Business News at 09:30 am on 24th March 2023

In a move that could take away the long-term capital gains benefits for a majority of debt mutual fund schemes, one of the key amendments that the government is set to propose in the Finance Bill 2023, is that the taxation of capital gains of investors in debt funds which have 35% or less of their assets under management in domestic equities will be at the slab level, said sources close to the development. Currently, investors in debt funds pay income tax on capital gains according to their income tax slab for a holding period of three years and after that, they are taxed at the rate of 20% with indexation benefits or 10% without indexation. According to mutual fund heads, this proposal is likely to give a boost to bank fixed deposits and also pure equity funds and do away with the arbitrage between different debt instruments. On to industry. India’s largest air carrier IndiGo plans to have a fleet of 350 aircraft by the end of FY24, an increase of 14% year-on-year. The company further said it aims to double in size and scale by 2030. The carrier, having a market share of 55% in the domestic market, will exit FY23 with a fleet size of 306 aircraft, it said in a presentation shared at the analyst meet on Thursday. As many as 490 aircraft are set to join its fleet by the end of the decade, including several Airbus XLRs, which will help it reach Europe. Financial Year v24 is also estimated to mark 100 million passengers for the company, up 18% from 85 million estimated to have ferried in Financial Year 23. It also wants to add 10-15 destinations by the end of Financial Year 24 to its current tally of 104 destinations, including 78 domestic and the balance being international. Over to economy. Six years after the Goods and Services Tax regime was introduced, the country will have Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal with a Principal Bench in New Delhi and benches across states by December as the Lok Sabha is expected to give the nod to changes in the law in this regard on Friday, paving way for faster dispute resolution. The Principal Bench and each state Bench would have two judicial members and two technical members each, with equal representation from the Centre and states in the case of technical members. According to the proposed changes, the cases involving the issue of the place of supply would be heard by the Principal Bench only, sources said. A single member of a Bench would hear appeals below Rs 5 million related to tax or input tax credit or fee or penalty determined in an order of any appellate authority or revisional authority if no question of law is involved. In all other cases, matters would be heard together by one Judicial member and one technical member. Meanwhile, While global smartphone makers such as Apple and Samsung have been meeting the incremental production and sales targets under the production-linked incentive scheme, majority of the domestic handset companies are unlikely to meet the same in Financial Year 23. Of the five local players selected for the PLI scheme, only two — Dixon-owned Padget Electronics and UTL Neolyncs which manufactures the JioPhone — were able to met the targets in Financial Year 22. Lava International, Bhagwati (Micromax), and local contract manufacturer Optiemus have so far failed to meet the targets for all the three years. Besides, UTL was able to meet the targets because of JioPhone Next, which witnessed good traction at the time of its launch in November 2021. After that, its sales have been weak as consumers started preferring smartphones with better features, analysts said. Moving on. A clutch of issues including inflation, energy security and climate change would be discussed in the G20 second framework working group meeting scheduled to begin in Chennai on Friday, chief economic advisor V Anantha Nageswaran said on Thursday. The second G20 framework working group meeting under India’s G20 presidency is set to take place in Chennai on March 24 and 25. The chief economic adviser Nageswaran and Clare Lombardelli, chief economic adviser, UK Treasury, will jointly co-chair the meeting. Over 80 delegates from G20 member countries, invitee countries, and various international and regional organisations will participate in the meeting. Lastly, The stock of Thrissur-based South Indian Bank outperformed its peers in the past year. While it is a small-cap stock with market capitalisation of just Rs 3,500-odd crore, the sharp rise of 118% to Rs 17.2 per share on Thursday has attracted brokerages towards it. In a recent report, ICICI Securities has increased its price target on the stock to Rs 25 from Rs 14 due to its improved performance.