India to begin expatriation flights to bring back citizens from Thursday
No flights for Karnataka citizens
Bengaluru: With more than 190,000 Indian expats in UAE registered to return home on repatriation flight, the Indian government will begin the repatriation operation from Thursday, beginning with two flights that will take of from UAE with Indian expats.
Indian government has decided to deploy fleet of charter flights and naval warships, to bring its citizens back to the country amidst the world-wide corona virus scare. The government sources added that the embassies were preparing priority lists ahead of the operation’s launch on May 7.
According to the reports, between May 7-14 about 60 commercial flights will bring back at least 15,000 citizens from 12 countries with distressed Indian citizens including tourists stranded overseas and expat workers who have lost job being its priority.
Apart from the flights, the government has deployed naval warships including INS Magar and INS Shardul which headed towards Maldives and Dubai respectively.
Interestingly, despite follow-ups, meetings and requests made by several Kannadigas NRI organizations in UAE, the government of Karnataka has not finalized if it will send or receive any flights from the gulf.
The state has no flights scheduled to arrive with its citizens from UAE in the first phase of the operation. In a joint statement released by several organizations of Karnataka in UAE, the organizations claimed that there are several Kannadigas stranded in UAE including plight of severely sick patients and over hundred pregnant women and that at least one flight arriving with the Karnataka’s citizen in the first phase was required.
It also condemned that the approach of the state government and added it was reacting carelessly to the matter. It further demanded that the state government should immediately coordinate with the centre and arrange for flights to ply its citizens back to the state at the earliest.
Praveen Shetty, President of KRNI Forum, Mohammad Naveed- President of Anivasi Kanandigaru Dubai, Sunil Ambalavalil- VP of Anivasi Kannadigaru, Dubai, Hidayath Addoor- Vice President of Bearys Chamber of Commerce, BCCI UAE chapter, Harish Sherigar- Patron Sharjah Karnataka Sanga, Chandrashekar Lingadahalli, President Basava Samithi, Imran Khan- President, Karnataka Media Forum, Ronald Martis- Mangalore Christian community in Dubai, Daya Kirodian- Dubai Karnataka Sanga, Noel Almeida -member of various organization including KNRI, Yashwanth Karkera- Tulu Sanga, Ashfaque sada- President of Bhatkal Muslim Jamaat Dubai, Yusuf Bermaver- General Secretary Bhatkal Muslim Jamaat Dubai, Afzal S M- Bhatkal Muslim Jamaat Dubai, Shashidar Nagarajappa- Kannada Patashale Althaf Hussain- Kodava Samaja, Ashraf KM- Businessman, Johnson Martis- Business professional, Siraj Parladka- Blood Helpline Karnataka and Ansar Barkur endorsed the jointly released press statement on Tuesday.
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STT hike in F&O aimed at curbing speculative trade, protect small investors: Sitharaman
New Delhi (PTI): Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said the increase in STT in F&O is aimed at curbing high-risk speculative trade and discouraging gullible investors who were losing huge amounts of money in the derivatives market.
The Budget has proposed an increase in the Securities Transaction Tax (STT) on futures contracts to 0.05 per cent from 0.02 per cent.
STT on options premium and exercise of options are proposed to be raised to 0.15 per cent from the present rate of 0.1 per cent and 0.125 per cent, respectively.
Addressing a post-budget conference, Sitharaman said the government is not against derivative trade, but wants small investors, who are facing huge losses, to stay away from the speculative F&O market.
"This nominal increase is purely aimed at speculation, only to deter them, to discourage them. We are not against it (F&O trade), but small investors are facing losses, so how can we be quiet, so it (STT hike on F&O) is to deter such investments," Sitharaman said.
According to studies by Sebi, over 90 per cent of retail investors' trades in the F&O segment lead to losses, and the capital markets regulator has also taken steps to reduce volumes in the past.
Market regulator Sebi has also cautioned small and retail investors against trading in the F&O segment, underscoring the need for responsible investing.
Addressing questions on the intention behind the STT hike, Revenue Secretary Arvind Shrivastava said it has been done to discourage speculative tendencies and handle systemic risk in the derivatives market.
"The government's intention is to discourage speculative tendencies, and the increase in rate is essentially in that direction. So, it is meant to essentially handle the systemic risk in derivative markets," he added.
Shrivastava said even after this increase, the rates of STT will remain modest compared to the volume of the transactions that are happening.
The hike in STT is aimed squarely at high-volume derivative trading, rather than the cash equity market, and is expected to meaningfully increase transaction costs for active and short-term trading strategies.
Sitharaman further said the highest-ever capital expenditure of Rs 12.22 lakh crore announced for 2026-27 works out to be 4.4 per cent of GDP.
The capital expenditure for FY27 is 10 per cent higher than the Rs 11.11 lakh crore budgeted capex announced in FY26.
"We have announced that Rs 12.22 lakh crore is coming through public expenditure. This time it is 4.4 per cent of GDP, which is the highest at least in the last 10 years, it could even be the highest if you were to take data from earlier periods," Sitharaman said.
The capital expenditure was 2.5 per cent of GDP in 2021-22 and around 4 per cent of GDP in 2024-25. The government's capital expenditure was Rs 2.35 lakh crore in 2015-16.
She further said that the 4.3 per cent fiscal deficit target for FY27 is "realistic and responsible". The Budget has proposed to lower the fiscal deficit to 4.3 per cent in FY27, from 4.4 per cent in FY26.
Asked about the budget not making any big announcement for poll-bound states, Sitharaman said there are various announcements, including industrial corridors across the eastern and western parts of India. "So there is enough to cover election states and all other states," she said.
