CA Online

Policyholders could be left in the lurch when insurance companies discontinue their plans. Policies are withdrawn either because of changes in regulations or introduction of new policy schemes by insurers. Recently, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) banned life insurance companies from selling indemnity- based health insurance products. Almost all life insurance companies —HDFC Life Insurance, Reliance Life Insurance and IndiaFirst Life Insurance — have indemnity mediclaim plans wherein the policyholders are reimbursed according to the hospital bills. The insurers will now have to withdraw these plans. “Existing policyholders, however, will continue to enjoy the benefits of the policy till the end of the term,” says R M Vishakha, MD & CEO, IndiaFirst Life Insurance. Many policyholders may worry that they would face problems with servicing as the insurers will no longer focus on health product. “They shouldn’t have any such apprehensions, as r

Finance minister Arun Jaitley has said amendments to the Companies Act 2013 being considered by Parliament will help ease institutional fund flow to small businesses, acknowledging this has been an issue with the MSME sector that has also not received adequate policy attention. “There were procedural constraints concerning related party transactions whereby the main source of finance for MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) was jeopardised but the government is working on it,“ the finance minister said at the launch of an online databank for MSMEs on Thursday. He conceded that even though the micro, small and medium enterprises were the backbone of the economy, they had not received enough policy attention. “The MSME sector is not given enough space during policy making or due media coverage, given how vast the sector is,“ Jaitley said, adding that the sector was facing competition from not only domestic industries with economies of scale but also globally. Despite the

Amendments to help 1.8 million women in the organised sector; Bill will now go to the Lok Sabha The Rajya Sabha on Thursday passed the amendments to the Maternity Benefit Act that seeks to provide 26 weeks of maternity leave to working women and 12 weeks to commissioning mothers and introducing an enabling provision of “work from home“ for nursing mothers. The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave its ex post facto approval to the bill on Wednesday. The provisions are applicable to all establishments employing 10 or more people. The amendments will help about 1.8 million women in the organised sector, the Cabinet had said. The bill will now go to the Lok Sabha, where the government enjoys a majority, and after its passage in the lower house and presidential assent, the changes will be notified by the labour ministry, making them formal. As per the proposed amendments, maternity leave for women working in both private and public sector will be enhanced to

The textile industry is watching to see what the final rate of tax under the proposed goods and service tax (GST) regime would be. This is because of the tax implications the new law will have on major input goods going into the textile production process such as cotton and man-made fibres. According to a report by financial analysis firm ICRA, a lower 12 per cent rate, as recommended by the Arvind Subramanian committee last year, is likely to have a negative impact on the textile sector, especially affecting cotton value chain. Currently, cotton attracts zero central excise duty under the optional route. Compared to this, man-made fibre attracts excise duty at the manufacturing stage. Hence there is an incentive for the downstream players in manmade sector to avail of the input tax credit (ITC). With an optional duty structure at the cotton yarn stage itself, the downstream sectors — weaving, processing and garments — also operate under the optional route, Anil Gupta, vice-p

The Reserve Bank of India ( RBI) on Thursday proposed that a customer should have zero liability in case of a third- party fraud on the account or card, provided the customer notifies the bank within three working days of receiving the communication from the bank regarding an unauthorised transaction. In case of delay in reporting, the liability should be limited to not more than Rs. 5,000, RBI said. For sure, the zero liability can be claimed only if the customer is not fully or partly responsible for such unauthorised transactions to take place. If the bank is responsible for the fraud, the customer is automatically absolved of any liability. It will be mandatory for a customer to register for alerts for electronic banking transactions, RBI said in draft guidelines on customer protection on its website. However, the customer will be liable in a limited manner if the negligence is on the part of the customer, such as where she has shared payment credentials. In such cases,

www.caonline.in News... 1.Statutory Bank Audit Online Multipurpose Empanelment Form (MEF) for the year 2016-17 is live at www.meficai.org. The last date for submission of online MEF Form for the year 2016-17 is 31st August, 2016 and for submission of hard copy of "DECLARATION FOR MEF 2016-17" is 12th September, 2016. 2.The Parliament passed the Enforcement of Security Interest and Recovery of Debts Laws and Miscellaneous Provisions (Amendment) Bill,2016 empowering banks to confiscate security in the case of loan default. 3.Reimbursement of seconded employees’ salaries to seconding company not subject to TDS. [DCIT vs. Mahanagar Gas Ltd. (ITAT Mumbai)]. 4.Now Company Secretaries or Cost Accountants having PAN, or their firm can also act as e-return intermediary. CBDT notification dated 09.08.16. 5.15.08.16 is the last date to Issue of TDS certificate for June quarter of 2016-17 by all deductors.