Virus hits India’s plan to cut import tax on veg. oils

cent to two per cent gross domestic product.

George Saravelos, a currency strategist at Deutsche Bank AG, said governments may also need to step in to guarantee support for households and companies.

While the Fed gets “full marks” for its recent response in cutting rates and moving to stabilise credit markets, Northern Trust Corp. chief economist Carl Tannenbaum said US Congress and the White House have so far failed to act boldly enough. of

New Delhi, March 17: India has dropped at least three crucial policy initiatives, including lowering import taxes on vegetable oils, as the outbreak of the coronavirus hits government revenue collection, two sources said on Tuesday.

India’s income tax revenues contracted 3.5 per cent in the first 11 months of the current fiscal year, which began in April 2019, and income from other taxes grew by a meagre 3.8 per cent, the finance ministry told parliament on Monday.

The food ministry had proposed lowering import taxes on crude and refined vegetable oils, including palm oil, by 3-7 per cent to keep a lid on domestic prices that leapt more than 11 per cent after India restricted palm oil imports from Malaysia in January.

But the finance ministry rejected that proposal due to revenue concerns, the sources said.

The finance ministry also shelved other proposal by the food ministry that would have raised the supply of highly subsidised rice and wheat to millions of people under the world’s biggest food welfare programme, said the sources.