Banking, Financial and Economic Awareness of 19 and 20 May 2020

By PendulumEdu | Last Modified: 31 May 2020 19:04 PM IST

Main Headlines:

1. Government decides to revise classification criteria for medium enterprises

Government has decided to revise classification criteria for medium enterprises.
As per the government’s decision, the investment limit will be increased to Rs 50 crore and turnover limit to Rs 200 crore.
Earlier, government has revised definition of MSMEs. Before the revision, investment limit for medium category was up to Rs 10 crore and turnover limit for medium category was Rs 5 crore.

(Source: The Hindu)

Government is also open for increasing turnover limit to Rs 250 crore for the category of medium enterprises.
Currently, MSMEs contribute 48% to India’s exports and 29% to India’s GDP.
Government has planned to increase contribution to exports to 60% and to India’s GDP to 50%.

India has begun to buy Malaysian palm oil again after a pause of four months.
The decrease in India’s domestic inventories is the reason why India has begun to buy Malaysian palm oil again.
During January to April 2020, India’s import of palm oil has declined by over 50%.
Indonesia has increased levy on palm oil export. But, Malaysia is offering a discount of 15 dollars.

(Source: The Financial Express)

The discounted price of Malaysian palm oil is another reason why India has begun to buy Malaysian palm oil again.
Last week, Malaysian government has signed an agreement for purchasing 1 lakh tonnes of Indian rice.
Indonesia and Malaysia occupy 1^st and 2^nd place in the list of world’s largest producers of palm oil.
India is largest edible oil importer of the world. India purchases about two third of its imports of total edible oil.

Canara bank has started special gold loan business vertical.
Canara Bank’s gold loan products are aimed at providing faster credit to customers at low interest cost.

The special gold loan campaign will continue till 30 June. The turnaround time for gold loan product is low and flexibility of loan repayment is high.
Turnaround time is defined as the time between loan application and loan disbursal.

Central trade unions have moved International Labour Organisation against changes in labour laws by 13 state governments.
While addressing their complaint to Guy Ryder, DG of ILO, the labour unions said that changes in labour laws violate ILO conventions such as Convention 144 on tripartite consultation.

(Source: UN website)

Various state governments have granted exemptions to all business organizations from obligations (responsibilities) of employer under all labour laws for 3 years.
Eight states have increased working hours from 8 to 12 hours through executive order.
In addition to 144^th convention of 1976, labour unions have also talked about following other conventions.
- Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948
- Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949
- Consultation (Industrial and National Levels) Recommendation, 1960

Patanjali has launched e-commerce app, called OrderMe.
The app was launched last week and this week, the app achieved 10,000 daily transactions.
The app is based on the word OM (OrderMe). The products of other FMCG companies and goods of neighbourhood shops may also be included.

(Source: The Financial Express)

Amazon, Flipkart, Bigbasket and JioMart will be competitors of this app.
As per the research agencies, India's e-commerce market will reach from $24 billion in 2017 to $84 billion in 2021.
India's overall retail market will grow from $795 billion in 2017 to $1.2 trillion by 2021.

National Anti-Profiteering Authority (NAA) has confirmed profiteering allegations against a product of Park Avenue.
The name of the Park Avenue product is After Shave Lotion Park Avenue Good Morning. It is a product of Raymond Group's J K Helene Curtis Ltd.
As per the decision of NAA, RS 19 crore will be deposited within 3 months by the company and its one distributor.
The amount will be deposited with the Consumer Welfare Fund (CWF).
The company was accused of increasing base prices, not changing the MRP and not passing GST rate cut benefits to the consumer.
NAA was formed under section 171 of the Central GST Act, 2017. It is a statutory body. It consists of a Chairman and four technical members. Its current chairman is B.N. Sharma.
Consumer Welfare Fund (CWF) was created under section 57 of the CGST Act, 2017. Its aim is to make India’s consumer advocacy movement strong.