Business

New Delhi, Jul 5 (PTI) Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Friday hiked tax on petrol and diesel, raised import duty on gold, levied additional surcharge on super rich and brought a tax on high value cash withdrawals as she sought to spur growth with reduction in corporate tax and sops to housing sector, startups and electric vehicles.

Mumbai, Jul 4 (PTI) Banks have reported a massive 73 percent increase in incidents of fraud worth Rs 71,543 crore in FY19, a senior Reserve Bank official said Thursday.

Till March 2019, the top five, 10 and 100 cases of frauds cumulatively reported constituted 24 percent, 34 percent and 70 percent of all frauds, respectively, a chief general manager with the RBI Jayant Dash said.

In FY18, the banks had reported frauds worth Rs 41,167 crore, he added.

BEIJING (AP) — Asian stocks fell Friday as investors waited for American employment data and details of U.S.-Chinese trade talks.

Benchmarks in Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong fell while Australia edged up.

Investors looked ahead to monthly U.S. jobs data due out Friday, which are expected to be a factor in the Federal Reserve’s decision this month on interest rates. The markets expect a solid 165,000 increase in non-farm payrolls.

The central bank has said it is prepared to cut rates to shore up the U.S. economy if trade disputes crimp growth.

LAVRIO, Greece (AP) — On an exhaustive tour of Greece’s blue collar towns and city suburbs, Kyriakos Mitsotakis has a spring in his step. It’s no wonder - he’s the overwhelming favorite to become the country’s next prime minister as the unlikely heir of a powerful political family.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — When it comes to saving Iran’s nuclear deal, Europe finds itself in the impossible situation of trying to salvage an accord unraveling because of the maximalist U.S. sanctions campaign.

Since President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the accord over a year ago, a slow fuse has burned through Iran. At first, it appeared Iranian officials thought they might be able to wait out Trump. They spoke about “strategic patience” as the U.S. 2020 presidential election loomed.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Samsung Electronics Co. said Friday its operating profit for the last quarter likely fell more than 56% from a year earlier amid a weak market for memory chips.

The South Korean tech giant estimated an operating profit of 6.5 trillion won ($5.5 billion) for the April-June quarter, which would represent a 56.3% drop from the same period last year.

4 July 2019; MEMO: British royal marines and officials in Gibraltar have detained a supertanker suspected of carrying crude oil to Syria, in breach of European Union sanctions, the government of Gibraltar said, Reuters reports.

In a statement the government said it had reasonable grounds to believe that the Grace 1 vessel was carrying its shipment of crude oil to the Banyas Refinery in Syria.

4 July 2019; AFP: The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday approved a $6 billion, three-year loan for Pakistan to help right the South Asian nation's economy.

With the IMF board's approval, the fund released $1 billion to Pakistan immediately and will unlock from other international partners around $38 billion over the program period.

4 July 2019; DW: China said its relations with the UK have been damaged after the foreign office threatened "serious consequences" over the reaction to protests in Hong Kong. 

Foreign Secretary and candidate for the Conservative party leadership, Jeremy Hunt appeared to back down on his comments when he said on Thursday that he had not backed violent protests in Hong Kong: "Let me be clear what I said.

Gandhinagar, Jul 3 (PTI) With a steep rise of over Rs 23,000 crore in one year, Gujarat's public debt now stands at Rs 2,40,652 crore as per the revised estimates of 2018-19, the Legislative Assembly was informed on Wednesday.

Responding to a written query raised by Congress MLA Niranjan Patel during the Question Hour, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, who handles the Finance portfolio, said in his written reply that as per the revised estimates for 2018-19, Gujarat owes Rs 2,40,652 crore, a rise of Rs 23,314 crore from 2017-18.