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Once the goods and services tax (GST) is rolled out, targeted from July 1, makers of fast moving consumer goods should be able to cut prices by 2 to 20 per cent, said Kishore Biyani, group chief executive officer of the Future Group on Tuesday. He was attending a meeting of a dozen national and international retail chains, such as Walmart, DMart, Future Group, Aditya Birla Retail, and Trent in Mumbai.They were discussing the impact of the GST on retailers and customers.Biyani said the Future Group´s consumer goods company, Future Consumer, would cut prices by 220 per cent. The CEO of another retail chain, who did not want to be named, said in the GST regime, retailers could lose up to 23 per cent of their margins if FMCG companies did not revise prices.“Our net margins are 23 per cent. If we are not given input credit, we will incur losses,” he added. Retailers said printing GST rates would also have a negative impact on consumers. According to the rules, retailers would have to di...

The government on Tuesday said that good and services tax (GST) will be rolled out from July 1 and preparations are in full swing for its smooth implementation, as it sought to dispel rumours of a possible deferment.There have been demands from certain sections of the industry for a deferment of GST rollout.West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra too had proposed to postpone GST by a month. “The government said GST is scheduled to roll out on July 1.The Central Board of Excise and Customs in coordination with the states have raised their out reach programmes,"a finance ministry said. Business Standard New Delhi, 14th June 2017

A farmers´ association has asked the government to roll back 5 per cent goods and services tax (GST) on raw tobacco and exempt it from the tax bracket like any other agricultural crop.Fearing drop in prices of tobacco leaves and raw tobacco after the new tax regime come into effect next month, tobacco farmers across Andhra Pradesh have stalled auctions in all platforms, said the Federation of All India Farmer Associations (FAIFA) in a statement. Terming the rate on tobacco “unrealistic”, farmers said it will severely endanger their livelihoods and asked the government to do away with it in the upcoming GST review meeting on June 18. “Farmers from different auction platforms in the Southern Black Soil (SBS) region decided not to bring their produce to the market to protest 5 per cent GST on tobacco leaves and 28 per cent on unmanufactured tobacco,” said FAIFA Vice President Gadde Seshagiri Rao. According to FAIFA, raw tobacco and unmanufactured tobacco were exempted from the central...

A tenant paying Rs 50,000 monthly rent must deduct TDS and deposit it with the income tax department For the past four-five years, the income tax (I-T) department has been consistently tightening its noose around realty transactions. From making registration of rental agreements with PAN details of both the tenant and owner mandatory to the latest — deduction of TDS (tax deducted at source) on monthly rental of Rs 50,000 and above - rules have been tightened significantly to ensure black money isn’t generated from this sector. The Central Board of Direct Taxes’ (CBDT’s) latest salvo targets people who claim significant amounts as house rent allowance (HRA), sometimes with the help of false documents. From June onwards, those who pay monthly rental of Rs 50,000 need to deduct 5 per cent TDS and deposit it with the I-T department. This TDS trail will serve as proof for people claiming high HRA. The provision was introduced in the Finance Bill, 2017. “The idea behind the provision is ...

Sebi has permitted European-style options, with a fixed settlement period The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has issued a circular allowing commodity exchanges to launch options trading in commodities. Initially, an exchange can launch options in only one commodity and the position limits for options will be double that of the respective futures contract. The settlement of commodity options will be complex as they become futures contracts on settlement. This mechanism has been introduced to allow option-holders to give or take delivery, which is not possible in the current legal framework. Sebi has also specified criteria for commodities to be allowed for options trading. The commodity must be among the top five by traded volume on an exchange and the daily average volume over the previous 12 months must be Rs 200 crore for agri and agri-processed commodities and Rs 1,000 crore for non-agri commodities. Exchanges are still deliberating on their choice of commodities ...

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), capital markets regulator, is planning to ease entry norms for overseas investors by allowing direct access to foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) from certain jurisdictions. The move is expected to give a fillip to foreign investment in the country as it would end procedural delays faced by FPIs while registering in India. On the other hand, Sebi is likely to tighten off shore derivatives instruments (ODI) or participatory notes (p-notes) regulations. The announcements were likely to be made after Sebi’s board meeting scheduled for June 21, sources said. According to sources, the entities registered with regulators that are signatories to the International Organisation of Securities Commissions’ (Iosco’s) multilateral memorandum of understanding (MMOU) would not have to undergo the cumbersome registration process required to be eligible to invest in the Indian market. In other words, an investor ‘A’ is regulated by the UK’s Financi...

These cover 25% of bad loans of banks The Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday said its internal committee (IAC) had 12 accounts that covered about 25 per cent of the banking system´s non-performing assets for immediate resolution under the Insolvency Bankruptcy Code. The gross bad debt of the Indian system as of March was at Rs 7.11 lakh crore, which means the 12 accounts would be responsible for about Rs 1.78 lakh crore.The central bank did not give the names of the borrowers. The government has amended the RBI Act, giving powers to the central bank to direct banks to take punitive action against individual accounts under the Code.Earlier the central bank could give directions only on an industry basis. The process of appointing a professional to take over the management of a company and then come out with a solution to repay loans will take a long time and may not be a workable solution, say corporate lawyers. The process begins with the banks approaching the National Company Law Tr...