Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India on Friday said it has imposed a penalty of over Rs 3.06 crore on Amazon Pay (India) Private Limited for non-compliance with certain provisions related to Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs) and Know Your Customer (KYC) direction.

“It was observed that the entity was non-compliant with the directions issued by RBI on KYC requirements,” the RBI said in a statement.

The RBI had issued a notice to Amazon Pay (India) advising it to show cause as to why penalty should not be imposed for non-compliance with the directions.

“After considering the entity’s response, RBI concluded that the aforesaid charge of non-compliance with RBI directions was substantiated and warranted imposition of monetary penalty,” it said.

The central bank, however, added the penalty is based on deficiencies in regulatory compliance and not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by the Amazon Pay (India) with its customers.

Amazon Pay is the digital payment arm of e-commerce giant Amazon.

NEW DELHI: Adani Group continues to face heat on Dalal Street with most group stocks getting locked into their respective lower price bands of 5% and 10%. This is the 8th straight session when the Group stocks are under tremendous selling pressures.

Monday’s share fall comes as global financial agencies, one by one, are cutting their dealing with the group. 

After Credit Suisse and Citigroup, British lender Standard Chartered has now stopped accepting Adani Group bonds as collateral on margin loans as the port-to-power conglomerate is facing allegations of stock manipulation (among other things) after US short-seller Hindenburg Research published a scathing report on the group on January 24th. 

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked banks and Life Insurance Corporation to declare their exposures to the Adani group while India’s capital market regulator Sebi said that it is committed to ensuring the stock market’s integrity and all necessary surveillance measures are in place to address any excessive volatility in individual shares.

On Monday, shares of the group’s flagship firm- Adani Enterprises- crashed about 10% to hit a low of Rs 1,434 on the BSE. Six stocks (Adani Total Gas, Adani Green, Adani Transmission, Adani Wilmar, Adani Power, and NDTV) were locked in at their respective lower price bands of 5% and 10% while Adani Ports was trading in with a minor gain of 1%.

The Group’s cement entities- ACC and Ambuja – were in red during the early trading hour of Monday. 

As per early estimates, Adani Group’s combined market capitalisation may fall about Rs 10 lakh crore by the end of today’s trading session if the stocks do not make a comeback. 

New York University professor and valuation guru Aswath Damodaran in a blog post said that he finds the fair value of Adani Enterprises at Rs 945.

Damodaran said even at Rs 1,531, Friday’s closing price for Adani Enterprises, the company is priced too high, given its fundamentals that includes cash flows, growth expectations and risks involved. His share price estimate for Adani Enterprises is not based on upbeat assumptions on revenue growth and operating margins.

“The market was over-stretched when it valued the Adani companies collectively at USD 220 billion (Rs 17,600 billion) and Adani Enterprises at USD 53 billion (Rs 4,243 billion),” Damodaran said.

He added that it is possible that Research was indulging in hyperbole when it described Adani to be ‘the biggest con’ in history. 

“I am puzzled that Hindenburg’s short thesis spends as much time as it does try to convince us that the company is over-levered. Being over-levered is not a con game, but a risk that equity investors in many investments take to increase their returns,” said Damodaran. 

He also said that he will not be buying shares of Adani group companies even if the group shares fall further as investors in family group companies, no matter how honourable the family, are buying into cross holdings, opacity, and the possibility of wealth transfers across family group companies.

The professor said the risks increase if the family group companies are built around political connections, “where you are one political election loss away from your biggest competitive advantage”. 

Adani Group stocks prices have crashed after the US-based activist investor firm Hindenburg Research accused the port-to-power conglomerate of pulling the “largest con in corporate history” by engaging in “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud” over the course of two decades.

The Adanis have called the Hindenburg report “maliciously mischievous and unresearched” and said it was evaluating legal action.

Anand: The Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which markets its dairy products under the Amul brand, on Friday increased the prices of its milk brands by Rs 2 per litre for all markets except Gujarat.

Jayen Mehta, Managing Director of the federation, made it clear that the hike in milk prices is not applicable to Gujarat and the new rates are meant only for other markets, including Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi.

The new prices will be effective from Friday morning, the GCMMF said in a statement.

MUMBAI: Shares of Adani Group firms continued to remain weak for the seventh day running on Friday amid a host of negative events surrounding the companies.

The stock of Adani Enterprises tumbled 20 per cent to Rs 1,173.55 — its one-year low — on the BSE.

Shares of Adani Ports tanked 10 per cent, Adani Transmission (10 per cent), Adani Green Energy (10 per cent), Adani Power (5 per cent), Adani Total Gas (5 per cent), Adani Wilmar (4.99 per cent), NDTV (4.98 per cent), ACC (4.24 per cent) and Ambuja Cements (3 per cent).

The conglomerate’s combined market capitalisation has plummeted by more than $100 billion since US short-seller  which makes money by betting on shares falling — released an explosive report last week.

Adani himself has seen his fortune plummet by tens of billions of dollars, dumping him out of the real-times Forbes rich list top 10 and depriving him of his title as Asia’s richest person.

Adani late Wednesday cancelled a $2.5-billion stock sale meant to help reduce debt levels — long a concern — restore confidence and broaden its shareholder base.

Big banks including Credit Suisse and Citigroup have stopped accepting Adani bonds as collateral for loans to private clients, according to Bloomberg News.

That fuelled worries about how Adani will raise fresh funds, with Adani dollar bonds trading at distressed levels and signs of contagion in Indian markets increasing, Bloomberg reported.

According to Hindenburg Research, Adani has artificially boosted the share prices of its units by funnelling money into the stocks through offshore tax havens.

This “brazen accounting fraud scheme” is “the largest con in corporate history”, Hindenburg said.

Adani said it was the victim of a “maliciously mischievous” reputational attack and issued a 413-page statement on Sunday that it asserted showed Hindenburg’s claims were “nothing but a lie”.

Hindenburg said in response that Adani failed to answer most of the questions raised in its report.

Critics say Adani’s closeness to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also from Gujarat state, has helped him win business and avoid proper oversight.

---

New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday announced that the Centre will continue 50-year interest-free loans to state governments for one more year.

She also said the enhanced capex of Rs 10 lakh crore for infrastructure development is at 3.3 per cent of the GDP.

Presenting the Budget for 2023-24, she said the newly established infrastructure finance secretariat will assist in attracting more private investment.

An expert committee will also be set up to make infrastructure classification and financing framework suitable for Amrit Kaal, she added.

On October 13 last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the Gati Shakti – National Master Plan, aimed at developing integrated infrastructure to reduce logistics costs.

All logistics and connectivity infrastructure projects, entailing investment of over Rs 500 crore, are routed through the NPG, constituted under the PM Gati Shakti initiative.

She also informed that the PM Primitive Vulnerable Tribal Group scheme would benefit 3.5 lakh tribals.

New Delhi: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday announced no tax for those with annual income of up to Rs 7 lakh under the new tax regime but made no changes for those who continue in the old regime that provides for tax exemptions and deductions on investments and expenses such as HRA.

In what is being seen as push for salaried class taxpayer to switch to new tax regime where no exemptions on investments is provided, the finance minister in her budget for 2023-24 allowed a standard deduction of Rs 50,000 under the new regime.

The old tax regime provides for a similar deduction and no tax on income up to Rs 5 lakh.

Also, the basic exemption limit has been raised to Rs 3 lakh from Rs 2.5 lakh. A Rs 2.5 lakh basic exemption limit is prescribed in old tax regime.

The move will lead to a saving of Rs 33,800 for those earning up to Rs 7 lakh annually and opting for new tax regime. Those with income up to Rs 10 lakh would save Rs 23,400 and Rs 49,400 saving would accrue to those earning up to Rs 15 lakh.

For high salary people, Sitharaman also reduced surcharge from 37 per cent to 25 per cent for high net worth individuals with income above Rs 2 crore.

This would translate into a saving of around Rs 20 lakh for those having a salary income of about Rs 5.5 crore.

In her Budget speech, Sitharaman said currently individuals with total income of up to Rs 5 lakh do not pay any tax due to rebate.

“It is proposed to increase the rebate for the resident individual under the new regime so that they do not pay tax if their total income is up to Rs 7 lakh,” Sitharaman said, adding that the number of slabs would be reduced to five.

Under the revamped new tax regime, no tax would be levied for income up to Rs 3 lakh. Income between Rs 3-6 lakh would be taxed at 5 per cent; Rs 6-9 lakh at 10 per cent, Rs 9-12 lakh at 15 per cent, Rs 12-15 lakh at 20 per cent and income of Rs 15 lakh and above will be taxed at 30 per cent.

“I propose to extend the benefit of standard deduction to the new tax regime. Each salaried person with an income of Rs 15.5 lakh or more will thus stand to benefit by Rs 52,500,” Sitharaman said.

Deloitte India Partner Neeru Ahuja said that the tweaks made in the new tax regime clearly indicates that government wants salaried class to shift to the new regime, under which exemptions cannot be claimed.

“Usually salaried individuals save to claim benefit of tax deductions. The tweaks in the new tax regime in Budget are aimed at getting people out of that mindset. The government is indicating that the new tax regime is here to stay and may be the only option going forward,” Ahuja said.

The government in Budget 2020-21 brought in an optional income tax regime, under which individuals and Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs) were to be taxed at lower rates if they did not avail specified exemptions and deductions, like house rent allowance (HRA), interest on home loan, investments made under Section 80C, 80D and 80CCD. Under this, total income up to Rs 2.5 lakh was tax exempt.

Currently, a 5 per cent tax is levied on total income between Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 5 lakh, 10 per cent on Rs 5 lakh to Rs 7.5 lakh, 15 per cent on Rs 7.5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh, 20 per cent on Rs 10 lakh to Rs 12.5 lakh, 25 per cent on Rs 12.5 lakh to Rs 15 lakh, and 30 per cent on above Rs 15 lakh.

The scheme, however, has not gained traction as in several cases it resulted in higher tax burden.

With effect from April 1, these slabs will be modified as per the Budget announcement.

BENGALURU: Unified Payment Interface (UPI), which transformed the payment landscape, has grown from 17% of the total digital transactions in India in FY19 to 52% of the total 8,840 crore financial digital transactions in FY22.

According to the Economic Survey, on average, between FY19 and FY22 CY, growth in UPI-based transactions in value and volume terms has been 121% and 115%, respectively. In December 2022, UPI touched its highest-ever mark with 782 crore transactions worth Rs 12.8 lakh crore.

Apart from India, NPCI, through its international arm NPCIL(National Payments Corporation of India International) is pushing for acceptance of RuPay/UPI powered apps, cross-border remittance and UPI-Like deployment in international markets such as Singapore, UAE, France, the Netherlands, among others.  Also, UPI is one of the major contributory factors to the growth of e-commerce.

Highlighting e-commerce in India, the Economic Survey said fashion, grocery and general merchandise to capture nearly two-thirds of the Indian e-commerce market by 2027. E-commerce firms such as Trell, Meesho, and shop 101, are expanding and gaining popularity in Tier 3 and 4 cities.

The survey also talks about start-ups’ ‘Reverse Flipping'(shifting of start-ups domicile back to India). To accelerate reverse flipping, it suggests measures such as simplification of taxation of Employee Stock Options (ESOPs) and simplifying procedures for capital flows.

Vidit Aatrey, Founder and CEO, Meesho said, “With start-ups exploring IPOs, easier domestic listing for foreign inc entities will bolster our markets. India has over $3T of market cap, of which about 1% comes from tech start-ups. The move will allow our market participants to derive a larger share of the value-creation by these firms.”

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said the Budget for 2023-24 hopes to build on the foundation of the previous budget and blueprint for India @ 100. She is currently presenting her fifth straight budget at a time when the economy is slowing due to global headwinds and specific sectors need attention.

The minister listed seven priorities of Union Budget 2023-24, including infrastructure, green growth, financial sector and youth power.

She will have to do a tight-rope walk between staying fiscally prudent and general public expectations of lower taxes and a wider social security net, while at the same time firing the engines of the economy before general elections.

NEW DELHI: Shares of most of the Adani Group firms were trading in the negative territory on Tuesday morning, falling for the fourth day running, amid concerns over US-based short seller Hindenburg Research’s report.

Hindenburg released the report on January 24 — the day on which Adani Enterprises’ Rs 20,000-crore follow-on share sale opened for investors.

Adani Group stocks have taken a beating on the bourses after Hindenburg in a report made a litany of allegations, including fraudulent transactions and share price manipulation, at the Gautam Adani-led group.

The allegations have been rejected by the group. For the fourth day running, shares of Adani Total Gas tanked 10 per cent, Adani Green Energy tumbled 9.60 per cent, Adani Transmission declined 8.62 per cent, Adani Wilmar (5 per cent), Adani Power (4.98 per cent), NDTV (4.98 per cent) and Adani Ports (1.45 per cent) on the BSE.

However, Adani Enterprises jumped 5.26 per cent, Ambuja Cements climbed 5.25 per cent and ACC gained 2.91 per cent. Shares of most of the Adani Group firms had ended lower on Monday as well.

On Friday, Adani Group stocks fell up to 20 per cent after Hindenburg made damaging allegations.Stock markets were closed on Thursday on account of Republic Day. Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) issued a statement saying its investments in the group are safe.

“Our total holding in the Adani Group companies under equity and debt on date is Rs 36,474.78 crore. This was Rs 35,917.31 crore as of December 31, 2022. Total purchase value of these equities of the group companies, bought over the past many years, is Rs 30,127 crore and the market value for the same at close of market hours on January 27, 2023 was Rs 56,142 crore,” LIC said.

Punjab National Bank (PNB), which has about Rs 7,000 crore exposure in Adani Group entities, however, said it is keeping a close watch on the developing situation.

LIC stock fell 0.82 per cent on Tuesday morning, while PNB climbed 3.74 per cent.

“Markets will keep an eye on Adani Enterprises’ Rs 20,000 crore follow-on share sale and traders will be keen to know if it will sail through,” said Prashanth Tapse – Research Analyst, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd.

In the broader market, the 30-share BSE benchmark quoted 198.15 points or 0.33 per cent lower at 59,302.26.

The years 2003, 2008, 2013 and 2018 marked “pre-election” budgets presented by finance ministers with distinct personalities. They also symbolised tectonic shifts in Indian polity and economy. What would Nirmala Sitharaman symbolise in the 2023 “pre-election” budget?

At 11 AM on February 1, 2023, Nirmala Sitharaman will present the fifth “pre-election” Budget of this century. History buffs who keep tabs on trivia will know that Budget speeches were delivered at 5 PM till 1999 when the first “full term” non-Congress NDA government chose to break away from the imperial tradition. Jaswant Singh delivered the “pre-election” Budget speech in 2003; P Chidambaram twice in 2008 and 2013 and Arun Jaitley in 2018.

Each finance minister had a unique style and represented a decisive phase of political and social churn in India. The suave Jaswant Singh was the original choice of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1999 when the NDA won a decisive mandate. He was vetoed by the Sangh Parivar. It was only in the fifth year of his term that Vajpayee got his say. When the man who has presented the most consequential Budget (1991) in independent India Dr Manmohan Singh was anointed as the Prime Minister by the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi in 2004, P Chidambaram appeared a natural choice. After all, he was credited with presenting a “dream budget” in the 50th year of Indian independence. 

Articulate and occasionally abrasive, Chidambaram continues to punch above his electoral and political weight. His successor, Arun Jaitley, too punched way above his political and electoral weight. There were many grumbles and murmurs within the Sangh Parivar when Jaitley was given the finance portfolio (along with defence) despite losing badly to Captain Amarinder Singh (then with the Congress) in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. But the quintessential “Delhi insider” Jaitley was trusted implicitly by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. His successor Nirmala Sitharaman too is in the cabinet having created a record of sorts by becoming India’s first defence and finance minister. 

A lot has changed both politically and economically since Jaswant Singh read the speech in his rich baritone 20 years ago. 

In the political arena, the BJP-led NDA has scripted “history” by winning two successive Lok Sabha mandates. There is an even chance Prime Minister Narendra Modi could equal the record set by Jawaharlal Nehru in 2024 by winning a third consecutive mandate. In the economic arena, three factoids signal the significant change and the significance of the change. In 2003; with a GDP of about $ 600 billion, India was the 12th largest economy. It is now the 5th largest economy with a GDP in excess of $ 3.5 trillion. In 2003, India boasted of $ 113 billion in foreign exchange reserves; they currently stand at $ 560 billion despite the depredations and global headwinds of 2022 that seem to have ensured that many developed countries face a recession or a drastic fall in growth in 2023. In 2003, the Sensex was within touching distance of 6,000 having registered a record 73% gain in one calendar year. Despite headwinds, the Sensex has broken through the psychological barrier of 60,000.  

Dig a little deeper and even more tectonic shifts are discernible in Indian polity and economy since Jaswant Singh read the first “pre-election” speech of this century. The year 2003 armed the high noon of coalition politics in India after decades of Congress dominance. When Sonia Gandhi-led UPA delivered a shock defeat to the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA in 2004 and won yet another mandate in 2009, it looked as if coalition politics and governments were becoming a permanent feature. The arrival of Narendra Modi has again tilted the scales. By 2003, personality cults were emerging as a new area of interest and study. By 2023, personality cults have become deeply entrenched. Look at Mamata Banerjee, Naveen Patnaik, Y S R Jagan Mohan Reddy, K Chandrashekar Rao, Pinarayi Vijayan and Arvind Kejriwal and you get the picture. The third most consequential change has been the seemingly terminal decline of the Congress and the remarkable resilience and ability of regional parties to withstand the onslaught of the BJP juggernaut. 

When it comes to the economy too, there have been tectonic shifts. Despite implementation glitches and snafus, the GST regime is creating a unified national market. The first baby steps were taken in 2003. The digital revolution is changing the Indian economy in a manner that even experts cannot foresee. Jaswant Singh, for sure, did not see it back in 2003. Then again, after decades of empty rhetoric surrounding “Garibi Hatao”, both the UPA and NDA governments have had spectacular success in reducing poverty. Budgets have played a role in this, as part of overall economic policies and measures. But arguably the most consequential change has been the emphasis on “welfare” schemes designed for the poor. In a manner of speaking, P Chidambaram set the ball rolling in his 2008 “pre-election” Budget speech by announcing a Rs 60,000 crore farm loan waiver. Today, “welfare” has become an integral part of fiscal and monetary policies. Massive increases in tax revenues have enabled finance ministers to play Santa Klaus. When Jaswant Singh read his Budget speech in 2003, total tax revenues were Rs 254,438 crores. As Nirmala Sitharaman gets ready to read her 2023 Budget speech, total tax revenues promise to cross Rs 30 Lakh crores.