Today's latest business news, finance and share market news on 12 October 2022 at 9:30 am

 Today's latest business news, finance and share market news on 12 October 2022 at 9:30 am

Listen to the Financial Express Business audio where we talk about reducing the broader scope of economic offenses through a new bill that will reportedly be introduced in the winter session of Parliament. We talk further about the IMF's growth forecasts, the after-effects of the 5G service launch, and some updates related to the Network Planning Group. Also listen to the India-UAE FTA updates and the future of Gutka and Pan Masala companies.

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Today's Latest Business News on 12 October 2022 at 9:30 am

“You are listening to Expresso Business Updates. Here are the latest news from the world of Indian and international business brought to you by The Indian Express and The Financial Express.

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lets start. Official sources told FE that the government would seek to eliminate the broader scope of economic offenses through a new bill to be introduced in the winter session of parliament. Sources said that in one of the biggest campaigns ever, 110 outdated and sometimes quirky provisions in 35 laws relating to 16 ministries and departments will be removed or amended. The draft bill is being reviewed by the Law Ministry.

 The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, which is leading the initiative, is planning these comprehensive amendments to ensure ease of doing business for firms and ease of life for individuals. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday that his government has so far scrapped nearly 2,000 antiquated British-era laws that require traders to be jailed for minor issues.

Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday cut its FY13 growth forecast for India by 60 basis points from its July estimate of 7.4% to 6.8%, the biggest for any major economy except the US. The cut is. The IMF's move follows its cut by the World Bank. Last week's forecast of 6.5% growth for India in FY13, up from 7.5% was previously predicted. 

Most other agencies too, recently The Reserve Bank of India also cut its forecast marginally to 7% from 7.2% recently. The IMF said the move would result in "weaker than expected results" in the June quarter " and reflects "more weak external demand", indicating that exports will be affected. However, it retained its FY24 growth forecast at 6.1%.

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moving on. Nearly a week after Bharti Airtel launched beta testing 5G services in eight cities and Reliance Jio in four metros - as far as the quality of services and user experience is concerned, the government had to intervene. in this matter. In a first of its kind exercise, the secretaries of the Department of Telecommunications and the Ministry of Electronics and IT have jointly called a meeting of all handset makers like Apple, Samsung, Oppo, Vivo and others as well as telecom operators Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio. ,

 and Vodafone Idea on Wednesday. The agenda of the meeting is three-fold: one, ask telcos about the readiness of their networks so that handsets can be connected to them; Two, find out from handset manufacturers the status of software upgrades that are required in 5G-enabled phones; And lastly, prioritize software upgrades so that 5G can be adopted quickly in the country.

On some news related to infrastructure. The Network Planning Group, which reviews major projects under the PM Gatishakti initiative, has so far approved 229 critical infrastructure projects of various ministries, a senior government official said on Tuesday. In October last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Gati Shakti-National Master Plan. 

It is essentially a GIS-based platform with about 1,500 layers, capturing all the utilities and network linkages across different economic groups. Under this, various departments join hands for coordinated development of projects, especially to address first and last-mile connectivity issues and reduce logistics cost. All logistics and connectivity infrastructure projects with a potential investment of more than Rs 500 crore are monitored by the NPG.

Next, industry. Pan masala and gutkha companies may face more scrutiny and audit as governments step up efforts to check tax evasion by them. However, the plan to levy goods and services tax on them based on the installed manufacturing capacity may be shelved. In May 2021, the GST Council constituted a Group of Ministers, led by Odisha Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari, to examine the feasibility of levying GST on products such as pan masala and gutkha, based on the installed capacity of the units, 

rather than on them. was installed on. actual production. The move was taken in the backdrop of fall in revenue from these industries reported by several states after the implementation of GST in July 2017. Tax authorities have detected large-scale tax evasion by units through under-reporting of outputs.