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Experts feel a higher rate may add to inflationary pressure, hurt services taxed at around 15% now Policymakers in some quarters of the government favour a goods and services tax rate of around 16% to make the reform more acceptable and also ensure it does not add to inflationary pressures. The new fiscal framework could provide the government wiggle room so that if revenues take a hit because of the low tax rate, this space could be utilized till the biggest tax reform since Independence starts yielding gains. “A lower tax rate will ensure that the new tax is readily accepted... It means that there would be no demand and price shock to the economy,“ said a top government official who is aware of the discussion. This would be closer to the 16.8% average goods and services tax in highincome countries than the 14.4% in emerging economies. A number of countries including Australia, New Zealand and Canada experienced an increase in prices after GST was implemented, a fact that th...

Rise Of Debit Cards, New Payment Tools Make Life Easier For Customers Not so long ago, bank strikes would impact everyone -from large companies to the common man, who queued up at a branch to withdraw money or deposit a cheque.Now for most, bank strikes pass off as a non-event given the advent of other payment channels -from plastic money to mobile wallets. Add to that the rise of private banks and weakening grip of unions. On Friday , when trade unions called a nation-wide strike to push their demands, the All Indian Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC) pulled out of the strike at the last minute, even as five other unions went ahead.As a result, the impact was limited at lenders such as SBI. And, banks' work process has undergone a big change.“Money transfer can be done 24x7. There are options such as Immediate Payment Servi ce (IMPS), which are outside the branch network and are not affected by strikes,“ said A P Hota, who heads National Payments Corporation of India...

Rajasthan Assembly on Friday unanimously ratified the Constitution Amendment Bill on Goods and Services Tax (GST) passed by Parliament. Speaking on the resolution, Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje said that the GST will have a very positive impact and states including Rajasthan will get advantages. Business Standard New Delhi,03th September 2016

The Reserve Bank of India(RBI)hascome out with yet another measure to ensure better real is ation of stressed assets by widening the market for their sales.RBI has allowed banks to sell these assets toother banks,non-banking financial companies,or financial institutions. Earlier, sales of stressed assets were restricted to securitisation companies/reconstruction companies. But banks believe this is just another step,andit may take a while before it turn sout effective. "At a time when most banks ares addled with high level sof bad loans,it is difficult to imagine they will be actively participating in the market to buy more stressed assets and then resolving them,"said the chief financial officer of a private sector bank. However, these new norms may bring down sale of stressed assets to asset reconstruction companies(ARCs). "Banks will have to continue to make loan-loss provisions even if they sell stressed assets to ARCs.This is an important gap the RBI is tr...