Headlines

The implementation of a 5% value-added tax in Oman this year is seen bringing in 300 million rials ($779 million), the Oman News Agency reported Saturday, citing the Gulf nation’s finance minister, Bloomberg News reported. Oman’s 2021 budget, announced Friday, forecasts a 14% drop in spending and a 19% decline in revenue after finances were ravaged by lower crude prices and the coronavirus pandemic. The country last year announced it would impose a 5% VAT in an effort to bolster the economy and curb its widening budget deficit.

As of January 1, eligible Australian businesses experiencing financial distress can access a new, simplified debt restructuring process that allows them to restructure their existing debts while remaining in control of their business, the government said in a statement, the Australian Times reported. The reforms are aimed at repositioning the country’s insolvency system to help more incorporated small businesses – with liabilities of less than $1-million – restructure and survive the economic impact of the Covid-19 recession.

Around a dozen large borrowers have applied for the RBI’s loan restructuring scheme for those affected by COVID stress. The deadline for corporates and invididuals to make an application under the RBI's resolution framework for COVID-related stress ended on December 31. For small businesses, there is a separate restructuring scheme that will be valid until March 2021. The Future Group, Shaporrji Pallonji Group and SpiceJet are among those who will apply for loan restructuring.

The New York Stock Exchange said it would delist China’s three big state-run telecommunications companies following an executive order from the Trump administration, in a symbolic severing of longstanding ties between the Chinese business world and Wall Street, the New York Times reported. The exchange said in a statement on Thursday that it would halt trading in shares of China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom by Jan. 11.

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India has adapted itself to the new environment in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and will strive to provide a "malleable regulatory framework" within the confines of the insolvency law, according to its Chairperson MS Sahoo, BloombergQuint reported. A key institution in implementing the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, the IBBI has moved to the electronic mode for most of its engagements with stakeholders and has recalibrated important regulations amid the pandemic.

A lack of tourists in the Czech capital forced City Sightseeing Prague to file for insolvency, Prague Morning reported. City Sightseeing is one of the world’s leading open-top bus, boat, and guided walking tour company. Established in 1999, the global brand provides hop-on hop-off services. City Sightseeing operates in over 100 locations across 5 continents which includes cities such as London, Rome, New York, Edinburgh, Seville, Moscow, Cape Town, and Prague.

With just over four weeks to go until the 31 January self-assessment deadline, several million people in the U.K. still haven’t filed their tax return, the Guardian reported. Each year about 11 million people have to complete a self-assessment tax return. Looking at recent years, there were still 5.4 million taxpayers who hadn’t filed by 31 December 2019, and 5.5 million who were yet to file by 31 December 2018. HMRC says that it is aware that many people will have been adversely affected by the pandemic, and may, for example, need help to spread the cost of their tax bill.

British lawmakers approved Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s post-Brexit trade deal with the European Union yesterday as both sides looked to begin a new chapter of relations just days before their divorce becomes a reality, Reuters reported. Britain and the European Union signed the deal on Wednesday and the British parliament will finalise its implementation, ending over four years of negotiation and safeguarding nearly a $1 trillion of annual trade.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte warned that Italy is reaching the limits on how much debt the government can take on, even as the European Union opens the door to further borrowing, Bloomberg News reported. While Italy is pushing ahead with a 38 billion-euro ($47 billion) budget for next year, the growing deficit is becoming unsustainable, Conte said during his year-end press conference in Rome on Wednesday. The Senate gave the final approval to the spending package while he was speaking.