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Tag: Nirmala Sitharaman

  • With FM Nirmala Sitharaman and industry experts

    India Today-Business Today Budget Roundtable

    By Our Staff

     

    India Today- Business Today is hosting a Budget roundtable today.

     

    It will feature Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman along with other senior Union Ministers like Nitin Gadkari Minister of Road Transport and highways, Piyush Goyal Minster of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister of Railways, Communications, and Electronics and Information Technology. They will present their views on the discussion The Effective Model for Growth in Times of Global Recession.

     

    BT Editors Sourav Majumdar, Siddharth Zarabi, Udayan Mukherjee, Aabha Bakaya and News Director of India Today and Aaj Tak and the Executive Director of Business Today, Rahul Kanwal will conduct the sessions.

     

  • To make Union Budget accessible and understandable

    India TV hosts ‘Samvad Budget Conclave 2023’

    By Our Staff

     

    India TV organised a day-long “Samvad Budget Conclave 2023” on February 3 in New Delhi. Top ministers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government and senior leaders from the Opposition parties attended the conclave to put forth their views on the Union Budget 2023.

     

    Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and a team of experts and analysts provided insights and analysis on the Union Budget. Economists, along with income tax and capital market experts, were in session.

     

    Said Ritu Dhawan, Managing Director- India TV: “Our goal was to make the contours of the Union Budget accessible and understandable to the audience, enabling them to make informed decisions and hold the government accountable for its financial decisions.  An informed and engaged citizenry is crucial in a civil society, and this will surely promote transparency and good governance.”

     

  • To make Union Budget accessible and understandable

    India TV to Host ‘Samvad Budget Conclave 2023’

    By Our Staff

     

    India TV is organizing a daylong “Samvad Budget Conclave 2023” on February 3 in New Delhi. Top ministers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Government and senior leaders from the opposition parties will attend the conclave to put forth their views on the Union Budget 2023.

     

    Top-of-the-line political leaders, including Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, and a team of experts and analysts will provide insights and analysis on the Union Budget. Economists, along with income tax and capital market experts, will analyse the budget threadbare, and contextualize it in comparison with previous budgets, while explaining the broader economic and political parameters that influenced the decisions of the government while preparing the Budget.

     

    The focus of ‘Samvad Budget Conclave 2023’ will be on the most critical aspects of the Union Budget that directly impact the daily life of the common man, the middle class, women, youths and farmers. The experts will also explain the nitty-gritty behind changes in income tax slabs, reductions in customs duties, public service spending, and key sector allocations. The conclave will provide a platform for financial experts and political analysts to discuss the budget and provide varied perspectives, through informed debate and discussion.

     

    Said Ritu Dhawan, Managing Director- India TV: “Our goal is to make the contours of the Union Budget accessible and understandable to the audience, enabling them to make informed decisions and hold the government accountable for its financial decisions.  An informed and engaged citizenry is crucial in a civil society, and this will surely promote transparency and good governance.”

     

  • Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveils logo and anniversary issue

    Business Today turns 30

    By Our Staff

     

    Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman along with India Today group Chairperson Aroon Purie unveiled Business Today’s 30th Anniversary Special Edition on Tuesday.

     

    Noted a communique: “One of the biggest editions ever of the magazine, the 30th anniversary issue has seven covers, 162 pages of editorial content, and 75 pages of advertisements from across categories like BFSI, IT, Luxury, Education and real estate among others, which include several innovations. On the circulation front, Business Today’s distribution reach has extended to new-age platforms such as Milkbasket, Fresh to Home, Amazon, Flipkart, and non-conventional outlets for magazine sales such as Spencers Retail, Patanjali Mega Mart, milk booths, grocery stores, and super markets. This has not only enabled the magazine sales to revive in the post-pandemic world but also accelerated growth in circulation. As a result, Business Today has already surpassed the pre Covid numbers in terms of circulation by end of January, and with the Anniversary jump of 33 per cent, it has scaled an all-time high.”

     

  • The A&M sector was severely affected by the shrinking of our GDP, writes Indrani Sen

    Expectations from Union Budget 2022

     

     

    By Indrani Sen

     

    Indrani SenThe Budget session in the Parliament is going to begin today and tomorrow, February 1, 2022, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present Union Budget 2022. It’s an unprecedented situation when degrowth induced by pandemic has set back most industries in our economy by two years or more which has also been reflected in our GDP. The Advertising & Media (A&M) sector was severely affected by the shrinking of our GDP and researchers predicted last year that it would take the industry four to five years to recover to recover the pre-pandemic revenues across all media. What are the expectations of the A&M sector from the Union Budget at this critical juncture?

     

    The pandemic has accelerated the growth of digital media taking its access beyond the upper-class to a large middle-class population. Simultaneously, it has boosted investments in new digital opportunities in regional languages beyond textual content, search engines and e-commerce limited to English. In fact, during the sliding of advertising revenues under the cloud of Covid-19, digital media was able to resist degrowth. It is estimated that by next year the digital media will have a one third share of the Indian advertising pie.

     

    The digital industry is naturally expecting technology friendly taxation policy which will support its current growth momentum. However, unless the Union government combines the financial measures with suitable legal reforms later, the digital industry may not be able to take full advantage of the financial measures, if any, announced by the FM.

     

    The digital industry flourishes with the use of their technology by MSMEs and Start-Ups. Favourable tax relief, subsidies, exemption on FDI and credits policies for MSMEs and Stary-Ups will not only help their growth in non-metro and smaller towns, but will also help digital industry indirectly.

     

    The traditional media industry, particularly owners in the print and radio industry, have a lot of expectation from the Union Budget this year. The Print industry suffered both loss in advertising and circulation revenue in 2020 due to the lockdowns ushered by central and state governments following the out beak of the first wave of the pandemic. During the second wave of the pandemic, it was able to resist further degrowth of advertising revenue which was set on a path of recovery in the period between the two waves of the pandemic. The industry is expecting the FM to introduce an incentive package and to waive or reduce the 5% custom duty on import of newsprint and 12% custom duty on import of ink.

     

    The print industry also has pending demand for an upward revision of the DAVP rates which have not been revised for a considerable time period. Apart from increase in the DAVP rates, industry also has a pending appeal for issuing a directive that commercially viable PSOs and PSUs should pay for their display advertising at the commercial rate and not at the DAVP rates, which should be reserved only for the central and state governments advertising on various government schemes/initiatives.

     

    Radio advertising was the worst hit due to the pandemic and they have a pending long list of demands which includes relaxation on payment of license fees, reduction of GST on radio advertising spends, tax benefits on upgradation of technology to digital broadcasting and Capex expansion. FM radio owners are earnestly hoping that a few measures from their wish list would be implemented in the Budget 2022.

     

    The TV industry has been set on a comfortable course of recovery after the initial set back during the national lockdown. The industry has been fighting with the Union Government over many legal issues and taxation policies which are a part of the proposed regulations. TV manufacturers, however, want the FM to reduce the tax on TV sets from 28% to 18% or at least introduce a differential tax structure based on the features of the TV sets based on the argument that TV can no longer be described as a luxury durable.

     

    The advertising industry on the whole is expecting that this Budget will introduce some direct tax benefits for the consumers at large so that they can have higher disposable income which in turn will give a push to the sluggish demands which is being noticed in many product and service categories. We will know by tomorrow if they are hoping in vain or not.

     

  • Request for urgent relief to magazine publishers and save the sector from extinction

    Magazine association seeks govt intervention

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Association of Indian Magazines (AIM) consisting of major magazine players across multiple regions and languages has reached out to the Government of India requesting for a bailout package due to Covid-19 or risk closure of business for most of them.

     

    The association has written to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the text of which is as follows:

     

    Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman

    Honourable Minister of Finance

    Government of India New Delhi

     

    Respected Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman ji,

     

    Reg: Request for urgent relief to Magazine Publishers and save the Sector from extinction

     

    Greetings from Association of Indian Magazines (AIM)!

     

    At the outset, we would like to thank you for reducing the Customs Duty on newsprint, from 10% to 5%, which had provided some relief to the magazine publishers.

     

    As you are aware, Magazines play a very important role in the society, by serving millions of readers by providing insights, analysis, chronicling trends and marketing of goods and services. Magazines are not just content but experiences. Taking into account this role played by the magazines in dissemination of knowledge, our constitution has provided many concessions to magazines and are always treated on par with Newspapers.

     

    The Magazine Industry has been going through hard times. The Advertising revenues have declined as advertisers face the pressure to reduce marketing spends, due to the prevailing macro-economic conditions. Coupled with this, is the rising input costs, resulting in low or no profitability for magazine publishers.

     

    COVID-19 and lockdown have now cast its shadow on magazine publishing and has thrown our business completely out of gear. Though classified as ‘essential services’, distribution of magazines has been severely hampered during lockdown. Most magazines are printed in one city and transported to others states through the Railways network and it is the postal and local courier services that we rely on for delivery of subscription copies. Both are currently not happening. Due to the economic impact of COVID-19, businesses have deferred their advertising spends, depriving magazines of their major revenues. This has forced magazine publishers, across country, to take drastic steps like slashing the number of pages and skipping issues. However, given the severity of the problem, these measures will not suffice and survival of magazines will be difficult unless Government steps in with a bail -out package.

     

    At this backdrop, kindly consider the following requests to salvage the magazine publishing sector:

     

    • Remove the remaining 5% Customs Duty on Newsprint. (Before the Union Budget 2019-20, there was no Customs Duty on Newsprint.)

     

    • Withdraw the GST on Newsprint or at least make the GST on LWC (paper used by magazines) on par with SNP/ GNP (used by newspapers) at 5%. As per PRB Act, both newspapers and magazines come under the definition of ‘Newspapers’. (Prior to the introduction of GST, LWC upto 70 gsm had no duties or taxes, whatsoever, for end users.)

     

    • Tax holiday for two years.

     

    • Allocate 10% of the BOC (DAVP) budgets to Magazines.

     

    • Soft loans for two years at 5% interest, with a moratorium for 6 months

     

    • Bring down the GST on Digital Content Writing to 5% from the existing 18%. (Content writing is our core business and to supplement income, magazine publishers have entered into Digital Content Writing)

     

    • Reduce GST on Events, conducted by magazine publishers, to 5%. (Our Events are extension of our Content and we have created them to engage with our readers further.)
  • A cross-section of the industry reacts to Nirmala Sitharaman’s maiden Budget

    Industry Reax to Budget 2020-21

     

    A cross-section of the industry reacts to Nirmala Sitharaman’s maiden Budget 

     

    Girish Menon, Partner and Head, Media and Entertainment, KPMG in India

    Although there was no direct reference to the media and entertainment sector in Budget 2020, the focus on improving India’s digital connectivity bodes well for the sector. The Honourable Finance Minister’s announcement that an amount of INR 6,000 crores will be spent on BharatNet initiatives will see more citizens connected to the proposed pan-India FTTH network. Media and entertainment is increasingly becoming a digital medium and an enhancement of the underlying digital communications infrastructure will support more immersive experiences. Finally, the focus on building a vibrant start-up ecosystem with measures to improve access to funding and IP protection will help India emerge as a global hub for technological innovation.

     

     

    Rakesh Jariwala, Partner – International Tax Services, EY India

    Removal of exemption on sale, distribution and exhibition of cinematograph film will subject theatrical revenues to domestic withholding tax considerations and could pose working capital considerations for already funding constrained film industry. Amendment of source taxation rule to include advertising income relating to customer based in India while global consensus is being formed on digital taxation rules may result in short term pain for the foreign businesses which do not have access to a tax treaty. Reduction of withholding tax rate on technical services to 2% will provide relief on potential rate related disputes on production services. Reduction in import duty of news print should help the ailing print businesses. 

     

     

    Ashish Bhasin, CEO, APAC and Chairman, India – Dentsu Aegis Network:

    I think this is a good budget in some ways because it has attempted to put money in the hands of the middle class through rationalisation of tax rates as well as has concentrated on looking after the agricultural sector, including introduction of best practises like storage for producers and other measures. However, I do feel that the expectations from the budget were much more and it does feel like a bit of a missed opportunity.

     

    While it is good to see that the dividend distribution tax has been abolished, I expected more on the rationalisation of direct taxes, particularly the cess introduced over and above the tax rates.

     

    It is good to see efforts being made to encourage new-age skill development as well as helping the start-ups and what’s particularly interesting is the proposal to set up data centre farms all over the country. This will prepare India for the economy of tomorrow. It is also good to see attempts at simplification of taxation through digitisation but the proof of the pudding will lie in seeing its implementation on ground.

     

    It would be fair to say that at best it is a mixed budget and while there are some encouraging decisions, enough does not seem to have been done for the situation the economy is in.

     

     

    Karan Darda, Executive Director, Lokmat Media Group:

    We welcome the proposed reduction in custom duty on import of newsprint and light-weight coated paper. In recent years, newspaper industry has been facing many headwinds and the environment has overall been very challenging. 10% customs duty was introduced last year and that added to the burden. The reduction in customs duty would ease the burden and help the industry in this critical juncture. 

     

     

    Anand Bhadkamkar, CEO, Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) India:

    The budget has provided relief to middle class with lower tax rates which is a welcome move, as it will provide more liquidity. On direct taxes, the abolition of DDT and introduction of a tax dispute resolution scheme is a welcome step alongside tax reliefs for startups.

     

    The budget is focusing on easing and simplification of compliance, with changes in corporate laws as well as in GST and direct taxes. However, I was expecting further simplification of cess and surcharges beyond tax rates across slabs.

     

    The proposals for development of road infrastructure, setting up data centre parks and skill development initiatives are welcome steps in addition to allocations for social welfare schemes.

     

    However, the expectations from the budget were high on the background of current economic slowdown, and as such seems to be short on matching those expectations, with no specific industry sector focused sops to provide stimulus. While the budget shows focus on long term growth and social development, overall in the current scenario it looks like a mixed budget, falling a bit short of market expectations of more corrective measures.

     

    Gautam Sinha, CEO – Times Internet:

    Budget 2020 is a promising step towards establishing India’s future as an enduring digital economy. The increased focus on improving data connectivity under Bharat Net, steps to boost the smartphone manufacturing industry and the Rs 8,000Cr allocation for the National Mission on Quantum Computing & Technology will help build better digital infrastructure to support this sector’s rapid growth. Finally, deferring tax on ESOPs for startups is also a major move that will help promising startups attract and retain talent that would fuel our burgeoning digital ecosystem.

     

     

    Redickaa Subrammanian, Co-founder and CEO, Resulticks:

    Digital disruption has transformed India’s business landscape and the announcement for building more data centre parks will further aid in laying a strong foundation for a digitally connected country. INR 8000 crore allotment for developing quantum technology is impressive, and this in tandem with the grassroots level skilling initiatives, make for a strong technology ecosystem. Engineering students will also gain real-world experience through the new internship programs, creating a digitally skilled talent pool equipped to work in a digital economy.

     

    As a fast-growing AI and ML based technology start-up, we welcome setting up of the investment clearance cell. The proposed revisions in the income tax structure should lead to increased consumer demand and provide an overall impetus for economic growth in India. The announcement made in Budget 2020 showcases the government’s support for India’s technological advancement and we are excited about the entrepreneurial spirit it promotes.”

     

     

    Prashan Agarwal, CEO – Gaana:

    We appreciate the efforts of the government to boost the digital ecosystem in the country. The increased focus on improving connectivity under the Bharat Net scheme and the emphasis on Artificial Intelligence will allow OTT players to offer bespoke and personalised solutions to consumers. Additionally, the impetus to the smartphone manufacturing industry will make internet consumption accessible to a wider section of Indian society that will expand the scope of revenues for OTT players. The allocation of Rs 8000 crore for setting up the National Mission on Quantum Computing and Technology will also boost the development of the industry by making resources cost-effective.

     

     

    Mitesh Shah, Head of Finance, BookMyShow: 

    At the onset, we would like to laud Government for growth driven budget. We welcome the progressive policies aimed at encouraging rural demand, changes in personal taxes spurring consumption and impetus to infrastructure development, measures aimed at bolstering growth and reverse slowdown. Additionally, taxation related on ESOPs as perquisite and removal of DDT are significant moves. However, the benefits of taxation relief on ESOP should be expanded to companies at various stage of growth.

     

    Compliance on e-commerce has been increased by mandating them to deduct TDS @1% on all goods and services sold on e-commerce platforms. This would be in addition to TCS under GST and this amendment might further increase the cost of compliance for e-Commerce companies. Government’s vision to build data centre parks, allocation towards quantum computing and its focus on using artificial intelligence in statistical and other government departments will take India’s growth story to the next level.

     

    Increase in compliance on e-commerce by mandating deduction of TDS @1% on all goods and services sold on e-commerce platforms. This would be in addition to TCS under GST and this amendment might further increase the cost of compliance for E-Commerce companies. Government’s vision and focus on investing in new age technologies to build data centre parks, allocation towards quantum computing and its focus on using artificial intelligence in statistical and other government departments will certainly give an impetus to ‘Digital India’.

     

     

    Kunal Bahl, CEO & Co-founder, Snapdeal:

    Thankful to the Hon’ble FM for accepting the start-up sector’s request for ESOP taxation reforms. Also, the higher time & turnover limits for carry forward of losses for start-ups will enable them to optimize growth decisions in formative years.

     

    Overall, Budget 2020 is a thoughtful weaving together of specific proposals to tackle varied issues. Measures to improve access to finance for MSMEs and reduced taxation for the middle-income segment are welcome steps. Boosting physical infrastructure, expanding digital connectivity and growing use of technology in government functioning are important building blocks for the long-term growth of the Indian economy.

     

  • Driving the theme $5 Trillion – Aspiration to Action, the Times Network India Economic Conclave, 2019 will be held in Mumbai on December 16 & 17, 2019

    Stage set for Times Network India Economic Conclave 2019

    By A Correspondent

     

    Times Network has announced its annual signature event, Times Network India Economic Conclave 2019 (IEC). Driving this edition’s theme, ‘$5 Trillion – Aspiration to Action’, the two-day conclave will be held on December 16 and 17 in Mumbai.

     

    Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Ravi Shankar Prasad – Minister of Law & Justice, Communications, Electronics & Information Technology; Dharmendra Pradhan – Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Steel, Government of India; Shaktikanta Das – RBI Governor; Gita Gopinath and a variety of other economists and corporate captains are scheduled to speak. Richard Branson – Founder, Virgin Group will deliver a special message.