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The option of “marrying” the insolvency framework with a possible settlement scheme to deal with resolution of debt-laden companies is something that can be considered in the future, said finance and corporate affairs minister Arun Jaitley.  It will be only after the initial batch of bankruptcy cases is cleared, Jaitley said at an event Tuesday. “We have to see if revival is only through the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) or can we revive otherwise,” he said, sounding a note of caution that the various Reserve Bank of India schemes for settling and restructuring debt had not yielded much success. “I think today may not be the right time to go in for this discussion because of the huge rush of companies coming into the insolvency process. But once this rush is off over the next couple of years, business comes back to usual and honest creditor-debtor relationship is restored on account of IBC, a situation may arise when we have to consider a need to marry the two processes,...

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council will soon consider a proposal that makes it mandatory for hospitals to bill medicines and hospitalisation charges separately, a move that could help plug any leakage in GST collection from healthcare providers. Such a measure is also seen benefiting consumers as it will make hospital bills more transparent.  Hospital bills typically include charges for both medicines and hospital services. While medicines and consumables attract GST, with some under the maximum retail price (MRP) regime, hospitalisation services usually do not face tax. Tax authorities are worried that hospitals could be charging in-patients for GST on medicines, but the tax may not be reaching the exchequer due to bundling of bill of hospitalisation charges and medication. “There is a thinking that hospitals should have separate bills for medicine and hospital services…This will bring transparency for consumers as well,” an official privy to the proposal told ET. The pr...

Demonetisation hit India’s economic activity in the period following the November 8, 2016, event but the impact had dissipated by the summer of 2017, said a working paper by the US-based National Bureau of Economic Research.  “Our results imply demonetisation lowered the growth rate of economic activity by at least 2 percentage points in the quarter of demonetisation,” said the working paper entitled ‘Cash and the Economy: Evidence from India’s Demonetisation.’ It compared the move’s effect to a monetary tightening equivalent to about two percentage points.  The paper, which has not been peer reviewed, said that India’s economic activity declined 3 percentage points or more in November and December 2016 even though its effects were dispelled over the next few months. It also noted some of the possible longer-term benefits of the measure that saw 86% of the currency notes in circulation being withdrawn.  “We conclude that while the cashless limit may appropriately desc...