Manufacturing PMI: Slight Improvement In Manufacturing Activity

Manufacturing PMI: slight improvement in manufacturing activity in April, job cuts also reduced.

The manufacturing sector activity in India showed a slight improvement in April compared to March. The second wave of Covid-19 saw new orders and output speed fall to an eight-month low.

This has been said in a monthly survey. IHS Markit’s Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) stood at 55.5 in April. The manufacturing sector’s PMI stood at 55.4 in March.

An increase of more than 50 on the PMI while the figure below shows a contraction.

Pauliana Di Lima, Associate Director (Economics) at IHS Markit said, “The deepening of the Covid-19 crisis has led to further moderation in the growth of new orders and outputs.”

Lima said that the increase in cases related to Covid-19 could see a further reduction in demand.

However, there was a slight decrease in daily cases of Covid-19 in India. The country saw 3,68,147 new cases of corona virus in a single day. This brought the total number of cases to 1,99,25,604.

Lima said that the problems that manufacturers are facing cannot be ignored. As far as cost is concerned, the participants in the survey indicated a sharp increase in cost expenditure.

“April saw the fastest increase in cost expenditure in the last seven years,” Lima said. This led to the fastest rate increase in output charge since October 2013.

The data for the coming months will be important in spite of the fact that in spite of these challenges, there is flexibility in the demand of the clients or the manufacturers will have to bear the cost themselves to take up the new work. ”

Sorting continued in the manufacturing sector in April as well. However, the rate of retrenchment was the slowest in the last 13 months.

Great relief in late fine on GST Return, exemption from interest and late fees on delay in GST returns of March and April for traders.

In view of the second wave of Corona, the government has given relief to the businessmen from penalty on delay in filling GST returns.

There was a demand from businessmen and entrepreneurs to extend the period for filing GST returns.

At present, the finance ministry has been given relief from the interest and late fees on delay in GST returns for March and April.

According to the ministry, the businessmen whose annual turnover is more than 5 crore, will have to pay a fee of only nine per cent instead of 18 per cent for the next 15 days from the last date of filing GST returns.

After that, they will have to pay a fee of 18 percent on filing the return.