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Cash deal limit may be reduced under PMLA Present limit of Rs 1 million to be lowered substantially to curb money laundering The Centre is planning to tighten the anti-money laundering rules pertaining to the “reporting and maintenance of record” by mandating reporting entities to furnish information of entities dealing in cash above a certain amount, a move to curb money laundering. Under the current Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) rules, such reporting is required for all cash transactions of value exceeding Rs 1 million, all cross-border wire transfers of more than Rs 500,000, and all purchase and sale of immovable property of Rs 5 million or more. Sources say the cash transaction limit could be reduced to as low as Rs 200,000.The reporting provisions under PMLA impose obligations on reporting entities like banks, financial institutions, and intermediaries such as stockbrokers to verify the identity of clients, maintain records, and furnish information to the finan...

Higher direct tax mop up gives govt fiscal relief A mid fiscal worries, the government has got some relief on the direct taxes front, primarily due to lower refunds.Direct tax collection rose 18.2 per cent till December last year.The target of direct tax collection growth was 15.7 per cent for this financial year, according to Budget Estimates. The collection (after refunds) rose to Rs 6.56 trillion till December.This represented 67 per cent of the Budget Estimates of Rs 9.8 trillion.The refunds stood at Rs 1.12 trillion, 23 per cent lower than last year´s Rs 1.38 trillion. The increase would give some leeway to the government, which faces the challenge of reining in its fiscal deficit at 3.2 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) due to subdued goods and services tax (GST) collection, transfer of surplus by the Reserve Bank of India and telecom spectrum receipts.The government is looking atashortfall of about Rs 500 billion from these heads. The 23 per cent drop in refunds...

Benefits of AADHAAR  unclear: RBI researchers January 9 The benefits of Aadhaar, India´s biometrics based unique national identity system —the world´s largest —are unclear and the impact of direct benefit transfers it will be used to deliver to the poor is not studied enough,a  new study published by an arm of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has concluded. The paper, ´Biometric and Its Impact in India´, was part of Staff Papers series published in its October 2017 edition.It is written by SAnanth, an adjunct faculty at the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT), which was established by the RBI as an autonomous institute. Aadhaar is becoming central to India´s public policy with increasing number of programmes being linked to it.And its scope is constantly increasing.In the seven years following its introduction, 1.12 billion Indians or 88.2 per cent of the population have enrolled for Aadhaar, India Spend reported in March, 2017. Establ...

Direct tax collections rise 18.2% in April-December in breather for govt Direct tax collections soars 18.2% in the first nine months of FY18 to Rs 6.56 trillion, in a breather for the government struggling to meet the fiscal deficit target Direct tax collections grew by more than 18% in the first nine months of the fiscal year to two-thirds of the full-year target, providing a breather to the government as it struggles to contain the fiscal deficit. Government revenues have been under pressure due to a shortfall in revenue from the goods and services tax (GST), prompting it to announce additional borrowing of Rs 50,000 crore last month to fund spending in key sectors of the economy. Net direct tax collections in April-December rose 18.2% to Rs6.56 trillion, or 67% of the budgeted direct tax collection of Rs9.8 trillion for the full fiscal year ending March, the tax department said in a statement on Tuesday. This means the remaining one-third has to come in the last quarter of...

Middle class likely to get tax relief in upcoming Budget Middle class can hope for a big relief in 2018-19 Budget, which will also be the last regular Budget of the NDA government, as the finance ministry is contemplating to hike personal tax exemption limit and tweak the tax slabs, according to sources The proposals before the ministry is to hike the tax exemption limit from the existing  2,50,000 per annum to at least Rs 3,00,000 if not Rs 5,00,000, they said. Besides, the tinkering of tax slab is also being actively considered by the ministry to give substantial relief to middle income group, especially the salaried class, to help them tide over the impact of retail inflation, which has started inching up. In the last Budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley left the slabs unchanged but gave marginal relief to small tax payer by reducing the rate from 10 per cent to 5 per cent for individuals having annual income between Rs 2,50,000 and Rs 5,00,000. In the next Budget t...