10 things you need to know before the opening bell on September 30

3. Market At Close On Tuesday: Indian indices ended flat on Tuesday as gain in IT, auto and metal indices were capped by losses in banks and FMCG stocks. Meanwhile, fall in global peers also weighed on the sentiment as investors awaited the first U.S. presidential debate and eyed progress of a fiscal stimulus package in Washington. The Sensex ended 8 points lower at 37,973 while the Nifty fell 5 points to settle at 11,222. Broader markets also turned negative with Nifty Midcap and Nifty Smallcap indices down around 0.1 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively. (Image: Reuters)

4. Crude Oil: Oil prices on Tuesday fell more than 3%, although closed off their lowest levels of the day, on worries about the outlook for fuel demand as Europe and the United States grappled with a surge in new coronavirus infections. On its second to last day as the front-month, Brent futures for November delivery fell $1.60, or 3.8 percent, to $40.83 a barrel, while the more active Brent contract for December fell 3.6 percent to $41.33. West Texas Intermediate crude fell $1.31, or 3.2 percent, to settle at $39.29 per barrel, reported CNBC International. (Image: Reuters)

5. Rupee Close: The Indian currency settled lower on Tuesday amidst volatile equity markets. The rupee ended 7 paise lower at 73.86 against the US dollar as compared to Monday's close of 73.79. (Image: Reuters)

6. GST Compensation: India's top auditor has red-flagged violations by the Centre on the GST compensation front. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has highlighted that in the first two years post the GST regime kicking in, the Centre used GST cess of over Rs 47,000 crore elsewhere instead of crediting it to the GST Compensation Fund. The CAG pointed out that the short-crediting was a violation of the GST Compensation Cess Act of 2017. The CAG has also red-flagged lapses as far as sharing of Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) is concerned. The report points out that close to Rs 14,000 crore was left unapportioned and retained in the Consolidated Fund of India. According to the GST laws, IGST has to be shared between the centre and states in the ratio of 50:50. Further, as per recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission, the centre is to give a further 42 percent from its share to the states. Government sources however have denied allegations of "diversion of funds." (Image: PTI)

7. Power Ministry On Reducing Purchase Cost: To make electricity tariff affordable for consumers, the Ministry of Power is working on a proposal to reduce power purchase costs along with optimising coal utilisation. The move comes on the back of increased capacity addition and slow demand growth over the years, which has now led to a reduction in overall capacity utilisation and share of coal-based power generation. Sources told CNBC-TV18 that the Ministry of Power wants to remove the pre-condition of obtaining a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) under the Fuel Supply Agreement (FSA) for coal supply. The ministry plans to allow the selling of spare capacity in power exchanges, which will help states procure cheap electricity and pass on the benefit to consumers. (Image: PTI)

8. Sugar Mills Can Submit Ethanol Proposals: The Centre has opened a one-month window for sugar mills till October 15, for submitting their proposals to avail loans at a subsidised interest rate for augmenting ethanol capacity in the country, a senior Food Ministry official said on Tuesday. As part of an incentive scheme announced in June 2018, the Centre had approved soft loans for mills to set up new distilleries or upgrade existing ones, expand capacity, and encourage them to divert sugarcane to ethanol making. Under the scheme, the government has extended twice the interest subvention that comes up to Rs 4,600 crore for a loan amount of Rs 22,000 crore.  (Image: PTI)

9. Former Chief Statistician On Farmers' Revolt: As farmers across India rise up against the Centre's farm bills, Dr. Pronab Sen, former Chief Statistician, on Tuesday said if the central government winds down the Food Corporation of India (FCI) completely, there will be a farmer revolt. In an interview to CNBC-TV18's Latha Venkatesh, Sen said, "I think the legitimate question is that what do you do with this excess stocks and the answer is the provision that already exists, which is that FCI must do more frequent and more geographically dispersed open market operations to offload the grains." Claiming that alternate mandis are not a bad thing, Sen said if the government do away with the oversight function, it will open to the kind of misuse that happens in any unregulated platform. (Image: PTI)

10. India Probes Imports: India has initiated a probe into an alleged increase in subsidised imports of copper tubes and pipes, used air conditioning and refrigeration systems, from Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam following a complaint by domestic manufacturers. Bombay Metal Exchange (BME) has given a representation to the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) stating that there is a steep decline in production due to jump in imports of these products from Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam because of ”significant subsidies/benefits” that are available to the producers in these countries, according to a notification. In the probe, the DGTR would determine the existence, degree and effect of alleged subsidisation and recommend the amount of countervailing or anti-subsidy duty, which if levied, would be adequate to remove the injury to the domestic industry. (Image: Reuters)