News maybe good but it's not trickling down.

"India ended the first half of the current fiscal with lots of good news on the economic front," wrote Roshan Kishore. "The Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for manufacturing for September is 53.7, up from 52.3 in August; the index of eight core sectors was 133.5 in August, higher than its value in that month in 2020 and 2021; goods and services tax (GST) collections in September were RS 1.17 lakh crore (Rs 1.17 trillion), the second highest in this financial year and the fourth higher since July 2017; and the Nomura Business  Resumption India (NIBRI) was at an all time high of 105 for the week ending September 26." "Gross Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue collections in September -- for sales in August rose to a five-month high of Rs 1.17,010 crore, up 22.5 percent year-on-year, according to latest data," wrote Aanchal Magazine. "This clearly indicates that the economy is recovering at a fast pace. Coupled with economic growth, anti-evasion activities, especially action against fake billers, have also been contributing to the enhanced GST collections," a Finance Ministry statement said. Since GST is paid as a percentage of price of goods and services, the rise in collection could simply be because of rising prices. "Large fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies said they have raised prices in the September quarter as higher input costs continue to remain a cause of concern," Mint. High prices of crude oil and palm oil was blamed by Varun Berry, Managing Director of Britannia. "The base import tax on crude palm oil has been slashed to 2.5% from 10%, while the tax on crude soyoil and crude sunflower oil has been reduced to 2.5% from 7.5%, the government said....The base import tax on refined grades of palm oil, soyoil and sunflower oil cut to 32.5% from 37.5%," Reuters. "After the cuts, crude palm oil, soyoil and sunflower oil imports will be subject to a 24.75% tax in total", while refined grades will be subjected to 35.75% tax in total. Cosmetics are produced from petroleum products like vaseline and paraffin and also from vegetable oils, maverikoils.com. Massive taxes have resulted in prices of petrol and diesel reaching record highs today, moneycontrol. Of the taxes on petrol, excise duty by the central government is much higher than VAT levied by state governments, Deccan Herald. So the government is increasing input prices by levying very high taxes, which increases prices of finished products, then collecting GST on the price of the finished product, and claiming that it is because of economic growth. What is especially alarming is that "Though GST revenues are picking up pace after the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, revenue buoyancy under GST is being seen as a concern, especially after the legally mandated compensation to states for revenue shortfall from the GST implementation comes to an end in June 2022," wrote Aanchal Magazine. This means that even though we are paying very high taxes the states are not getting their fair share. It is easy bluff us but not investors. "Private and public sector companies announced new projects worth a combined Rs 1.05 trillion in the September quarter," much less than Rs 2.58 trillion from a year ago, Mint. The economy needs to be nourished. Not phlebotomy.