Weekly News Roundup at 10:00 am on 8th June, 2024

Let’s begin…The Australian Government announced that the planning levels for the 2024–25 permanent Migration Program will be set at 185,000 places. The permanent Migration Program will help fill skills shortages in priority sectors and prioritise visa processing for regional Australia by building the domestic pipeline of highly skilled workers. From 2024-25, the government will introduce a visa ballot process for the capped Work and Holiday (Subclass 462) visa program for applicants from the People’s Republic of China, Vietnam, and India. The ballot process will help to manage program demand and application processing times for these countries. The 2024–25 permanent Migration Program has been set at a planning level of 185,000 with an approximate 70:30 split between the Skill and Family streams.

Next up, The EPFO has further relaxed norms for the settlement of claims in certain cases. The retirement fund body in a recent circular said that members will be exempt from the requirement of uploading an image of a validated bank passbook or cheque leaf in some eligible cases. Citing reasons for giving this relaxation, the EPFO said that the bank KYC has been online verified by bank and has been digitally signed by the employer for this case among other validations and therefore, mandatory uploading of the image of cheque leaf/attested bank passbook is not required. The retirement fund body has already sent communications in this regard to its field offices last month on May 9 and sent an email notification to its zonal offices on May 13, 2024.

In other news, The Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare (DoPPW) has issued instructions for enhancement of maximum limit of retirement and death gratuity limit for central government employees from 20 lakh to Rs 25 lakh on reaching the dearness allowance (DA) to 50% of the basic pay, according to a recent government release. The central government in March this year announced DA hike by 4% for over 50 lakh government employees and 67 lakh pensioners, which resulted in an automatic revision in several allowances, including dearness allowance. After this last DA hike, effective January 2024, the key allowance now stands at 50%. As rules suggest, allowances have to be revised by up to 25% when DA reaches 50% of the basic pay.

Moving on, Betting big on the real estate boom, textiles-to-engineering company Raymond is in various stages of negotiations with landowners to sign joint development agreements (JDAs) worth Rs 5,000 crore. On the retail front, the group is looking at opening 300 stores in FY25, the highest store in a year in its history. “We have signed five to six JDAs and will continue to sign more. We are becoming a preferred JDA partner,” said Gautam Hari Singhania, chairman and MD, Raymond. In JDA, while land owner brings in the land, a realtor develops it and gets to sell properties built on the plot. Singhania said the company has 11 million sq ft with a development potential of 30,000 crore in Thane alone.

In another development, Shares of defense-related companies plummeted as much as 15 percent in trade on June 4, as investors rushed to take partial profits following a recent bull run in these stocks. Defense stocks have been particularly favored under the Modi government, reaching new highs due to the government’s push for indigenizing defense manufacturing under the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative. On June 4, shares of Bharat Electronics were the hardest hit within the defense sector, locked in a 15 percent lower circuit on the BSE. Shares of Bharat Dynamics, Hindustan Aeronautics, Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders, and Cochin Shipyard also faced significant declines, each falling around 10-12 percent. Most defense stocks have delivered over twofold returns in the past year.

Up next, An average hike of 5% in the toll tax was announced by the NHAI across the country, which came into effect from June 3. These revised toll rates were initially scheduled for April 1. However, it was deferred due to the Lok Sabha elections this year. The adjustment in toll fees is part of an annual process to revise rates in accordance with changes in CPI-based inflation. Approximately 855 user fee plazas are present on the national highway network, where tolls are collected according to the National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules, 2008.

Lastly, The Directorate General of GST Intelligence is set to intensify the scrutiny of suspected tax evasion by pharmaceutical companies, over non-payment of dues. In addition to the notices sent already, the DGGI is likely to ask many more companies to explain what it perceives as under-payment of tax by them in the current year, FE has learnt. The notices could pertain to non-payment of GST on brand transfer sales, claiming fake input tax credit on expired drugs and for business support services, and non-payment under the reverse charge mechanism, according to official sources