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panel tasked with recommending a future fiscal roadmap,and whose recommendations are likely tobe incorporated in the coming Union Budget 2017-18,might present its report to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday.The Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) committee is chaired by NKSingh,a former member of Parliament and andan ex-revenue and expenditure secretary.The report was to have been or iginally give non October30.That was postponed more than once,after,in turn,being told to consider some recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission,seek the opinion of the Reserve Bank and study the impact of demonetisation Apaneltaskedwithrecommendingafuture fiscalroadmap,and whoserecommendationsare likelytobeincorporatedinthe comingUnionBudget2017-18, mightpresentitsreportto FinanceMinisterArunJaitley onMonday. TheFiscalResponsibility and Budget Management(FRBM) committeeischaired byNKSingh,aformer memberofParliament andandanex-revenueand expenditure secretary. The reportwas...

Leading lenders told to provide easier loans on priority to labour-intensive sectors The government has asked leading banks to assess credit offtake in some of the most labour intensive sectors in the wake of demonetisation and push for easier loans on a priority basis, a move that comes amid concerns over potential negative impact of the cash crunch. Sectors including textile, leather, footwear, gems and jewellery, and construction are under the scanner, government officials said. The industry department along with the financial services department plans to hold a meeting with the banks, ministries concerned and industry representatives in the coming week to further discuss the matter. “We want to push all such sectors which employ a large number of people, especially since many have suffered losses during the demonetisation exercise,“ said a senior government official, who did not wish to be identified. The government will assess credit offtake in these sectors and ask the ba...

Double counting, segregation of banned notes from others may have forced silence Reserve Bank of India governor Urjit Patel earned the ire of parliamentarians on Wednesday when he declined to disclose the amount of demonetised notes that have been deposited with banks. But there may have been a strong reason for the governor's reticence. The sheer magnitude of the money-counting exercise and the possibility of double counting may have forced the central bank to be cautious in its assessment, experts and economists said. There is also an issue of segregating the demonetised Rs. 1,000 Rs.500 and ` currency from deposits of notes which are legal tender. Although December 30 was the final day for depositing old notes in banks, bankers say government entities such as utilities, hospitals, post offices and even district cooperative banks may not have completed the exercise. Nearly 17.165 billion pieces ofRs. 500 denomination and 6.858 billion pieces of Rs.1,000 denomination amounti...

Cos hoping for measures to ensure customers use digital payments & don't migrate back to cash If demone Acche Din' for digital patisation got ` yment companies, further tax incentives and rewards are things these entities are hoping for in the upcoming Union Budget to ensure customers stick to digital payments instruments and don't migrate back to cash. Companies in this space are hopeful that the Centre will follow the South Korea model where their government succeeded to switch a major chunk of payments in the country to digital means through tax benefits for both merchants and consumers. “The government of South Korea did the maths around the fact that the number of people coming into the tax nets incrementally because of digital payments and the cost of cash to the GDP reducing would offset the temporary hit that they had in terms of tax payments,“ said TR Ramachandran, group country manager, India and South Asia for Visa. “I think this would be not only susta...

To make goods and services tax regime less onerous, the Centre and states have decided to water down the penal provisions to ensure a trader gets immediate bail if the alleged tax evasion is up to Rs.2 crore. Business Standard New Delhi,20th January 2017

NEW INSTRUMENTS Sebi weighs letting commo options devolve into futures contracts The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), which in September permitted commodity exchanges to introduce options on commodities, is considering settlement of the new instrument by letting it devolve into a futures contract as is the practice on CME-CBOT, Euronext and London Metal Exchange. Sebi has sought public comments on the proposal until January 31, 2017. The other option of allowing options to be cash settled, especially in agriculture commodities, was precluded due to lack of transparent and uniform spot prices being available. Non-agri futures contract mirror those traded on international exchanges.For example, gold and silver futures mimic contracts on Comex, crude futures on Nymex crude, etc. Therefore, price discovery in them is transparent and robust. Since most agri futures contracts end in compulsory delivery , options on them will be deliverable. In the non-agri space, gold and s...

The government is planning to make Aadhaar number mandatory for filing of income tax(I-T)returns from the next financialy ear and link all bank accounts to the uniqueidentity number by the end of this financial year. Sources in the government said the work on both fronts was moving steadily and relevant amendments to the Income Tax Act,1961,in this Budget are under‘ active discussion’ to ensure mandatory link age of tax returns to Aadhaar numbers.At the same time,the Aadhaar-based authentication of beneficiariesis to b e mademandatory for delivery of subsidised grain under the public distribution system(PDS). The decision for both these was taken in May at a meeting held at the Prime Minister’sOffice (PMO).It was at this meeting that the government also decided to link Aadhaar to delivery of big social schemes of the central government. In its May meeting,the PMO decided “Aadhaar numbers of individuals and office be arersofentitiesshouldbe obtainedinI-Treturns,starting assessmenty...