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The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has, throughacircular dated March 6, laid down the procedure through which subscribers to shift their corpus fromarecognised provident/superannuation fund to the National Pension System (NPS). Experts say investors should weigh the pros and cons carefully before deciding whether to shift their corpus from the Employees´ Provident Fund (EPF) to NPS. The road map, as laid down by PFRDA, is as follows: An employee needs to have an active NPS TierIaccount, which can be opened through the employer, an eligible point of presence, or online through eNPS. Business Standard New Delhi,10th March 2017

The Centre has releasedaset of draft guidelines for digital wallet companies as part of its efforts to promote electronic payments while ensuring the security of transactions. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issued on Wednesday the draft Information Technology (Security of Prepaid Payment Instruments) Rules 2017 for public consultation, and will take suggestions until March 20. The draft rules underline security parameters that digital wallet companies, such as Paytm, FreeCharge and Mobikwik, will have to follow. They also stipulate standards for data protection and customer grievance redressal. Every prepaid payment instrument (PPI), or digital wallet, has been asked to developasecurity policy based on the rules and standards set by the government. “Every ePPI issuer shall review the security measures at least onceayear, and after any major security incident or breach or beforeamajor change to its infrastructure or procedures,” read the draft rules. Besides, t...

Direct tax collection grew by 10.7 per cent in the first 11 months of this financial year (April 2016 till February 2017) over the same periodayear before, less than the set target. The fullyear target is Rs.8.47 lakh crore or 14.3 per cent more. With Rs.6.17 lakh crore collected in these 11 months, March has to seea20plus per cent growth to achieve the target. The subdued tax numbers were due to fall in growth of both corporation tax due to stillawaited recovery in the performance of companies and personal income tax in AprilFebruary compared to AprilJanuary period. “We are hopeful of achieving the target. Net tax collections have been low due to substantially higher refunds issued compared to the previous financial year. Besides, the corporate sector is yet to showapickup,” saidagovernment official. Corporation tax growth was 2.6 per cent up to February, slower than the 2.9 per cent in the period to January. Personal income tax grew 20 per cent up to February, against 23.1 per ce...

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will holdameeting on Friday with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel and other top central bank officials to discuss the burgeoning toxic asset levels in the banking system and to draw upapossible structure ofastateowned ´bad bank´ or asset management company (AMC) that will take over nonperforming assets (NPAs) and enable banks to clean up their balance sheets. Also, issues such as how much ofahaircutabank must undertake in different stress account cases and the state of existing asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) will likely be discussed, Business Standard has learnt from finance ministry and RBI sources. The meeting will happen over video and will be attended by Patel and all RBI deputy governors. While the ´bad bank´ or AMC will be largely in line with what the RBI Deputy Governor Viral Acharya has proposed, officials in the RBI and the finance ministry´s department of financial services are working on its possible structure. So...

As the Budget session of Parliament resumed on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hoped there will be a breakthrough on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill and that issues will be discussed in a democratic manner. “We hope that there will be a breakthrough on the GST because all states have positively cooperated. All political parties have also extended cooperation in a positive way,“ he told reporters outside Parliament. The second leg of the Budget session resumed on Thursday after about a month-long recess. “We are meeting after a break and the budget proposals will be discussed in details,“ he sa id. Hoping for a healthy debate in the House, the Prime Minister said, “I believe that the level of discussion will go to a higher level. Attention will be drawn towards the issues related to the poor people.“ “We are moving ahead with the consent of all through a democratic process,“ he said, hoping that GST process will be completed before the session concludes next month...

As the Budget session of Parliament resumed on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hoped there will be a breakthrough on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill and that issues will be discussed in a democratic manner. “We hope that there will be a breakthrough on the GST because all states have positively cooperated. All political parties have also extended cooperation in a positive way,“ he told reporters outside Parliament. The second leg of the Budget session resumed on Thursday after about a month-long recess. “We are meeting after a break and the budget proposals will be discussed in details,“ he sa id. Hoping for a healthy debate in the House, the Prime Minister said, “I believe that the level of discussion will go to a higher level. Attention will be drawn towards the issues related to the poor people.“ “We are moving ahead with the consent of all through a democratic process,“ he said, hoping that GST process will be completed before the session concludes next month...

Non Banking Finance Companies (NBFCs) cannot lend more than Rs. 25,000 in cash against gold, RBI said. The earlier provision for NBFC was that high value loans against gold of Rs.1 lakh and above must only be disbursed by cheque. RBI reduced the amount to Rs.25,000 from the earlier Rs. 1lakh in line with the provisions of the I-T Act.“...the relevant threshold under the Income Tax Act, 1961is Rupees Twenty thousand,“ the central bank said, while amending the provisions for disbursal of loan amount in cash by NBFCs.This assumes significance in the backdrop of government's focus on less cash economy. The Economic Times New Delhi,10th July 2017

Tweaked definition of `agriculturalist' to enable select farm goods to be brought under tax net India has incorporated a new definition of `agriculturalist' in the goods and services tax law to enable select farm items to be brought under the tax net nationwide. While farmers won't have to register to pay the tax, registered buyers may need to collect the levy on a `reverse charge' basis, similar to the purchase tax principle adopted in Punjab and Haryana. Most farm produce will likely be exempted from the new tax and some cash crops are expected to at tract the threshold rate. As per the latest definition, an agriculturalist is a person or a Hindu undivided family undertaking cultivation of land by own labour or labour of the family or by servants paid wages in cash or kind or by hired labour under personal supervision or supervision by any family member. The draft central and integrated GST laws, which were approved by the GST Council, have incorporated the new de...