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GST Council cuts rates on 80 items 29 goods, 54 services to become cheaper; move towards simpler return-filing process Barely a fortnight to the Budget, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council on Thursday cut rates on 83 employment-oriented goods and services. This will hit the exchequer by Rs 10-12 billion annually.The Council is moving towards one return form, though a final decision in this regard is yet to be taken. The government also got the enabling power to have a single registration for services, a key demand of many players including those in the banking sector. This may be exercised later for specific services. Briefing reporters after the meeting, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the rates were rationalised for 54 categories of services and 29 goods. These include secondhand vehicles, diamonds, and precious stones, LPG supplied to domestic users by private players, information sought under the Right to Information Act, exploration of oil, 20 litre packaged potabl...

Markets shoot up on bank FDI hopes HDFC Bank m-cap touches Rs 5 trillion Indian market son Thursday recorded new highs with the Sen sex consolidating above 35,000 and the 50 share Nifty closing above 10,000 Banking shares led the gains for a second day, this time on hopes that the government would raise the foreign direct investment (FDI) ceiling for the sector to 100 per cent. A day earlier, they had jumped after the Centre announced a cut in additional borrowing to Rs 200 billion After rallying as much as 425 points, the Sensex settled 178.5 points, or 0.5 per cent, higher at 35,260 and the Nifty closed at 10,817, up 28.5 points, or 0.26 per cent.The markets came off their highs as some investors booked profits judging recent gains as excessive, said experts. The broader market in fact saw widespread losses. The BSE Mid- and Smallcap indices fell 1.6 per cent and 2 per cent, respectively. The breadth of the market also remained negative with over three shares declining for ...

Matching Invoices May Soon Be taxpayers'Job The onus of matching invoices to claim input tax credit under the goods and services tax (GST) regime may soon fall on the taxpayers instead of the IT the GST Network( GS TN ), if Info sys Chairman Nan dan Nile kan i’ s (pictured) recommendations, made to the Council on Thursday, are implemented .” According to the presentation, the onus of matching invoices will fall on the supplier and buyer rather than on the GSTN. This will be a much simpler process. There will be no filing of returns, butonly uploading of invoices,” saida senior government official.It will be a system where the seller will upload the invoice and the buyer will acknowledge it. The government is keen to bring back the suspended invoice-matching system after a fall in GST revenue raised concerns over tax evasion. The GST revenue collections fell to Rs 808.08 billion in November, the lowest since the roll-out of the indirect tax in July last year. Jammu and Kashm...

Improve pricing of risk-based loans, RBI tells banks Deputy governor Vishwanathan calls for better standards of underwriting, timely enforcement of loan covenants Banks in India must improve pricing of loans based on risk assessment, a skill that would have helped them avoid non-performing assets, N.S. Vishwanathan, deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India, said on Thursday. He also asked banks to improve underwriting standards by writing strong loan covenants—agreements with the borrowers—as well as enforcing them on time. Indian banks are currently sitting on a stressed asset pool of over Rs10 trillion.“Risk-based pricing of loan would need fair assessment and understanding of the risk involved, rather than merely relying on collateral and/or guarantees obtained from stakeholders including equity holders. Banks should charge interest rate that is commensurate with the risk involved in the projects that are being financed,” he said at an event. In many instances, risk is ...