News digest: GST Council meet, Reliance Jio, electricity prices, and more

GST Council meet: 83 items to get cheaper, filing of returns may be eased

Barely a fortnight to Budget 2018, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council on Thursday cut rates on 83 employment-oriented goods and services. This will hit the exchequer by Rs 10-12 billion annually.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the rates were rationalised for 54 categories of services and 29 goods.  Read more

Sensex hits record closing high of 35,260 over bank FDI hopes; lenders gain

Indian markets on Thursday recorded new highs with the Sensex consolidating above 35,000 and the 50-share Nifty closing above 10,000.

Banking shares led the gains for a second day, this time on hopes that the government would raise the foreign direct investment (FDI) ceiling for the sector to 100 per cent.  Read more

RIL to spend another $23 bn on Jio over next 3-4 years, says Moody's

Moody’s Investors Service estimates Reliance Jio, the mobile carrier run by India’s richest man, may invest as much as $23 billion on capital spending over three to four years as it expands beyond wireless services.

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd.’s parent Reliance Industries Ltd. has already spent more than $31 billion to break into India’s mobile-phone market.  Read more

Govt working on centralised bidding to reduce cost of electricity

A novel idea is in the works to enhance power procurement by states through reducing the cost of electricity.

New centralised bidding will be held and quotations for lump sum tariffs will be invited from power developers. This will also involve power aggregation and disbursement in accordance with cost and the demand from states. Read more
 

Modi's 'UDAN' project faces fund crunch as too many airlines come on board

UDAN may hit air pockets; only 8 slots for flightsThe Narendra Modi government’s flagship aviation scheme, UDAN, is facing a funds crisis because the number of participating airlines has increased manifold. 

While the government’s initial assessment for the scheme was Rs 3 billion, a manifold rise in the number of participating airlines has increased the requirement to Rs 12 billion. Read more