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GST a monumental reform, hurt growth for just 2 quarters: Jaitley (Lead)
Mumbai, Nov 11 (IANS) Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday termed the Goods and Services Tax as a ‘monumental’ reform, emphasising that the implementation of the indirect tax had impacted economic growth for only two quarters.
The GST was implemented across the nation on July 1, 2017. The shift to a new taxation regime, immediately after the shock demonetisation of November 2016, had slowed the pace of economic growth.
Jaitley contended that the economy rebounded after a decline in the first two quarters after the GST came into force.
His comments came a day after reports cited former Reserve bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan as saying that GST and demonetisation slowed India’s economic growth at a time when other economies were expanding fast.
Jaitley was speaking via video-conference at an event here to mark the 100th anniversary of the Union Bank of India called the GST a monumental reform.
The Minister said that monumental reforms such as GST had a transient impact but were required in the larger interest of the country and to formalise the economy.
“…you will always have critics and cynics who will come up and say it slowed down India’s growth,” Jaitley said.
It’s true that for two quarters after GST, growth got impacted but in the subsequent quarters, the economy expanded by 7 per cent, 7.7 per cent and 8.2 per cent, he said.
The Finance Minister said that the banking system needed to be strengthened to meet the market’s liquidity requirements and drive economic growth.
According to the Minister, it is important that the NPA (non-performing asset) levels at banks are minimised and that the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code is showing results.
He further said that it is only through the banking sector that lending can be provided to sectors such as the MSMEs and NBFCs.
The central government has in the last four years pumped Rs 70,000 crore and Rs 2.12 lakh crore into state-run banks in separate tranches to help the bad debt-laden lenders, he said.
These steps to infuse capital have improved the banks’ lending capacity, on which the future of economic growth depends, he said.
Jaitley added that policies have to be targeted towards improving the lending capacity of the banking system and to improve liquidity available for the markets.
–IANS
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International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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