CA Online

  India may cut the goods and services tax on lithium-ion batteries and bring them on a par with taxes on electric vehicles to give a fillip to its green mobility plans. Discussions have begun among various stakeholders in the Union government on ways to proceed with the plan, which is crucial to making the country a global manufacturing hub for electric vehicles (EVs). Currently, EVs are taxed at 5%, while lithium-ion batteries are taxed at 18%. There have been considerations of tax rationalization on lithium-ion batteries earlier, but with the push for battery swapping policy, the talks have again gained momentum, said people in the know of the developments. The NITI Aayog, the ministries of new and renewable energy, heavy industries, and other government departments held their first meeting on Tuesday on the battery-swapping policy. This followed receipt of suggestions and recommendations on the draft policy until 5 June. Along with tax rationalization, standardization of batter...

  The Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday doubled the limit on housing loans from cooperative banks and also permitted Rural Cooperative Banks (RCB) to finance residential real estate projects to support affordable housing and inclusive growth. The central bank allowed urban cooperative banks (UCBs) to provide doorstep banking services to meet the needs of customers, especially senior citizens and differently abled persons. This would bring UCBs on par with scheduled commercial banks which already provide such services. RBI, in a monetary policy statement, today said it is raising the existing limits on individual housing loans by cooperative banks due to an increase in housing prices since the last revision and after factoring in customer needs. These limits were last revised for UCBs in 2011 and for RCBs in 2009. The limits for tier-I/ tier-II UCBs stand revised from Rs 0.30 crore to Rs 0.60 crore and Rs 0.70 crore to Rs 1.40 crore, respectively.   As regards rural co-operati...

  In a relief to subscribers of journals and insurance customers for paying premia on a regular basis, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has increased the limit for e-mandates for recurring payments to Rs 15,000 from Rs 5,000.After the e-mandate was capped at Rs 5,000 in October last year, customers had taken to social media complaining that they had to initiate payments at regular intervals for availing of such services. While announcing the move, the regulator said more than 62.5 million mandates had been registered in favour of a large number of domestic and over 3,400 international merchants. “Since October 1 when we introduced the new framework, so far about 59 million mandates have been registered. The total mandates are about 65 million, which basically means about 6 million mandates existed before that and subsequently these many mandates have been created. So, probably a large part is covered,” said T Rabi Sankar, deputy governor, RBI. “We heard from many people that interna...

  Customers borrowing from unregistered digital lending apps should approach the local police in case of any issue, Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Wednesday, making it clear that the central bank will only act against entities registered with it. In remarks that came in the wake of a spate of alleged suicides abetted by harassment by agents or officials of lending apps, Das said most of the digital lending apps are not registered with the central bank and operate by themselves.Das said whenever it gets a complaint from any customer, the central bank directs customers of such unregistered apps to approach the local police, which will conduct an investigation and take necessary action on the issue. The RBI website has a list of apps that are registered with it on the website, the governor said, adding that the police in many states have acted against the wrongdoers as per the provisions of the law. “It’s my humble request to all those using such apps to first check if ...

  Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman to launch the Iconic Day celebrations of Ministry of Corporate Affairs at Vigyan Bhawan tomorrow To commemorate Amrit Mahotsav, MCA to launch of National CSR Exchange Portal MCA to release commemorative Postal Stamp on Investor Awareness  A short film on the evolution of Corporate Governance in India will be released  Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman will flag off the Iconic Day celebrations of Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) during Iconic Week of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav (AKAM) as a part of the mega celebration of Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Corporate Affairs in New Delhi, tomorrow. The Iconic Day will be celebrated at the Plenary Hall, Vigyan Bhawan. Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs will grace the occasion the as the Chief Guest and Rao Inderjit Singh, Minister of State for Ministry of Corporate Affairs & MoS (I/C) Ministry of...