In this week’s round-up, we talk about the changed Fixed Deposit rule, income tax returns filed so far, flipkart wholesale’s festive sales, and fuel prices among others.
Weekly Business Roundup at 10:00 am on 28th October 2023.
[Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated]
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You are listening to the Expresso Business Update. Here are the top headlines of the week from the world of Indian and International business brought to you by The Indian Express and The Financial Express.
Meanwhile, A total of 74.1 million income tax returns have been filed for assessment year (AY) 2023-24 to date, which includes 5.3 million first-time filers, the CBDT said in a release on Thursday. CBDT in a release said, quote, “This is an indication of the widening of the tax base subsequent to various reform measures put in place by the department. In fact, while the overall number of returns of individual taxpayers has shown an increase over the years, there is also an increase in the number of returns filed by individual taxpayers across various ranges of gross total income,” unquote. As per the time series data release by CBDT, the returns filed by individual taxpayers registered an overall increase of 90%.
Moving on. Edelweiss Mutual Fund this week said it has mobilised over Rs 1,000 crore during the new fund offering (NFO) of its multi-cap fund. The Edelweiss Multi Cap Fund has recorded the highest collection ever achieved by the fund house in an equity NFO, with over 65,000 applications. The NFO was open from October 4-18 and will re-open for subscription from October 30 onwards, the fund house said in a statement. The main aim of Edelweiss Multi Cap Fund is to generate long-term capital appreciation by investing in a diversified portfolio of equity and equity-related instruments across large cap, mid cap, and small cap stocks. For those unaware, Edelweiss is one of the leading asset management companies.
On to commodities. The government has decided to offload 0.3 million tonnes under the open market sale scheme by the Food Corporation of India in its weekly e-auction from next month, against 0.2 MT currently being offered for the bulk purchaser to cool down the prices. Sources told FE that because of surplus stocks held by the FCI, the government may offer more quantity of wheat through weekly e-auctions so that prices do not spike during the current festive months. As per the new bidding norms, the maximum quantity a bidder can purchase under OMSS weekly e-auction has been increased to 200 tonnes from 100 tonnes. However, traders participating in bidding without a wheat processing facility will not be allowed to participate in the OMSS.
In some more market news, State-run oil marketing companies have the capacity to absorb the global crude price shocks as they have made large profits due to high prices, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri told FE this week. Though it has been widely felt that OMCs whose bottom lines are seen to have already taken a hit in Q2FY24 and looking at losses from auto fuels marketing in the current quarter would still not hike retail fuel prices anytime soon, the minister’s statement gives further credence to such perception.
Next up, industry. Indus Towers, the country’s largest mobile tower company, said the company expects one of its largest customers – Vodafone Idea – to continue clearing its monthly bills. Without naming Vodafone Idea, the towers company said it is engaging with the telecom operator to chalk out a ‘time-bound’ plan to clear past dues as well. Prachur Sah, MD and CEO, Indus Towers, at the July-September earnings call said, quote, “While the customer had some challenges during the quarter, we received the monthly payment in October. Our expectation is that the monthly payment will continue and we will continue to charge as per the master services agreement rates,” unquote.
Lastly, Flipkart Wholesale, the digital B2B wholesale platform of e-commerce platform Flipkart, this week, announced the launch of the Diwali Shopotsav festive season sale for its B2B members from October 25 to November 12. The sale would be live across the 26 Flipkart stores and the Flipkart Wholesale app. The sale event will provide deals on various items for business customers across categories, including home and kitchen appliances. The platform has planned flash sales to provide various products for one rupee. As part of the sale, Flipkart Wholesale members would be able to avail of various benefits through Festive Special Deals, Flash Deals, and more across its online channel under the program.
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