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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday relaxed the per day cash withdrawal limit from automated teller machines (ATM) to Rs 10,000 per card, from Rs 4,500 currently. The weekly limit, however, remains unchanged at Rs 24,000. Current account holders can now withdraw up to Rs 1 lakh per week. Earlier, they were allowed to withdraw only up to Rs 50,000. This facility has been extended to overdraft and cash credit accounts as well.  RBI had imposed these limits in November after the government banned Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. The withdrawal limits are unlikely to be removed completely till RBI supplied the economy with sufficient amount of new notes, analysts said. The daily withdrawal limit has been changed a number of times earlier. On November 8 — the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the note ban — the central bank restricted daily withdrawal to Rs 2,000. It was increased to Rs 4,500 a few days later. This was quickly rolled back to Rs 2,000; then increased to R

Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today indicated that start-ups may get additional tax benefits in the forthcoming budget, to be unveiled on February 1. The ministry has already suggested the finance ministry to consider raising tax holiday for start-ups to 7 years from the current 3 years to encourage budding entrepreneurs. Business Standard New Delhi,17th January 2017

Days after government ordered seeking PAN details of all account holders, banks have started asking their customers, including KYC-compliant ones, to update their PAN details by February 28. Business Standard New Delhi,17th January 2017

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council on Monday broke a deadlock over issues of administrative control over assessees and broadly agreed to roll out the GST from July 1, instead of the earlier deadline of April 1. Whether a state or the Centre will assess an entity would be decided by a computer programme. The Council also resolved a logjam over the right to tax economic activities within 12 nautical miles from India’s coasts. Against the earlier proposals of reserving administration of assessees up to Rs 1.5 crore in annual turnover for states, or of allowing both the Centre and states to jointly administer these, the Council decided to blend the two suggestions. The entire tax base would be shared between the Centre and states in a predetermined ratio, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the chairman of the Council, said at a press conference after the meeting. The Centre agreed the states would have the powers to administer 90 per cent of assessees with an annual turn