She also encouraged the NDB to take appropriate steps to join the G-20 forum, along with the multilateral development banks and international financial institutions.

Among the possibilities, the government could garner some revenues from sale of the BPCL’s 61% stake sale in Numaligarh Refinery, which will be sold to state-run firms.

Ginning units are not keen on buying cotton since most of the workers have left for their villages and they do not have the capital to buy cotton and other processing units are also shut.

The unprecedented situation created by Covid–19 pandemic and lockdown announced by both the Union and state governments from March 24 has led to severe disruptions affecting the economy and impacting people at large and the MSME spinning mills.

The Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) will not be granting permission to restart operations till May 3. Their online and offline permission system has been stopped.

Now that the GOI has fixed the base price of sugar and most of the mills have set up distilleries too, to augment their business, the scenario has changed.

The ministry of home affairs (MHA) had on April 19 issued a detailed standard operating procedure while allowing suitable deployment of their skills. As per Census, 2001, the total number of internal migrants in India was 309.385 million.

Since 2009-10, the SMP has been replaced with fair and remunerative price (FRP) and some states like Uttar Pradesh continue to announce state-advised prices which are higher than FRPs.

RBI notified that it will buy long-dated bonds maturing in 2026, 2028, 2029 and 2030 while it will sell short-dated securities maturing between June 2020 and April 2021. Both the purchase and sale will be worth Rs 10,000 crore each.

The association also said hundreds of crores of unclaimed provident fund and employees state insurance corporation contribution lie in banks attracting interest.

After the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cut its policy repo rate by 75 basis points (bps) on March 27, a number of banks and non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) followed by cutting their lending rates.

In view of the massive disruption to economic activity due to Covid-19 impact and likely huge shortfall in revenues, the council felt that fiscal response to the crisis should be much more nuanced.

Pawar’s letter to Modi dated April 25 echoed similar demands raised by many states including Kerala and Punjab, and underlined the notion that cutting spending was hardly an option for states at this juncture.

The decline was led by container volumes which fell sharply by 12% y-o-y (in TEU terms; 9% y-o-y in tonnage terms).

Though rabi rice procurement continues till the end of September, the maximum procurement happens by July 15 before monsoon covers the entire country.

The government has taken measures to contain expenditure, like freeze on its employees’ dearness allowance; it has also announced a relief package to support the vulnerable and disadvantaged sections.

Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Monday requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi for ad-hoc grant of Rs 1,000 crore from National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF).

In the case of Covid-19, hazardous waste is being generated in hospitals, quarantine zones or red zone areas within cities. They are potential sources of Covid-19 and can cause further spread within the locality.

Although there is no concrete proof, experts believe a large chunk of this is likely to be T-Bill purchases by the RBI from the secondary market.

The state government, in its order, said that the employees' salary for six days every month would be deducted for the next five months.

Besides, the state government will create new bank accounts for some 56 lakh farmers and issue 1.12 crore credit/debit cards to them by the next kharif season to enable them to avail crop loans and other government benefits.

India has firmly established itself as a net steel exporter in FY20 with total steel exports at 11.183 MT (31 % growth over last year) exceeding the total steel imports at 7.164 MT by 4.02 MT.

Agriculture minister Tomar says Rs 18-k cr disbursed under PM-Kisan since lockdown began, to raise share of agriculture-related works under MNREGA to 77% in FY21 from 66% in FY20.

The task force under economic affairs secretary Atanu Chakraborty submitted its final report on the “national infrastructure pipeline” (NIP) to finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

However, the Bench refused to interfere in the matter after the petitioners informed the judges that they were not personally affected and had filed the PILs in public interest.

Crisil expects GNPAs for the financial year 2020 to remain at 9.5%. Considering the Covid-19 impact, Crisil has projected GNPAs in the range of 11-11.5% for the financial year 2021.

The APMC officials pointed out workers usually come to the market yard on pick-up trucks, however, the police have been acting against them as social distancing is not maintained onboard the pick-ups.

Mills in Uttar Pradesh have produced 11.65 MT as on April 30, 2020, which is 3.72 lakh tonne higher than what was produced a year ago. Of 119 mills operated this year, 44 mills have ended their crushing. As many as 75 mills are operating as against 68 mills last year till April 30.

The prime minister is said to have suggested exploring possibility of creating commodity specific Board or Council so that cluster/contract farming takes place as that will help increase agricultural exports from the country.

Delhi’s Azadpur mandi, the country’s largest market yard for these items, saw arrivals of onion, tomato and potato drop by 14-31% during April 16-30 from the previous fortnight.

State governments seem to have collected the lowest-ever inflation-adjusted monthly tax revenue in April.

The central government will likely ramp up market borrowing in the second half of this fiscal, but may be forced to stick to its target for the first half at the moment.

The Centre’s bid to arrogate to itself the power to fix the wage floor for inter-state migrant workers in the name of uniformity across the country has hit a hurdle.

The Odisha government’s direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme for farmers, Kalia, which was announced a few months before the Assembly elections last year, may be curtailed and subsumed in the PM-Kisan scheme run by the Centre.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a crucial meeting with home minister Amit Shah and finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to firm up strategies for the financial sector in the aftermath of the Covid-19 outbreak.

With the countrywide lockdown set to continue for two more weeks, banks have urged the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to extend the three-month moratorium on loans by another three months beyond May 31.

The National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) has floated draft procedures for submission of audit logs to the regulator by audit companies and chartered accountants (CAs).

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) believe the industry will bounce back in no time as they see demand for microcredit rising soon because of emergency loan requirements of their customers to restart businesses.

The revenue situation will only get worse next month as the lockdown in the whole of April would be reflected in collections in May, said Bihar Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi.

Indian manufacturing saw its worst contraction in April, as a nation-wide lock-down hit fresh orders and businesses cut staff at a record pace.

The government is considering a raft of relief measures, including setting up a Rs one lakh crore fund to expedite clearances of dues owed to MSMEs, guarantee on the enhanced limit of loans (up to 20%) and a mechanism to help them pay salaries to their employees.

The Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM) for highway projects that insulates private developers from virtually any commercial risks, is putting stress on the highly-leveraged balance sheet of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), and should therefore be ‘downplayed’.

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday allowed taxpayers registered under Goods and Services Tax (GST) to claim accumulated CENVAT credit from pre-GST regime till June 30, 2020, and noted that the benefit of transitional credit will be applicable for three years (since launch of GST on July 1, 2017) which is the period mentioned in the limitation Act.

Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee has recommended that India offer cash to the poorest 60% of its population and waive off loan repayments for small businesses in the June quarter, as he pitches for a large enough fiscal package to stimulate demand in the economy ravaged by the novel coronavirus crisis.

At least 13 states hike VAT on petrol/diesel since mid-March, many make liquor costlier with new imposts.

Companies need to seek permission from the local administration – the office of the district magistrate – by submitting a host of information. Apart from the process being tedious and time-consuming, the final decision rests at DM's discretion.

Diesel prices in Delhi went up to Rs 69.39 per litre on Tuesday, a surge of Rs 7.10 per litres, as the state government increased the value added tax (VAT) on diesel from 17% to 30%.

The SARFAESI Act, which is now rarely being used after the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code has come into existence since 2016, allows banks to seize, take control, manage and sell assets of defaulting borrowers without the intervention of any court/tribunal and also ensures speedy recovery.

GSTN added that a taxpayer can now transfer the amount available in an electronic cash ledger from one major head to another major head, keeping the minor head the same.

The section can attract a fine of Rs 1,000 or imprisonment up to six months.