Cabinet Decisions: Bharat Bond ETF, Six Bills Approved

The Indian government is looking into the issue of unpaid GST compensation to certain states, said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Just today she met with finance ministers and representatives of opposition-ruled states who expressed their concern over delay in release of GST compensation which has put them in an acute financial position.

The finance ministers of Delhi, Punjab, Puducherry and Madhya Pradesh and representatives Kerala, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh and West Bengal attended the meeting over delay in payment of compensation.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal said, August and September compensation has not been released to states.

"We discussed that issue with the Finance Minister. Even the compensation for next period (October-November) will be due now, so August-November. Government is under obligation to pay.

"The Finance Minister assured us that the compensation will be released as early as possible but she did not specify any timeline, " he had said.

So far state have not got compensation for the month of August and September and post Dec. 10, compensation for the period October-November will also be due.

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said it is not that compensation fund does not have adequate money, around Rs 50,000 crore is there through cess collection.

"We thought we will make appeal to Union Finance Minister (Nirmala Sitharaman) saying that she must personally look into this and not violate the constitutional provisions as passed by Parliament of India," Sisodia said after half an hour long meeting.

With inputs from PTI

Nirmala Sitharaman & Prakash Javadekar will brief the media about the cabinet's decisions at 12:30 p.m.

Follow live updates here: https://t.co/DmuldPgqBu pic.twitter.com/6mDAlS0hl5

— BloombergQuint (@BloombergQuint) December 4, 2019

‘We Are Shocked’: India Citizenship Rule Splits Muslim Families

Delhi: Union Cabinet meeting begins at Parliament House Annexe building.

— ANI (@ANI) December 4, 2019

The Indian economy slowed further in the July-September 2019 quarter, as consumption failed to revive and private investment remained stagnant. Government expenditure, however, picked up pace and helped hold up the economy. Gross domestic product growth came in at 4.5 percent in the second quarter of 2019-20 compared to 5 percent in the first quarter, showed data released by the Central Statistic Office on Friday.

“Excluding government consumption and agriculture growth, GDP growth stood at 3.2 percent—the weakest print in a decade...Barring government spending, no material gains were seen across sectors,” said Rahul Bajoria, chief India economist at Barclays.

Having left much of the stimulus burden to the central bank early this year, Modi has been taking bolder steps to reverse the decline. In recent months, the government has slashed corporate taxes, set up a special real-estate fund, merged banks and announced the biggest privatization drive in more than a decade. However, while authorities are committed to doing more, the policy room may be narrowing.

India’s Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is meeting today starting 9:30 a.m., amid calls for greater fiscal stimulus, privatisation of public sector units and reforms in the labour sector.

Modi had called the meeting last week, before his departure for the BRICS Summit in Brazil.

The cabinet is also likely to approve the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, championed by Home Minister and Senior Bharatiya Janata Party Leader Amit Shah. The bill is to be re-drafted as the government has decided to incorporate changes in order to address concerns expressed by states in the North-East, Indian Express reported, adding that it is likely to be cleared by the cabinet on Wednesday morning.

The legislation seeks to provide citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis or Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Muslims are excluded from the list.