Top headlines: Govt plans land sale worth Rs 600 cr, EPF to give tax info

Business Standard brigs the top headlines of the day

A parliamentary panel will visit the central's HQs in Mumbai to discuss a possible reform. The government plans to sell land worth Rs 600 crore. More in our top headlines this morning.

Trai's order paves the way for tariff hike by telecom operators

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has directed telecom operators against discriminating between subscribers of the same class in tariff offers. In an order, that would make it difficult for telcos to offer highly discounted segmented tariffs, the regulator has also made it clear that differential pricing for subscribers porting out from a rival firm would not be allowed. Read more...

Centre plans PSU land sale worth more than Rs 600 crore via e-bidding

The Centre is planning to sell land parcels worth more than Rs 600 crore of some public sector undertakings (PSUs) through its new online bidding platform as it looks to push the sale of idle assets. The initiative, managed by the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (Dipam), will be similar to the pipeline of core assets created for monetisation by the NITI Aayog. Read more...

Parliamentary panel to talk divesting RBI of debt management role

Amid the pandemic and record borrowing spree by the central government, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance is visiting the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) headquarters on Saturday to discuss, among other things, separation of the debt management function from the RBI. Jayant Sinha, chairman of the committee, and former prime minister Manmohan Singh, who also served as governor of RBI from 1982 to 1985, would be among the members present at the meeting. Read more...

Reliance's cheap JioPhone can unleash a credit revolution across the globe

A smartphone widely believed to be priced below $50, likely the world’s cheapest, will start selling a week from now. If Mukesh Ambani’s JioPhone Next, an Android device custom-built for India by Alphabet Inc.’s Google, is a hit in the price-conscious market, it will solve one problem for banks while posing another. With the country’s remaining 300 million feature-phone users going online, there will be a surge of customer data that can stand in for collateral. The question is, how will banks get their hands on it? Read more...

Your EPF account will now show taxable and non-taxable balance

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced in the Union Budget for 2021-22 that interest earned on employees’ annual contribution to Prov­ident Fund (PF) exceeding Rs 2.5 lakh would be taxed from April 1. The threshold was subsequently hiked to Rs 5 lakh for cases where employees alone contribute (and the employer does not). Read more...