’ said CEO Takkar.

VIL, which had about 280 million subscribers as of June, said that Vodafone and Idea brands will now be called ‘Vi’.

“A brand with its eyes set on the future, it is built for and around customers. The integration of two brands is a culmination of the largest telecom integration in the world,” VIL said in a statement communicating its new unified consumer brand identity and positioning through a virtual launch on Monday.

Elaborating on the new brand, Ravinder Takkar, MD and CEO, Vodafone Idea said, “Vodafone Idea came together as a merged entity two years ago. We have, since then focussed on integrating two large networks, our people and processes.”

The brand integration not only marks the completion of the largest telecom merger in the world, but will also set the company on its future journey to offer strong digital experiences to 1 billion Indians on its 4G network, he said.

“VIL is now leaner and agile, and the deployment of many principles of 5G architecture has helped us transform into a future-fit, digital network for the changing customer needs.”

“The new brand launch signifies our desire to not just deliver, but delight our customers, stakeholders, communities and our employees and signals our passion and commitment to be a Champion for Digital India,” Takkar added.

The announcement comes close on heels of Vodafone Idea board, last week, approving fund-raising plans of up to Rs 25,000 crore through a combination of equity and debt instruments, to keep the company afloat.

The upcoming fundraising will offer a lifeline to cash-strapped VIL, which has suffered massive losses, has been losing subscribers and Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), and faces outstanding Adjusted Gross revenue (AGR) dues of about Rs 50,000 crore.

In the recent past there have been reports suggesting that Verizon and Amazon may invest over USD 4 billion into the company, although Vodafone Idea itself clarified last week that while it constantly evaluates various opportunities as part of corporate strategy, there is no such proposal currently before the Board.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court directed telecom operators to pay 10 per cent of total AGR-related dues this year, and rest of the payments in 10 instalments starting from next fiscal year.

Fund infusion is critical for cash-strapped VIL, the third largest operator in the fiercely-competitive Indian telecom market where Jio’s entry in 2016, with free calls and cheap data pushed some rivals to exit, acquire, or merge to stay afloat.

Jio Platforms — the unit that houses India’s youngest but largest telecom firm Jio and apps — recently secured Rs 1,52,056 crore from 13 investors including Facebook, Google, General Atlantic, Intel Capital and Qualcomm Ventures.

Notably, Vodafone Idea’s overall AGR dues stood at over Rs 58,000 crore, of which the company has paid Rs 7,854 crore to the Department of Telecom so far.

The statutory dues arose after the Supreme Court, in October last year, upheld the government’s position on including revenue from non-core businesses in calculating the annual AGR of telecom companies, a share of which is paid as licence and spectrum fee to the exchequer.

VIL has been under severe financial pressure, and analysts had earlier cautioned that the company’s longer-term viability was under cloud.

In December, Vodafone Idea Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla had said VIL may have to shut if there is no relief on statutory dues.

The company had reported a staggering Rs 73,878 crore of net loss for fiscal ended March 2020 – the highest ever by any Indian firm – after it provisioned for Supreme Court mandated statutory dues.

It reported net loss to Rs 25,460 crore for the June quarter after making additional provisions to pay past statutory dues, and had, at that point, said its ability to continue as going concern hinges on the Supreme Court allowing more time to pay dues.

The apex court has rejected the demand for a 20-year time for telcos to clear a combined Rs 1.

6 lakh crore in past dues, but allowed the liability to be cleared in 10 years.

Besides payment of AGR dues, VIL’s fund-raising will be important given that 5G is on the horizon, and industry will require the firepower for making substantial investments into bidding for spectrum and network rollout.

The scrip witnessed a sharp rise, spiking 29.63 per cent to Rs 21 on the BSE. On the NSE, it jumped 32.20 per cent to Rs 21.35.

NEW DELHI: Shares of Yes Bank on Monday zoomed over 32 per cent after State Bank of India (SBI) said it will pick up 49 per cent stake in the cash-strapped lender for Rs 2,450 crore.

The scrip witnessed a sharp rise, spiking 40.7 per cent to Rs 22.80 on the BSE during the day.

It closed 31.17 per cent higher at Rs 21.25.

On the NSE, it jumped 41.17 per cent to Rs 22.80 during the trading hours.

It settled 32.20 per cent up at Rs 21.35.

In terms of volume, over 72 crore shares were traded on the NSE while BSE saw an exchange of more than 6.9 crore units.

The spurt in volume was more than 3.22 times during the day on the BSE.

SBI on Saturday announced it will pick up 49 per cent stake in Yes Bank for Rs 2,450 crore and clarified that all the deposits and liabilities of the reconstructed bank will continue in the “same manner”.

“Yes Bank has 255-crore shares of Rs 2 per share. SBI will be issued 245 crore shares at a price of Rs 10 per share for Rs 2,450 crore. This will be 49 per cent of the share capital of the reconstructed bank,” SBI said in a statement.

SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar had earlier said it had set a maximum investment limit of Rs 10,000 crore for Yes Bank reconstruction process.

SBI shares were trading over 4 per cent lower at Rs 258.50 apiece on the BSE.

Yes Bank has been struggling to raise capital amid its dwindling financial health.

It sought to raise USD 2 billion initially during this fiscal, which was then pruned to USD 1.2 billion as it could not rope in any investor.

Yes Bank shares had plunged 56 per cent in the last trading session.

From a 52 week high of Rs 35.30 a stock that Vodafone Idea logged on March 13, 2019, it has now fallen below Rs 3 a share on Tuesday as its survival has come under question.

MUMBAI: Vodafone Idea scrips on Tuesday plunged over 16 per cent to trade below Rs 3 a stock after India Ratings downgraded its rating on non-convertible debentures of Rs 3,500 crore citing stress on the company’s near-term liquidity post the Supreme Court’s ruling.
From a 52 week high of Rs 35.30 a stock that Vodafone Idea logged on March 13, 2019, it has now fallen below Rs 3 a share on Tuesday as its survival has come under question after the apex court ruling on February 14 directing the telcos to pay the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) related liabilities to the government next month.

With the government mulling the possibilities of invoking bank guarantees of the telcos to recover the statutory dues, Vodafone Idea Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla on Tuesday met Telecom Secretary Anshu Prakash on the AGR payment issue after paying Rs 2,500 crore on Monday.

The company had urged the court that the bank guarantee deposited with the government by Vodafone Idea should also not be encashed. Birla has maintained that without relief on the AGR payout, it may not be possible to continue as a going concern.
The company in a regulatory filing said that “India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra), has downgraded its rating on Non-Convertible Debentures of Rs 3,500 crore of erstwhile Vodafone Mobile Services Limited (since merged with the Company)”.

All the BSE sectoral indices are trading in the green, with Banking, FMCG, oil and metal indices gaining 1-2 per cent each.

Oil hits 13-month lows as coronavirus cut Chinese demand and sparked fears of supply cuts by OPEC

The benchmark indices were going strong in noon trades, due to the return of stability on the Asian Street and slide in crude oil prices. The Asian markets, including Hang Seng, Nikkei, Straits Times and Taiwan indices, gained around 1 per cent each, while the Chinese markets eked out gains of half a per cent on hopes that share prices would quickly regain lost ground after the virus gets contained within manageable limits. Oil also hit 13-month lows; brent crude settled down $2.17, or 3.8 per cent at $54.45 a barrel, as the outbreak of coronavirus curtailed Chinese demand and sparked concerns of potential supply cuts by OPEC.  

At 12:30 pm, the Sensex was quoting at 40,628, higher by 750 points or 1.8 per cent and the Nifty was at 11,935, up  228 points or 1.9 per cent. The broader markets were also trading on a strong footing; the BSE Midcap index gained 1.4 per cent at 15,507 and Smallcap index added 1.3 per cent at 14,557.

All the BSE sectoral indices are trading in the green, with the sole exception of the telecom index. Banking, FMCG, oil and metal indices are leading from the front, with gains of 1-2 per cent each.

The Sensex had closed higher by 137 points or 0.3 per cent at 39,872 and Nifty had settled at 11,707, up 46 points or 0.3 per cent. And with the strength being witnessed today, the Sensex seems to be on track to erase the budget day fall of 988 points.

The Hang Seng, Nikkei, Straits Times and Taiwan indices have gained around 1 per cent each, while the Chinese markets have also eked out gains of half a per cent on hopes that there would be a repeat of what happened during the Sars outbreak in 2002-03, when share prices quickly regained all lost ground after the virus was contained within manageable limits.

US stocks had rallied overnight, boosted by surprise strength in manufacturing activity, following a sharp sell-off last week on concerns about the economic impact of coronavirus. The Dow Jones rose 143 points or 0.5 per cent to 28,399, Nasdaq Composite added 122 points or 1.3 per cent to 9,273 and S&P 500 gained 23 points or 0.7 per cent to 3,248.

Back home, the markets would be factoring the monetary policy review, which is due to be announced on Thursday. The general view among analysts is that the central bank would maintain a status quo on the repo-rate front, on February 6, due to the continuing inflationary pressures.

On the results front, Bharti Airtel, Tata Global Beverages, Thermax, Titan Company, JSW Energy and Punjab National Bank will be releasing their Q3 earnings during the course of the day.

On the stock-specific front, index heavyweights such as Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, ITC and Hero Motocorp gallopped by more than 3 per cent on the BSE.

On the other hand, Bharti Airtel had edged lower by 0.4 per cent to Rs 508 ahead of its Q3 numbers. Bajaj Auto and Hindustan Unilever were also trading in the negative.

The market breadth was strong. Out of 2,172 stocks traded on the BSE, there were 1,476 advancing stocks as against 579 declines.

Forex traders said easing crude oil prices and a higher opening in domestic equities also supported the domestic unit.

MUMBAI: The Indian rupee started the New Year on a positive note and rose 7 paise to 71.29 against the US dollar in early trade on Wednesday as optimism over the US-China trade deal strengthened investor sentiments.

Forex traders said easing crude oil prices and a higher opening in domestic equities also supported the domestic unit.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 71.30 then gained further ground and touched 71.29 against the US dollar, showing a rise of 7 paise over its previous closing.

The Indian rupee on Tuesday had closed at 71.36 against the dollar.

Traders said the rupee gained support amid positive developments on the US-China trade deal front.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that a partial new US-China trade agreement will be signed in the middle of next month, announcing that he will also then travel to China for continued talks.

“I will be signing our very large and comprehensive Phase One Trade Deal with China on January 15,” Trump tweeted moments before Wall Street was due to open.

Meanwhile, brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 1 per cent to USD 66 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the capital markets, as they sold shares worth Rs 1,265.10 crore on Tuesday, as per provisional data.

Domestic bourses opened on a positive note on Wednesday with benchmark indices Sensex trading 86.91 points up at 41,340.65 and Nifty higher by 24.80 points at 12,193.25.

The dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.70 per cent to 97.06.

The 10-year government bond yield was at 6.54 in morning trade.