Government may cut revenue expenditure, borrow extra

Top of the Morning

In this episode, find out about NHPC’s Rs 62.4 k crore storage plants push, and also find out Zomato will announce its Q4 nos

Business Term of the Day: Excise Tax
The government may borrow more than budgeted this fiscal, reduce revenue expenditure, or do both, as the recent duty cuts and subsidy hikes threaten to upset its fiscal math, an official aware of the discussions in the government said. The additional borrowing requirement will be worked out later as the fiscal year has just started, the person said on the condition of anonymity. The government expects the tax cuts on fuel over the weekend to cool inflation, which shot up to an eight-year high in April.   Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said the reduction in central taxes on petrol and diesel has been in road and infrastructure cess that is not shared with states, rebutting opposition’s criticism that the move will impact states’ share in central revenues.   Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday arrived in Japan on a two-day visit to attend a summit of the Quad leaders which is aimed at further bolstering cooperation among the member nations of the influential grouping and discussing developments in the Indo-Pacific region. Zomato: Shares of Zomato will be in focus ahead of its March quarter earnings due on Monday. The firm also said that it will take investors’ calls after its earnings, for the first time since listing. The stock has fallen over 60 percent from its all-time high amid correction in stock markets. The scrip currently trading below its issue price of Rs 76 a share.   State-run NHPC Ltd plans to set up 20.8 GW of pumped storage plants at an investment of around ₹62,400 crore in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand and Mizoram to aid the country’s energy transition, according to the top executive at India’s largest hydropower firm.       Moving on to markets Indian indices may witness a flat start on Monday. The indices closed higher last week after two straight weeks of losses. Asian stocks faced an uncertain start on Monday as persistent inflation fears and the prospect of rising interest rates dogged the global economic outlook, which remains mired in negative sentiment Shares rose in Japan, Hong Kong and remained muted in Australia, South Korea, and Shanghai.   Business Term of the day An excise or excise tax (sometimes called an excise duty) is a type of tax charged on goods produced within the country (as opposed to customs duties, charged on goods from outside the country). It is a tax on the production or sale of a good. At the central level, excise duty earlier used to be levied as Central Excise Duty, Additional Excise Duty, etc. However, the Goods and Services Tax (GST), introduction in July 2017, subsumed many types of excise duty. Today, excise duty applies only on petroleum and liquor.