GST collections were up 12% in May 2023 as it marked the third consecutive month of GST collections of over Rs150,000 crore. The surge in GST collections was largely led by better than expected performance on the growth front. Out of the Rs157,090 crore of GST collected in May 2023, central GST accounted for Rs28,411 crore, state GST Rs35,828 crore, Integrated GST Rs81,363 crore and cess Rs11,029 crore. GST collections are higher yoy, but lower compared to the GST flows in the months of March and April 2023.
Even as the number of high net worth individuals spiked in India by 4% in FY23, there was a global drop in HNIs amid value erosion in equities and other asset classes. Indian HNIs touched 319,900 last year even as their wealth surged to nearly $1,287 billion in this period. In this report prepared by Cap Gemini, they have pointed out that unemployment also fell sharply in India from 16% to 7% yoy. However, the global HNWI population contracted by 3.3%, with wealth actually decreasing by 3.6% to $83 trillion in this year.
Even as the withdrawal of the Rs2,000 denomination note has been going on smoothly, UPI transactions hit a record high of 14.3 trillion in the month of May 2023. A total of 9.41 billion transactions were done on the UPI platform. There was a major surge in the value of UPI transactions done in the last 10 days and experts believe it could be linked to the ban on the Rs2,000 note. On a yoy basis, the volume of UPI deals is up 58% while the value of such UPI transactions is up 37%. UPI does 85% of online banking volumes.
The liquidity surplus in the financial system has crossed Rs175,000 crore on the back of higher government spending. This obviates any immediate concern about a liquidity shortfall in the economy and urges the RBI and the government to think up ways of mopping up the surplus liquidity in the system. The surplus has been consistently over Rs1 trillion over the last few days. Apart from the government pay-outs, the spike in liquidity is attributed to reduction in currency leakages due to a sharp fall in circulation of money.
Lenders of Byju’s have withdrawn talks over the restructuring of the $1.2 billion debt of the edtech major. Instead, the lenders are likely to pressure Byju’s to liquidate US assets to part repay the loans. This was after Byju’s was accused by its lenders of hiding the $500 million that the company had raised in its latest round of funding. While Byju’s was willing to renegotiate the existing $1.2 billion loan at a higher rate of interest, the lenders now want nothing short of Byju’s selling some of its US assets to repay half the loan.
On the first day of the Coal India OFS, the institutional portion got very good response. Against the OFS of Rs4,160 crore, the company got bids worth Rs6,150 crore. That is an oversubscription of nearly 1.6 times for the institutional portion. Most of the bids came in at a price of Rs226 per share, marginally higher than the floor price of Rs225 set for the OFS. On Friday, the OFS will auction shares worth Rs415 crore to retail investors. In the event of demand shortfall in the retail portion, it will be made up by Institutional surplus. .
Mumbai based Cleanmax Enviro Solutions has received $360 million from Brookefield Global Transition Fund. The funding is a mix of primary and secondary funding and will enable the Mumbai based Cleanmax to continue its journey towards become a 5 GW platform over the next three years. Currently, Brookfield has 9 GW of assets of renewable assets in its portfolio spread across wind, solar and hybrid assets. This deal will give Brookfield a controlling stake in Cleanmax, enabling it to closely work on future strategy.
The government and the CBDT have confirmed that the eventual buyer of IDBI Bank would get a tax waiver on the LIC stake as well. Till date, such a concession was only available for government stake, but now that has been extended to the LIC stake in IDBI Bank as well. Centre has already received multiple EOIs for its 60.72% proposed stake sale in IDBI Bank, in which the government and LIC will be offering shares. Post the issue, the government and LIC will continue to have a significant stake of over 26% in IDBI Bank.