Traders want import curbs on chana as prices fall

PUNE: Traders have demanded restrictions on the import of chana as its prices have already plunged 20 per cent in anticipation of a bumper harvest this rabi season.
Compared to the subdued trend seen in prices of tur, moong, urad, etc, chana prices have remained firm for a long time, which made farmers increase acreage under rabi crop by 11.5 per cent in 2015-16 and by 13.5 per cent in the ongoing 2016-17 rabi season. As of December 15, farmers had planted gram on 96 lakh hectares. In Indore market of Madhya Pradesh, chana prices are between Rs 38-40 a kg, compared to the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 44 a kg. At Latur market, At Latur market, chana prices are at Rs 36.50 a kg, down 17 per cent compared to MSP. Since the prices are way below MSP, traders and farmers' representatives have demanded immediate curbs on chana imports.
"Chana is being continuously imported from Australia into India. Two ships, which may be carrying about 2-3 lakh tonnes of gram are about to reach Mundra port," said Indore-based miller Suresh Aggarwal.
"We want imports to stop. The government should impose heavy import duty as early as possible," said Aggarwal.

Chana export import

Engineering goods push exports higher to $26 bn in November

Healthy off-take of India's engineering and petroleum products pushed exports higher to $26.19 billion in November, from $23 billion in October and $20.06 billion during the corresponding month of last year, official data showed on Friday, even as the country's strength in services was reflected in their higher exports continuing in October.

According to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, exports during last month exhibited a growth of 30.55 per cent on a year-on-year (Y-o-Y) basis.

"Exports during November 2017 have exhibited high positive growth of 30.55 per cent in dollar terms vis-a-vis November 2016," the Ministry said in a statement.

"This is on the pattern of positive growth in exports in last thirteen months with a dip of 1.12 per cent in October 2017 vis-a-vis same period last year."

The data pointed out healthy growth in exports of "engineering goods (43.76 per cent), petroleum products (47.68), gems and jewellery (32.69), organic and inorganic chemicals (54.28), and drugs and pharmaceuticals (13.39)."

"Non-petroleum and non gems and jewellery exports in November 2017 were valued at $19,247.56 million as against $15,104.42 million in November 2016, an increase of 27.43 per cent," the statement said.

However, the country's imports during the month under review also increased by 19.61 per cent to $40.02 billion from $33.46 billion in the corresponding period last year.

Segment-wise, the data showed that India's oil imports during November shot up by 39.14 per cent to $9.55 billion, from $6.86 billion in the same month last year.

Non-oil imports during last month stood at $30.47 billion with a growth of 14.57 per cent over non-oil imports of $26.59 billion in November last year.

Consequently, India's trade deficit widened to $13.82 billion during last month, as against $13.39 billion in November last year.

As per Reserve Bank of India data on Friday, Indian services exports in October this year at $14.15 billion resulted in a positive trade balance on this account for the month at $5.45 billion, over the balance of $5.28 billion in the previous month.

iPhone prices increased in India after import duty hike: Here’s the new price list

Apple has marginally increased the price of iPhones in India in view of the government hiking the duty on imported cellphones. However, the cost of the iPhone SE remained unchanged because it was being assembled in the country since June.
The average surge in prices comes up to roughly 3.5%.

The latest iPhone X (64GB model) is now available for Rs 92,430, as compared to Rs 89,000, whereas the top-end model with 128GB storage is priced at Rs 1,05,720, up from Rs 1,02,000. The price hike has also affected the two-year-old iPhone 6 model, which is now available for Rs 30,780 (32GB model). The iPhone 6S (128GB model) , on the other hand, costs Rs 50,660 -- up from Rs 49,000.

Here’s the complete list:

The Union government raised the import tax from 10% to 15% on imported handsets in a move to promote the “Make in India” initiative. Apple, which imports an estimated 88% of its smartphones to the country, was believed to be one of the top brands affected by the decision .
With the western and Chinese markets slowing down, Apple has been eyeing India for its next round of growth. According to the company’s latest quarterly earnings, Apple registered double-digit growth in the country during the fourth quarter of the year. “...revenue from emerging markets outside of greater China was up 40%, with great momentum in India, where revenue doubled year over year,” CEO Tim Cook said during the company’s earnings call last month.
Apple reportedly touched $2 billion sales in India recently, although it was badly hit by the demonetisation drive. Apple India posted sales of Rs 11,619 crore ($1.8 billion) for the year ended March 2017, up from Rs 9,937 crore in the year-ago period (translating to 17% growth in a country), Reuters reported last week.
“Last year, older generation iPhones like 4S and 5S entered the mix for Apple and sold very well. For consumers accustomed to seeing Apple models at a minimum price of $400, older generation iPhones proved to be very appealing. What happened, as a result, was that it brought down the overall ASPs for Apple, and thus the slowdown in the pace of growth,” Tarun Pathak, associate director at Counterpoint Research, said.

Impact of GST on SMEs: Mixed reactions from state Finance Ministers

The implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST), dubbed as the single-most important reform measure in the annals of India's taxation regime, witnessed three State Finance Ministers express their views ranging from "unprecedented in its adverse consequences, especially for the SMEs" to "a deal that gives a virtual tax insurance policy to the States" and "a Herculean task of integration of all taxes into a common and uniform tax code".
The Finance Ministers – Dr. Amit Mitra from West Bengal, Dr. Haseeb Drabu from Jammu & Kashmir and Sushil Kumar Modi from Bihar – spoke in New Delhi on Thursday at the Special Session on GST, on the concluding day of the 90th Annual General Meeting of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

Dr. Amit Mitra declared that West Bengal's stated position was that it had agreed, in principle, to bringing in GST. But the hasty manner, in which it was rolled out, had taken a huge toll on the revenue collections. For instance, revenue collections in October 2017 at Rs. 83,346 crore are significantly down from the September figure of Rs. 95,131 crores. He expressed concern at the dip that the November figures would show.
Dr. Mitra cautioned the business chambers to be wary of the provisions of arrest under the GST law and advised them to oppose the provision.  According to him, filing of FIR under the due judicial process was the way to go.

Alluding to the political economy of the GST, he said that it was demonetization that first throttled SMEs and the pre-mature launch of GST has landed them in dire financial straits.

Dr. Haseeb Drabu said these were still early days and it would be unfair to judge the GST system just yet. "Give it another three to four months. If the government and the GST Council are as responsive as they have been, what we have in the making is a robust GST which works for business, the Central Government and the States," he emphasized.

He said that the biggest gain of GST was that it represents India's first truly genuine federal legislation. Revenues may not have increased in the last couple of months, but the regime has given the States a sub-national freedom to legislate. The transition, he said, was not as glamorous as globalization and liberalization, but it marks a certain move towards formalization of the economy.

Dr. Drabu said, "The most import aspect of the legislation was that GST changes the basic ethics of the country and the regime's transparent processes enable us to know exactly what is going where."

The States, he said, have got "a wonderful deal as GST guarantees revenues at 14 percent growth year-on-year and what we have is a virtual tax insurance policy for five years."
Sushil Kumar Modi said that GST was being opposed by fabric and textiles sectors, MSMEs and small traders as they had come under the tax net for the first time. Besides, the consumers were opposing GST as a tax rate of 28 percent seemed too high. However, he noted that in the pre-GST era, the tax rate was more than 28 percent but as excise was included in the commodity price, it was not visible. He hoped this would be resolved by the GST Council and the final visible tax rate brought down to 14 percent.Sushil Modi, who has witnessed the process of implementation of both VAT and GST regimes closely, said that when VAT came into force, the then finance minister had announced compensation for three years for states. But even after two years, no state came forward to claim compensation.

He was, therefore, confident that with the government announcing a compensation period of five years after roll out of GST, there would be enough cushion to satisfy the States.

He said that the aim of the GST Council in the coming months would be to reduce the number of GST slabs and bring electricity, petroleum & real estate under the GST ambit. Speaking about the anti-profiteering clause, he said that it was brought about to ensure the passage of benefits to consumers by the manufacturers.

He said that sorting out 37 different tax jurisdictions and 16 different tax levies and integrating various taxes in GST was a Herculean and unprecedented task. Highlighting some of the challenges in the implementation of GST, Modi said that simplifications of the IT network and processes were the top priorities besides the need to reduce the existing tax slabs.

Harsh Mariwala, Chairman, FICCI Task Force on GST and Past President, FICCI, who moderated the session, said that while the complex GST legislation faces issues in Implementation, it was just a matter of time before these would be resolved.

FICCI's Outgoing President Pankaj R Patel, Incoming President Rashesh Shah and FICCI Secretary General Dr. Sanjaya Baru also shared the dais. Dr. Baru while welcoming the three state finance ministers for the interesting session pointed out that their contribution to the GST implementation had been acknowledged by the Union finance minister.

Vietnam’s rice market fares well

In November, rice export volume exceeded 371,000 tonnes, down from over 437,000 tonnes in October. The drop was attributed to limited supply after harvest of the autumn-winter crop completed in the Mekong Delta, the main source of rice for export.|

However, industry insiders still expect a good year in 2018 for Vietnam’s exports as the world rice market is forecast to pick up next year.

According to a November report of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), world rice trade will expand by 1 percent in 2018 to reach 42.3 million tonnes, marking the third highest yearly volume in history.

The USDA forecast that India and Thailand will continue to lead the world in rice export, while Vietnam’s rice exports could reach six million tonnes in 2018, an increase of 6.6 percent from this year, driven by demand in Southeast Asia, particularly in the Philippines.

The National Food Authority of the Philippines recently proposed the country import 350,000 tonnes of rice before its first rice harvest in 2018 to raise its rice reserve.

Palm oil imports fall to 8-month low in November: Trade body

India's palm oil imports dropped nearly 11 percent in November from a year ago to the lowest level in eight months, a trade body said on Thursday, as refiners curtailed purchases due to a hike in import tax.
The world's biggest importer of edible oils bought 716,968 tonnes of palm oil last month, down from 801,311 tonnes a year ago, the Solvent Extractors' Association, a Mumbai-based trade group for oilseed processors, said in a statement.
The government does not provide data on specific edible oil imports.
"Anticipating an import duty hike, refiners cut purchases. The winter season also had an impact," said Sandeep Bajoria, chief executive of vegetable oil importer Sunvin group.
India in November doubled the import tax on crude palm oil to 30 percent, while the duty on refined palm oil was raised to 40 percent from 25 percent.
"Palm oil imports will remain low even in December," Bajoria said.
Despite lower imports of palm oil, the South Asian country's overall purchases of vegetable oils in November rose 6.2 percent from a year earlier to 1.248 million tonnes on increased imports of soyoil and sunflower oil, the trade body said.
Soyoil imports jumped 67 percent from a year ago to 273,928 tonnes, while sunflower oil imports rose 23 percent to 193,810 tonnes, it said.
India's sunflower and soyoil imports could fall this month to around 190,000 tonnes and 170,000 tonnes, respectively, said a Mumbai-based dealer with a global trading firm.
"Local edible oil supplies have been rising from new season soybean crop," the dealer said.
India primarily imports palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia and soyoil from Argentina and Brazil. It also buys small volumes of sunflower oil from Ukraine and canola oil from Canada.

Ukrainian enterprises import gas at $239.5 in Nov Economy Ministry

KEIV: Ukrainian enterprises in November 2017 imported gas at an average price of UAH 6,393, or $239.5 per 1,000 cubic meters, according to the website of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade.

According to the ministry, in January 2017 the price of gas imports for 1,000 cubic meters amounted to $229.51 (UAH 6,033), in February to $246.88 (UAH 6,682), in March to $248.13 (UAH 6,669), in April to $232.17 (UAH 6,235), in May to $208.38 (UAH 5,507), in June to $213.7 (UAH 5,566), in July to $214.5 (UAH 5,566), in August to $210.11 in

Earlier, Chief Commercial Officer of Naftogaz Ukrainy Yuriy Vitrenko noted that the average customs value of imported gas published by the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade is not representative.