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Before fixing a new date for the presentation of Union budget for 2017-18, the government is likely to hold discussions with the Election Commission to avoid any clash with the schedule of five states headed for polls. Assembly elections are due to be held in February in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur. “When we traditionally had the Union budget presentation on the last day of February , the Election Commission always knew of it and would weave around poll schedule accordingly .Now that the government has decided to advance the budget, some kind of consultations need to happen with the Election Commission,“ a top official said. The Cabinet last week agreed to advance the presentation of the budget to complete the legislative exercise before the beginning of new financial on April 1 as it would help plan spending on schemes better and boost economy . The new date is yet to be decided. The finance ministry has proposed that the budget presentation be fixed fo...

Board Structure Gives Govt Strategic Control Of Network The structure of the board of the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) has enough safeguards to ensure the government has strategic control of the entity , its chairman has said, while asserting that security of sensitive data will have the highest level of protection. “Therefore, by the structu re of the board itself the government has ensured that no decision can be taken which is not supported by the government,“ GSTN chairman Navin Kumar told TOI, while expressing confidence that the system would be ready before GST rolls out on April 1, 2017. “This concern that (since) they (private entities) have 51%, they can control it -they cannot control it. No board meeting can take place unless at least 50% of directors present are from the government.“ The Indian Revenue Service officers' association has opposed the move to let GSTN manage the IT system. BJP Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy has also written to PM Narend...

Soon you will able to withdraw your pension using your smartphone Pensioners and members of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) can breathe easy with the state-run pension fund manager planning to develop a mobile application and move a large chunk of its services online. “We are developing an app for pensioners and hope to roll it out by early next year,“ V P Joy , central provident fund commissioner told TOI. The app for pensioners is expected to reduce the enormous amount of paperwork and time taken to process applications. Verification will be done through electronic know your customer (e-KYC) using the Aadhaar number. The organisation has also undertaken a massive effort to upgrade its technology so that subscribers are able to use its services online without any interface with officials at the EPFO. “The idea is that people can access most of our services online and that is where we are headed. Online services will start by early next year,“ he said, adding t...

Even as the last date of the income disclosure scheme (IDS) — a governmentprovided opportunity for those holding unaccounted money to come out clean — draws closer, the tax department has sent out mails exhorting people to make the most of it to avoid penal action. The mails were addressed to people who have made large transactions or investments disproportionate to their sources of income, government officials said. The four-month compliance window under the IDS for voluntary disclosure of domestic black money ends on September 30. With just a few days left, the government is anxious to make it a success. The tax department has sourced information on these people as well as their transactions from banks and property registration authorities across the states over the last six years. It reportedly has a list of more than 90 lakh non-PAN transactions. “The letter is not intended to offend anybody. It does not even mention the transaction that led to its issuance. We have just ad...

When passing wealth to their children, some parents want to give more to one than to the others. This could be because one son is financially worse off than his siblings, or one has a bigger family to provide for. In many business families, the patriarch hands over the reins of the business to the child he thinks is more capable. But, in doing so, many times parents end up hurting the child they think can do with less. Such arrangements often get challenged in court. There have been many such cases, like a recent one involving a famous business family in Mumbai. The children of the elder son, who severed ties with the family many years earlier, recently claimed a stake in the business alleging that their uncle ( younger son of the patriarch) had been enjoying the family wealth while they had not got what they deserved. One way to deal with such a situation is to form a trust. “ A well- drafted trust deed can minimise the possibility of a dispute. It’s flexible. A head of family c...