Episode 1235

Weekly News Roundup at 10:00 am on 18th May, 2024

In this weekly podcast, we talk about the cut in windfall tax on crude oil cut, Amazon infusing Rs 1,660 crore into the India arm, and Sebi easing KYC norms for MF investors among other news.

Here’s the Weekly Business Roundup at 10:00 am on 18th May, 2024.

[Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated]
===

Let’s begin with the news that made headlines this week. The Centre has reduced the windfall tax levied in the form of Special Additional Excise Duty on domestically produced crude to Rs 5,700 per tonne from Rs 8,400 per tonne with effect from Thursday. As per the notification, the windfall tax, however, remains unchanged at nil for diesel and aviation fuel turbines. On May 1, the government had reduced the windfall tax to Rs 8,400 a tonne from Rs 9,600. An increase in windfall tax comes against the prospects of upstream oil companies such as Oil and Natural Gas Corp and Oil India. The government levies windfall tax when an industry earns large profits unexpectedly.

Meanwhile, The government will be able to mop up a maximum of Rs 52,000 crore against spectrum worth Rs 96,000 crore to be put up for auctions in June, earnest money deposits submitted by the three telecom operators show. Reliance Jio’s deposit is the highest at Rs 3,000 crore. It is three times that of Bharti Airtel’s Rs 1,050 crore and 10 times higher than Vodafone Idea’s Rs 300 crore, taking the total to Rs 4,350 crore. EMD indicates the bidding intensity of the operators concerned and the amount of spectrum they intend to acquire. Going by it, Jio has the option to spend up to Rs 36,000 crore or 37.4% of the total value of spectrum on sale.

Over to industry. Mining major Vedanta, a subsidiary of London-headquartered Vedanta Resources, plans to raise up to Rs 8,500 crore through various modes, including public offerings and rights issues in one or more tranches. The Anil Agarwal-led firm has also recommended an interim dividend of Rs 11 per share for FY25 with the record date of May 25, entailing an outgo of Rs 4,089 crore, Vedanta said in a stock exchange update. Vedanta’s board, which met on Thursday, said that its committee of directors will decide on the fundraise structure, where the proposal includes the issue of equities and other financial instruments. The moves come at a time when Vedanta and its parent VRL were looking to raise funds to trim debt.

In some more industry news, US e-commerce giant Amazon has infused Rs 1,660 crore into its Indian arm Amazon Seller Services, according to regulatory documents filed with the RoC sourced through Private Circle. This is the second time in five months that Amazon has pumped money into its Indian arm, as competition in the e-commerce space intensifies in the country. The US parent had earlier invested Rs 830 crore in its Indian entity in February. Last year, Amazon’s CEO Andy Jassy announced that the company will invest $15 billion in India by 2030. The board of Amazon seller services approved the allotment of 1.6 billion shares of Rs 10 each on April 15 to its parent entity.

Moving on. Reliance Retail this week announced that it has entered into a long-term partnership with UK’s online fashion retailer, ASOS. This strategic partnership, the company added, marks a significant milestone in “Reliance Retail’s commitment to offering unparalleled choices and bringing world class retail experiences to Indian consumers”. Under this licensing agreement, Reliance Retail will be the exclusive retail partner for ASOS across all online and offline channels in India. The retail arm of Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries will leverage its experience of operating omni-channel retail networks to introduce ASOS’ portfolio of fashion-led own brand labels to the Indian market through a multi-channel presence for ASOS and a diverse array of retail formats.

Over to money matters. The Securities and Exchange Board of India has removed the requirement of linking permanent account number with Aadhaar, providing some relief for mutual fund investors to obtain a “KYC-registered” status for mutual fund transactions. However, investors require a “KYC-validated” status, which is only possible after linking PAN with Aadhaar, for unconstrained transactions across all fund houses. A KYC-registered status allows investors to only transact with the fund houses they already have investments with. After mutual fund know your customer rules came into effect from April 1. Around 13 million accounts were put on hold due to incomplete KYC, with around 3% of mutual fund accounts having the ‘KYC hold’ status.

Lastly, the auto sector. BMW has launched the new X3 xDrive20d M Sport Shadow Edition in India at a price of Rs 74.90 lakh (ex-showroom) making it Rs 1.40 lakh more expensive than the standard model. For the additional premium, this special edition model gets plenty of bells and whistles over the standard model. While the overall exterior design of the M Sport Shadow Edition remains similar to the standard X3, the former gets sportier visual highlights that give it a fresh appeal. This includes a blacked-out kidney grille and the BMW Laser Light technology with its unique blue accents. Further, taillights receive a smokey gloss black treatment.

Show More
expresso business update fe wide
Market Data
Market Data