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The country’s telecom regulator on Friday asked telcos to pay compensation of Rs.1 for up to three call drops per user, per day. Cellular Operators Association of India Director General Rajan S Mathews said the regulation might force the sector to shell out as much as Rs.150 crore every day. Business Standard, New Delhi, 17th Oct. 2015

Provident fund (PF) subscribers may soon be able to withdraw their money online. The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is hopeful of launching an online PF withdrawal facility by Marchend after the Supreme Court extended voluntary use of Aadhaar card to government schemes, including PF. At present, subscribers who wish to settle their accounts with the EPFO are required to apply manually and the process takes two to three weeks. Once the online facility is launched the subscribers will get their money in their bank accounts within three hours of making the application. The EPFO has written to the labour ministry for necessary approvals. To prepare ground for the full fledged launch, the EPFO will start settling all PF withdrawal claims having Aadhaar numbers within three days against the mandated period of 20 days though the claims will be filed manually only. Use of Aadhaar ensures speedy verification of PF withdrawal cases. Hindustan Times, New Delhi, 17th Oct...

Only Indian cos such as  Snapdeal  provide credit to the sellers on their platforms Some of the top etailers operating in India have sought the Reserve Bank of India's permission to lend to small and medium enterprises listed on their platforms. A senior RBI official said some suggestions were made at a town hall organised by the central bank in Delhi for ecommerce companies and small and medium enterprises (SMEs).“There were some suggestions made in this regard, and we have forwarded them to the head office. They are being looked at,“ he said, requesting anonymity . At present, only Indian firms such as Snapdeal provide credit to the sellers on their platforms to meet working capital requirements. The primary issue is that the holding pattern of some of the ecommerce companies is not clear, the official said. “They come under foreign direct investment (FDI) category and are not permitted to extend credit,“ he added. At present, Amazon Inc offers its business loan prog...

An agenda note with differences between data that can and cannot be shared is being prepared The government is devising ways to ramp up online dissemination of data and make more data available to public for free, an effort that is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Digital India initiative. The ministry of statistics and programme implementation is in the process of drafting an agenda note in which it has differentiated between data that can and cannot be shared on its website, officials said. It is planning to make the “sharable data“ available to everyone for free, in contrast to the current practice of charging a nominal fee for accessing data at the unit level, they said. At present, the government charges fees for providing data from the national sample surveys, Annual Survey of Industries and the economic census. This goes against the spirit of the open data policy, officials said. An internal committee of the ministry had earlier suggested continuing with the...

‘BoB case will be pursued to the ultimate conclusion’ Reserve Bank of India ( RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan ( pictured) on Thursday welcomed the Supreme Court ruling on the use of Aadhaar cards in more schemes and said it would help in financial inclusion and provide easy access to loans. “The ruling today will be quite helpful, making us use it in banking services. It will make it easier for financial inclusion,” Rajan told reporters after the central bank’s board meeting here. “Unique Identification ( UID) number will ensure that people will not get multiple loans from different places. We can make sure that it does not happen. This is an example on how we can make more lending possible,” said Rajan, who was in the city for RBI’s 554th board meeting. Speaking about the meeting, Rajan said the board discussed the state of the India’s and global economy. “ We discussed regulations, ombudsmen and Ponzi schemes. A wide variety of topics were discussed.” RBI also announced merger...

Industrial growth, signs of investment pickup & indirect tax kitty hint at rebound India's economy may be about to turn the corner on the back of robust public spending that's beginning to have an impact on the ground coupled with strong urban consumer demand, economists and government officials said. Three months of sound industrial growth driven by manufacturing, signs of a pickup in investment, robust indirect tax collections and indications of a mining sector reboot suggest that the government's attempts to revive the economy through reforms and higher public capital spend are working. Going ahead, the tailwinds of falling interest rates, big foreign inflows and a further strengthening of consumer demand in anticipation of the Seventh Pay Commission's award should propel the economy forward, said the analysts and officials.Helping this along will be the festive season bump along with the government chipping away at issues with steady reforms. “We are on ...

Updates Of the Day 1.Delhi VAT authorities have extended the last date of filing of online return for 1st and 2nd quarter of 2015-16 for assessee engaged in the business of e-commerce to 16.11.2015. 2.Modification of Import Export Code (IEC) to be online only from 21.09.2015. NOTICE NO. 36/2015-20, Dated: September 14, 2015. 3.Rebate of Excise duty admissible on both inputs and final products. [Supreme Court: Spentex Industries Ltd. vs CCE] 4.TDS non-deduction notification has an automatic effect and deductor is not under an obligation to specifically apply for claiming it.[HP High Court : CIT vs. State Bank of Patiala] 5.ITAT can consider the plea not raised before CIT (A) u/s 254 of the Income Tax Act. [Delhi High Court : Fast Booking (I) Pvt. Ltd. vs. DCIT] For more News Like us on https://www.facebook.com/caonlineofficial Or Subscribe on mail visit : www.caonline.in

Finance ministry has made it easier to claim tax benefit on expenditure with regard to seri ous ailments like thalassaemia, cancer, AIDS and haemophilia by doing away with the requirement of obtaining a certificate from a government hospital. Central Board of Direct Taxes has issued a notification amending Rule 11DD of the Income Tax Act to facilitate this.The amended rule relaxes the condition of obtaining the certificate for claiming expenditure under section 80DDB in respect of specified ailments from a specialist working in a government hospital, the finance ministry said. The Economic Times, New Delhi, 15th Oct. 2015

Aadhaar is far more secure in ensuring privacy than some social media apps and mobile phones in today's digital world, the government told the Supreme Court, as it wants the top court to permit wider use of the databank containing citizens' biometric information. The court has so far permitted “voluntary“ use of the Aadhaar identification number allotted to citizens only for the purpose of dispensing LPG, kerosene and PDS subsidies. The government wants to use Aadhaar for the purpose of authenticating the identity of citizens in banks, stock markets and for availing of services. Critics of Aadhaar say it is inherently intrusive of the citizen's right to privacy.A three-judge SC bench had disallowed any further use of Aadhaar, while referring the issue of the legality of a scheme to a larger bench. The government then moved a plea for vacating that stay . On Wednesday, when the proceedings got underway before a bench comprising Chief Justice HL Dattu and Justices MY ...

Centre may issue Swachh bonds and impose cess on petrol, diesel, telecom services and waste produced by industries to fund Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pet project Swachh Bharat Abhiyan The government may issue Swachh Bharat bonds and impose a cess on automobile fuels, telecom services and mineral waste to fund Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pet national cleanliness project. A group of chief ministers headed by Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu submitted a report to Modi on Wednesday outlining ways to mobilise funds for the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan initiative. “Swachh Bharat bonds may be issued and a Swachh Bharat cess may be levied by the central government on petrol, diesel, telecom services and also on accumulated waste produced by plants generating mineral waste like coal, aluminum and iron ore,“ the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement, citing the report. “Given the scale and importance of the programme, it has been suggested that the sha...

Inducements to be computed and settled on a monthly basis The National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) has started incentives for market makers to boost liquidity in exchange- traded funds (ETFs) listed on it. The exchange has started aliquidity enchancement scheme. The incentives will be computed and settled on a monthly basis. One condition is that participants should provide quotes within specified limits for 80 per cent of the trading time, for 80 per cent of the trading days in a month. The scheme began on September 15 and is open till March 31, 2016. (An ETF is a marketable security that tracks an index, acommodity, bonds, or a basket of assets. Unlike mutual funds, an ETF trades like a stock on an exchange. ETFs experience price changes throughout the day as they are bought and sold.) For equity ETFs, participants get varying incentives, depending on the counterparty, according to the exchange. For liquid ETFs, the participants get a waiver on transaction charges on the en...