Business News: Vodafone to Offload 10% Stake in Indus Towers, Aiming to Raise Up to $1.1 Billion,Elon musks,market wrap

The government of India might increase the exemption limit of income tax from Rs. 3 lakh to Rs. 5 lakh, if it decides to retain its new regime in the second budget of mid-July 2024. Augmentation of disposable income in low-income groups is bound to provide impetus to the total consumption and spur economic growth at large. Added to this is that the personal rates of taxation, specifically above Rs 15 lakh, for some categories could receive a reduction that would generate more saving and spending. Revenue losses to taxation can thus be compensated in that manner which makes such changes a part of the machinery fighting off concerns of inflation and unemployment with higher activity.

Reports say housing rents across the top seven cities of India are just stabilizing as more supply hit the market. According to data by Anarock, average residential rents rose by only 2–4 percent in Q2, 2024, against 4–9 percent in Q1. This includes the prevalent trend of some approximately 5.31 lakh new units that might get added in 2024 and would mean a hike of 22 percent over 2023. Key rental markets like Bengaluru, Noida, Hyderabad have seen lower quarterly hikes in Q2, 2024 when compared to that of Q1. In fact, there are considerable completions that will happen in Mumbai, the NCR, and Pune, which really would help in stabilizing the rental values.

Vodafone Group is selling about 10 percent of its stake in Indian towers operator Indus Towers for as much as $1.1 billion to help repay some of its $42.17 billion net debt. Vodafone owns a 21.5% stake in Indus Towers and will offload about 268 million shares through block deals in Mumbai, pegged between 310 to 341 rupees apiece. This sale, run by Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Jefferies, and BNP Paribas, values the stake at approximately $996 million to $1.1 billion. At the midpoint of this range, the price equated to a 4.5% discount to Indus' recent closing price.

The GST Council is likely to consider a somewhat crucial change proposed by the law committee for possible retrospective taxation alleviation on the concerns of online gaming companies. This would be under an amendment in the CGST Act, which empowers the govt to regularize GST non-levy or short levy due to general trade practices and prevent recovery of these underpaid taxes. This could spell the end of retrospective tax demands, bringing huge relief to the industry if the proposal is accepted; however, there will not be a provision for any refund in case of overpaid taxes. This development boosted the shares of online gaming companies such as Delta Corp and Nazara Tech.

Despite a sharp sell-off late in the session, India's Sensex and Nifty50 indices hit record highs on Wednesday, driven by private bank stocks. The BSE Sensex closed 35 points higher at 77,336 after touching an intraday high of 77,852, while the Nifty50 closed at 23,516, down 42 points from its record intraday high of 23,664. Key gainers included Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, and ICICI Bank. The BSE MidCap and the SmallCap also scaled all-time highs before closing lower. The broader markets saw the MidCap and SmallCap indices also hit lifetime highs before closing lower. The Nifty Bank ended 2 per cent higher at an intraday record of 51,957.

At Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Elon Musk said clearly that free speech beats profits on X (formerly Twitter). Meanwhile, on brand safety, he gives way to the fact that advertisers are further optioned for relevant content, but he won't have a bar of demands for censorship. Notwithstanding some big advertisers quitting due to content qualms, Musk said that some progress had been made in making the platform safe for brands. He pointed to rising efforts to drive up ads through new video partnerships and to diversified revenues through a revamped subscription service, seeking to remake X into an "everything app" with payment services.

Hit Predictions for Budget 2024: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is likely to raise the income tax exemption limit from ₹3 lakh to ₹5 lakh for all those falling under the new tax regime in Budget 2024. The Centre might also drop the income tax rate for annual income of ₹10 lakh with the same regime. This will be the first budget of PM Modi's third term. Experts favour an increase in the exemption slab rates up to ₹5 lakh, and this includes Aarti Raote of Deloitte. It also said that the unchanged limit of Sec 80C needs revision to make them more capable firepower to fight back with inflation and encourage savings and investment.

Its chairman, Dinesh Kumar Khara, has sought tax relief on interest income to encourage savings for funding of long-term infrastructure projects. Banks have to deduct tax on interest income above ₹ 40,000 annual interest income. Easing this tax, he says, will make the depositors' incentives align with capital formation. Full Budget for 2024-25 due next month is likely to spell it out. Khara expects an increment of 14-15 per cent in SBI loans in FY 2024-25, driven by economic growth and inflation. He said deposits witnessed an 11 per cent growth last year and plans are afoot to take it up to 12-13 per cent this year.