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Recently, many customers have got mails and messages from their banks to change the ATM PIN of their debit cards. We now know the reason, with reports suggesting 3.2 million accounts in five leading banks -State Bank of India, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and YES Bank -- are compromised. Bankers and cyber experts advise that ideally an ATM PIN should be changed every three to six months. Are they being overly cautious? Perhaps not. Several banks have already asked their customers to change their card security details and to stick to own ATM networks. According to Reshmi Khurana, country head-operations for Kroll Advisory Solutions, there are reports of customers reporting transactions on their debit cards in China, which is how banks came to know of the breach of data security. A certain foreign payment services company, whose system is believed to have been compromised, is going for a forensic audit. “While it is not confirmed, the breach of data seems to be on account of a ...

Seeking to minimise litigations over taxation, CBDT has come out with rules for computing distributed income arising out of issue of shares following buy back, demerger, amalgamation or bonus issue by companies. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has introduced new Rule 44BB for computing amount received by a company in respect of issue of share for computing buy back tax payable. The rules take effect from June 1, 2016. The final rules provide for computation mechanism of 'amount received' in 12 different scenarios depending upon the manner of issue of shares — regular issue, amalgamation, demerger, bonus issue, conversion of bond or debenture, sweat equity share issue and share-buyback in demat form. The clarification with respect to the amount received by a company in case of ESOP or sweat equity shares is quite logical and would go a long way in rationalising the tax impact arising on buy back of such shares, experts said. "In absence of clear provisions in t...

For longer tenure products, they offer higher returns compared to other instruments. But for shorter tenures, things are getting tighter for investors Despite the recent interest rate cuts in small savings schemes; they still remain attractive for retail investors. For the October-December quarter, the government has reduced interest rates by 10 basis points across the schemes. The one-year fixed deposit now carries seven per cent interest rate. The returns on two, three, and five-year deposits are 7.1 per cent, 7.3 per cent and 7.8 per cent, respectively. The short-term rates, up to two years, are almost on a par with those of all big banks. But in deposits over five years, small savings scheme scores. SBI offers only seven per cent on fixed deposits above three years. Among private banks, ICICI Bank and HDFC have comparable rates compared to Small Savings Schemes for tenures less than five years. But for five years or more, these banks offer interest rates of 7.25 per cent. How...

With the government attempting to arrive at a final rate of the goods and services tax (GST) through consensus among stakeholders, the Gems & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) has demanded that the precious metals and stones industry be kept under the lowest rate slab. According to GJEPC Chairman Praveenshankar Pandya, any adverse tax structure would result in India losing its leadership position in diamond cutting and processing. Currently, import of rough diamond attracts ‘nil’ duty, while exports of cut and polished diamond are under ‘zero’ duty regime. “Thus, the entire gold and jewellery sector is currently under ‘nil’ duty regime. Any adverse duty levy on this sector would hit the entire value chain of diamond and jewellery sectors. Therefore we, based on a survey conducted over nine months across our 7,000 registered members, arrived at a conclusion that a recommendation should be sent to the government seeking exemption of gems and jewellery sector under GST,...

India Inc may prefer a higher rate at the top end of the goods and services tax (GST) bracket, rather than have a cess that is non-creditable by nature, with a cascading effect on the indirect tax system. "Industry is not going to welcome the idea of a cess. In fact, industry may prefer a higher tax rate so that the input tax credit chain is not broken, and the whole indirect system remains less complicated," said Harishanker Subramaniam, national leader, indirect tax, EY India. Tax experts say imposing a cess is a bad idea as it complicates the structure of GST. Pratik Jain, leader indirect tax, PwC India, agrees that cesses, if imposed, will lead to cascading of taxes and complicate the overall GST structure. "Increasing the rate of GST slightly might be a better solution," he adds. Tax experts and corporate lawyers say the government in all its communications on GST highlighted that all cesses and surcharges would be subsumed under the new indirect tax re...

Industry and consumers would have to wait at least a fortnight to know the much-awaited goods and services tax (GST) rates, as the meeting of the Council to decide it ended abruptly on Wednesday, a day ahead of schedule. The Centre and the states failed to reach any consensus on it. Also, the issue of administrative control over tax assesses or dual control - claimed to have been settled earlier - cropped up again. It was decided the GST Council would meet again on November 3 and 4. The Centre and states, however, did manage to reach a broad agreement on the formula for compensation to loss-incurring states and a cess over the peak rate to fund the compensation. The details of these would be worked out at the next meeting, before tax rates can be fixed. The issue of tax rates, for which the Centre has suggested four slabs and a cess, would also be taken up in the November meeting. "On the issue of source of funds from which compensation to the states would be funded, t...

The Narendra Modi led government believes that “personal laws must comply with fundamental rights”, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said, defending the Centre's opposition to the practice of ‘triple talaq’ among Muslims. The government’s view is clear. Personal laws have to be constitutionally compliant, and the institution of triple talaq, therefore, will have to be judged on the yardstick of equality and the right to live with dignity,” Jaitley wrote in a signed article on Sunday. Uniform civil code debate can go on: Jaitley “Governments in the past have shied from taking a categorical stand that personal laws must comply with Fundamental Rights. The present government has taken a clear position,” he said. The finance minister also sought to differentiate triple talaq from the larger issue of Uniform Civil Code. “As of today, the issue before the Supreme Court is only with regard to the constitutional validity of triple talaq,” he wrote. Hearing petitions on the validity of tr...

The finance ministry has assured Central Board of Excise and Customs(CBEC) officers that there will be no reduction of manpower under the new goods and services tax(GST)regime and the HR policy will be drafted after taking their views on board. In a meeting with the ministry last week,central excise officers flagged their concerns about use of technology and transfer of any assessees of excise and service tax to states under the new framework, leading to surplus manpower. “We flagged our concerns regarding surplus manpower and HR policy in the new regime.The board has assured us that there will be no man power reduction. Also they have asked us to send our comments on human resource, which will be looked in to for framing of the policy, ”Ravi Malik, secretary general,All India Association of Central Excise Gazetted Executive Officers, told PTI . The association had earlier planned to hold dharn as on October14, but following the assurance from the board, it decided to shelve the plan....

The government has been quick in strengthening the newly introduced Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016 by framing draft regulations for insolvency process and liquidation of corporate entities, registration of insolvency professionals and insolvency agencies, rules for applications to the adjudicating authority and draft model by-laws for insolvency agencies.  Business Standard takesalookat thebriefbackgroundandprogressof theCode,aswellassomekeyfeatures oftherecentproposalswhichhave beenputupforpublicdiscussiontill October31. WhenwastheCodeintroduced,and withwhatobjective? TheCodecameintoforceonMay28, 2016.Theobjectivewastorevampthe scenarioofassetreconstructionand streamlinetheprocessofcorporate liquidation.Stillinitsnascentstages, thelegislationhasalreadybeenlaudedasapath-breakingdevelopment fromtheearlierframeworkofinsolvency,governedprimarilythoughthe erstwhilecolonialstatutes—The PresidencyTownsInsolvencyAct 1909andTheProvincialInsolvency Act 1920 — alongside the Sick Indust...

What is your first take of India’s accounting standard getting IFRS-compliant? We see this as a nenormous progress for India as the quality of accounting will improve. What is important for Indian business is that Indian accounting standards have come very close to international accounting standards. This will reduce the cost of doing business internationally. There are some carve-outs(under Indian accounting standards) from IFRS. But, we have been told that these differences will disappear overtime. We are an international organisation. We cannot impose our standards on anybody.All the 120 countries that follow our standard do so voluntarily.  Many companies that have adopted the new accounting standard have expressed reservation over giving away too much information to shareholders and the public. Those complaints are not typically Indian. We hear them everywhere. Accounting is not an exact science. It has alot to do with judgment and people have differences of opinion. Not even...

Insurance companies will not be asked to compulsorily list themselves on the stock market, as the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) is having second thoughts about it after a nudge from the finance ministry. “We had never insisted on it (listing).It is only a discussion paper and should be seen in that perspective,” Irdai Chairman T S Vijayan told Business Standard . He also said he had received comments on the paper from many companies asking for a reconsideration of the proposal.“We are willing to wait", he added. In August,Irdai surprised the 55 life and non-life insurance companies in India, when it issued the discussion paper on the need for them to get listed. The regulator gave the companies a short time frame of less than a month to respond. “The hurry created an impression among firms that the final regulations would be in place soon”,said the CEO of an  insurance company. Several companies have since approached the finance ministry,asking t...