Month: February 2022

India will also launch its own digital currency in April

The Reserve Bank of India will launch its digital currency on April 1, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday. The country also plans to tax the income from the transfer of virtual assets at a rate of 30%, she added.

To capture details of all such crypto transactions, the minister also proposed a 1% tax deduction at source on payments made related to the purchase of virtual assets.

“No deduction in respect of any expenditure or allowance shall be allowed while computing such income except cost of acquisition. Further, loss from transfer of digital asset cannot be set off against any other income,” she said, adding “Gift of virtual digital asset is also proposed to be taxed at the hand of the recipient.”

Purchases of cryptocurrencies and NFTs in India have been on the rise despite regulatory pressure. Binance-owned WazirX said last month that the yearly trading volume on its platform exceeded $43 billion in 2021, at a “1,735%” growth from 2020.

READ MORE: Modi calls world to arms against crypto

“There’s been a phenomenal increase in transaction in virtual digital assets,” Sitharaman said. “The magnitude and frequency of these transactions have made it imperative to provide for a specific tax regime.”

India’s central bank has long been working on a phased implementation strategy, which could reduce the nation’s high dependency on cash. According to the finance minister, the launch of a digital rupee “will give a big boost to digital economy” and lead to a “more efficient and cheaper currency management system.”

For more stories on economy & finance visit RT’s business section

About half of the mining giant’s employees who responded to an external review say they have been bullied

Anglo-Australian mining multinational Rio Tinto released a shocking report on Tuesday, revealing that racism, sexism, harassment and sexual assault are rife among its global workforce of 47,500.

The report came as a result of an external review that the mining giant commissioned in 2021 after a string of complaints and scandals, including the blowing-up of an ancient Aboriginal site in Western Australia to expand an iron ore mine.

According to the report, nearly half of the company’s employees said they had been bullied, while racism was found to be common across a number of areas. The survey also revealed that “people working in a country different to their birth experienced high rates of racism, and that 39.8% of men and 31.8% of women who identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander in Australia experienced racism.”

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The results were “disturbing,” according to Rio Tinto Chief Executive Jakob Stausholm, who said the company would implement all 26 recommendations from the report that was overseen by Australia’s former sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick.

“The eye-opener for me was twofold,” Stausholm said, as quoted by Reuters. “I hadn’t realised how much bullying exists in the company and secondly that it’s quite systemic – the three issues of bullying, sexual harassment and racism… that’s extremely disturbing.”

Headquartered in London, Rio Tinto employs people in 35 countries. Its workplace review reportedly involved more than 10,000 respondents to an online survey, interactive group and individual sessions, and a call for written entries.

The findings are the latest blow to the corporation that has been trying to repair its image after it demolished a 46,000-year-old sacred Indigenous site in Australia to expand an iron ore mine. In 2020, the backlash over the destruction forced out former CEO Jean-Sebastien Jacques.

For more stories on economy & finance visit RT’s business section

The brewing sector marked a sharp sales decline

Germany’s Federal Statistical Office, Destatis, reported on Tuesday that beer sales across the country continued to decline in 2021, falling 2.2% year-on-year due to coronavirus-related restrictions. Statistics showed that sales had already been down 5.5% in 2020 from the previous year.

According to Destatis, German-based breweries and distributors sold about 8.5 billion liters (2.2 billion gallons) of beer in 2021.

Beer sales have been declining in the country for years as a result of health concerns and other factors, but lockdowns have added to a downward trend. Сlosed restaurants and canceled major events and festivals where large amounts of beer are usually consumed impacted sales, the agency said. 

There were particularly steep year-on-year drops of 27% and 19.1% respectively in January and February, when full lockdown measures were in place across the country. 

READ MORE: Study reveals which alcoholic drink is best at preventing Covid

Domestic sales are most important for Germany’s breweries, as they make up around 83% of the total. The statistics office said that beer sales inside the country were 3.4% lower than in 2020 and 8.6% lower than in 2019.

Beer exports to other countries in the European Union plunged 4%, while exports to countries outside the trade bloc were up 12.7%.

For more stories on economy & finance visit RT’s business section

The Covid-19 pandemic fueled the US budget deficit and government borrowing

US national debt exceeded $30 trillion for the first time on Tuesday, spurred on by high borrowing during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to data from the US Treasury Department.

Japan and China remain the top foreign creditors, holding $1.3 trillion and $1.08 trillion in US Treasuries respectively, and are owed interest on all the money that has been borrowed. Nearly $8 trillion of the US’ debt is owed to foreign entities, which – aside from Japan and China – also include major creditors like the United Kingdom, Luxembourg, Ireland, Brazil, Canada, France, India, and Belgium, as well as Taiwan and Hong Kong.

A further $6.5 trillion is owed by the US federal government to itself, mostly to Social Security trusts and the Military Retirement fund. Over the course of the pandemic, the Federal Reserve also doubled its balance sheet to $8.9 trillion by aggressively buying trillions of dollars in Treasury bonds and securities.

The shocking number was reached far sooner than anticipated, with US officials and economists failing to predict the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent response, which inflated government spending, and subsequently, national debt by as much as $7 trillion since the end of 2019.

The US budget deficit totaled $2.77 trillion for fiscal year 2021, falling just short of the previous year’s record-breaking numbers, but still in line with the massive Covid-era spending. For the fiscal year of 2020, the US posted an eye-watering deficit of $3.13 trillion.

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The $30 trillion mark “arrived years earlier than previously projected,” according to the New York Times, due to government coronavirus programs which “funded expanded jobless benefits, financial support for small businesses and stimulus payments” – all of which was paid for with borrowed money.

David Kelly, the chief global strategist for JPMorgan Asset Management, told CNN that the debt means the US is “going to be poorer in the long term” and claimed “American taxpayers will be paying for the retirement of the people in China and Japan, who are our creditors.”

Peterson Foundation CEO Michael Peterson, however, explained that the “structural problems we face fiscally existed long before the pandemic” and that Covid-19 merely “exacerbated the problem.”

National regulator NHTSA deems the ‘rolling stop’ function in Elon Musk’s company’s ‘full self-driving’ software to be unsafe

Electric car maker Tesla will recall all 53,822 vehicles with the ‘full self-driving’ feature, as they do not always come to a complete stop at intersections under certain conditions.

The move will affect Model S, X, 3 and Y vehicles, which are fitted with the company’s Full Self-Driving Beta (FSD Beta) software, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

The agency said the assist feature has resulted in the cars at times performing ‘rolling stops’ instead of coming to a complete stop at intersections, posing a safety risk.

Tesla agreed to disable the function following meetings with NHTSA representatives last month. ‘Rolling stops’ will be removed from the program as part of a software update planned for release online later in February.

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The function is not a glitch – the FSD Beta has been able to slowly roll past stop signs since the release of the first version in October 2020. It was only activated in situations of good visibility with no moving cars, bicyclists, or pedestrians around.

“There were no safety issues” with the rolling stop function, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted. “The car simply slowed to ~2 mph & continued forward if clear view with no cars or pedestrians.”

Tesla said it was not aware of any warranty claims, crashes, injuries, or fatalities caused by the function.

The company has always insisted that its ‘full self-driving’ feature requires a human driver to be ready to take control of the vehicle at any point.
Tesla already recalled almost 12,000 in the US last November over a communication error that could cause a false forward-collision warning or unexpected emergency brake activation.

Last week, the NHTSA also requested additional information as part of an investigation into Tesla’s decision to enable passengers to play video games on the front center touchscreen, which could allegedly distract the driver. The massive probe affects around 580,000 vehicles.