Business News: June 24 Economic Highlights: Election, Fuel, GST, FPIs, Adani, Market Cap, Tax, Forex

According to PropEquity, the supply of new housing units has likely dropped 13% in this quarter across nine major cities because of fewer new project launches amid polls. The number of new units is likely to drop to 97,331 from 111,657 a year ago. Big drops seen in Pune and Hyderabad; Delhi-NCR's supply leads with a near doubling. The sales of units are expected to decline by 2 percent to 119,901 units from 121,856 units year-on-year. PropEquity monitors more than 173,000 projects by 57,500 developers in 44 Indian cities.

As on June 24, 2024, the prices of petrol and diesel have remained largely the same across India since March 2024, except in Karnataka, where a recent tax hike again jerked up prices to Rs 102.84 per litre for petrol, and Rs 88.95 per litre for diesel in Bengaluru. The price variations in other cities remain the same: Mumbai's petrol at Rs 104.21 and diesel at Rs 92.15 a litre, and Delhi's petrol at Rs 94.72 and diesel at Rs 87.62. Government oil companies revise prices every day at 6 a.m. Consumers can find out the rates from the web pages of consumer companies through SMSs.

The 53rd meeting of the GST Council, chaired by Union Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, took up far-reaching reforms in rationalizing GST on 22 June 2024. Some prime announcements in this line would pertain to uniform IGST rates over aircraft parts, a reduction in GST on milk cans, carton boxes, and solar cookers, and exemptions now extended to defense imports and SEZ operations. These were followed by some of the facilitating steps, like rolling back interest and penalty for some fiscal years, reducing the amount of pre-deposit to be made for an appeal, and introducing biometric Aadhaar authentication while making registration under GST.

Post the outcome of the general election results, foreign investors have pumped in Rs 12,170 crore into Indian equities in June, thereby reversing net outflows that happened in April and May. This turn-around has come on the back of expectations related to continuous policy reforms and economic growth. Even while the inflow is positive, high market valuations are keeping FPIs cautious. The money has been invested in shares of financial services, telecom and realty companies, while FMCG, IT, metals and oil and gas witnessed selling. Apart from this, FPIs have infused another Rs 10,575 crore into the debt market. By and large, India remains a long-term investment destination.

Gautam Adani is the second richest person in India, who received total remuneration to the extent of ₹9.26 crore for the year ended 31st March, 2024. He draws this salary— ₹2.46 crore from Adani Enterprises Ltd and ₹6.8 crore from Adani Ports and SEZ Ltd. Most parts of these figures are much lower compared to industry peers in general. Whereas he figures on the list of the richest in the world at 14th rank, his remuneration is very modest compared not only to most prominent business leaders of the time, such as Rajiv Bajaj and Pawan Munjal, but also to even key executives from within his group. Key executives from his group— Vinay Prakash and Vneet S. Jaain—drew significantly higher pay.

In the Last week, three of India's top-10 most valued firms added a total of Rs 1,06,125.98 crore to their market capitalization, with HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank at the forefront of this list. Reliance Industries, TCS, and others witnessed a cumulative erosion of Rs 1,01,769.1 crore. The market cap of HDFC Bank jumped Rs 52,091.56 crore, ICICI Bank by Rs 36,118.99 crore, and Infosys by Rs 17,915.43 crore. In contrast, Reliance Industries and TCS slipped by Rs 32,271.31 crore and Rs 8,321.6 crore, respectively, in market capitalization.

The following are the income limits by which filing of ITR would be compulsory for AY 2024-25, such as those below 60 years, the limit would be Rs 2.5 lakh; senior citizens between 60 - 80 years, it would be Rs 3 lakh; and super senior citizens above 80 years, it would be Rs 5 lakh. Requirements related to foreign assets, investment gain, or, in the case of companies and trusts, compulsory filing are other conditions. In case of non-compliance, fines and prosecution can be invited; therefore, dovetail carefully whether you need to file your income tax return.

The forex reserves of India that peaked at $655.817 billion slumped $2.922 bn to $652.895 bn by June 14. Lower foreign currency assets were down $2.097 billion to $574.24 billion, while gold reserves too declined and India's reserve position with the IMF went up marginally. While the drop was quite steep, experts point to the robustness of the reserves amid global uncertainties and the central bank's relentless efforts to protect the rupee amidst currency volatility.