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The government is formulating a medical benefit scheme for all pensioners who are members of Employees' Provident Fund (EPF).The government will also constitute a high-level committee to revamp the Employees' Pension Scheme (EPS). “In association with the Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), we are going to formulate a medical benefit scheme for all pensioners who are EPF members,“ labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya told Lok Sabha on Friday . He added that this would be a contributory medical benefit scheme and details were being worked out. “I have directed that a complete valuation of EPS 1995 be done... Whatever gaps are there will be plugged,“ the minister said. Dattatreya was responding to a resolution moved by RSP member N K Premachandran on steps to ensure welfare of 59 lakh pensioners under EPS. Premachandran also demanded increase in minimum pension to Rs 3,000 from Rs 1,000 per month under the EPS scheme. He also pitched for implementation of w...

The tax authorities will now relay audit reports of corporates and specific information from  their I-T returns as also PAN data to the ministry of corporate affairs, as the government  plans to crack down harder on shell companies. Coming down heavily on shell companies, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has already  cancelled registrations of over 1.62 lakh companies for non-filing of financial statements  for the immediate two preceding fiscals. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the apex policy making body of the I-T department,  in an order has asked the Principal Director General of Income Tax (Systems) to share "bulk  information" to the MCA. Bulk information would mean Permanent Account Number (PAN) data of corporates, their Income  Tax returns (ITRs), audit reports and statement of financial transactions (SFT) received  from banks relating to corporates. Also the tax department would share identified PAN Challan I...

A section of postpaid users and corporate customers are getting their monthly mobile bills  late as big phone companies are struggling to capture the impact of the goods and services  tax (GST) on invoices issued post-July 1.  Bharti AirtelBSE -1.17 %, India’s No 1 phone company, has sent out text messages to some of  its postpaid customers saying their bills would be delayed by at least a week this month  owing to technical issues. ET has seen these text messages.  Airtel BSE -1.17 % postpaid customers in Delhi and Kolkata told ET that they had been  informed by the company’s customer care wing that the reason behind the delayed billing was  GST-related.  The country’s second-largest mobile carrier, Vodafone India, in turn, is learnt to be facing  a tough time billing corporate or ‘enterprise customers’ on schedule as many clients have  not shared their GST registration numbers.  Under GST rules, telcos are require...

Many expatriates living in India and non-resident Indians living in any other country may  just end up in tax trouble with no fault of theirs. They all are set to miss the July 31  deadline for filing income-tax returns due to snags in the e-filing system.  Several expats are unable to file tax returns because the e-filing system would not accept  it without an Aadhaar card link.  This despite the government, through a recent notification, clarified that foreign citizens  are not required to obtain Aadhaar card for tax filing purpose. “In several cases, the  income tax e-filing system is not allowing expatriates to upload their returns without  Aadhaar as they have been tagged as Indian citizens in the income tax database,” said Amit  Maheshwari, partner at Ashok Maheshwary & Associates LLP that is helping several expats deal  with the problem. “This anomaly seems to have its origin at the time of allotment of PAN,”  he ...

Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal said the passage of this Bill will help increase the size of the country’s economy and investor protection and corporate governance were the two main objectives of the measure The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed a Bill to amend the companies law seeking to strengthen corporate governance standards, initiate strict action against defaulting companies and help improve the ease of doing business in the country. Piloting the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2016, Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal also said that NSEL and PACL scams were a legacy of the previous regime, which the current government is trying to address. The Bill, which was passed by a voice vote, provides for more than 40 amendments to the Companies Act, 2013, which was passed during the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime. The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha in March 2016, and then ...

Central bank has extended the rest period of statutory auditors to at least 6 years The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday criticised private and foreign banks for  appointing the same set of auditors alternatively after mandatory rest of two years, as such  practice establishes a “comfortable relationship that may lead to compromise in strict  adherence to audit principles. As per the extant rules, a statutory auditor has to be appointed for a period of four years  and then there should be a rest of two years. Now the central bank extended the rest period  to at least six years. According to RBI, in some cases in private and foreign banks, the same audit firm was  reappointed after a gap of two years’ rest. In a few other banks, the immediately preceding  statutory auditor firm was appointed on completion of the four-year tenure of the current  statutory auditor. “The statutory central audit responsibility in such banks thus rema...

Foreign investors cannot buy further shares in non-banking finance company Capital First as  foreign institutional investors/foreign portfolio investors (FIIs/FPIs) have crossed the  maximum permissible investment limit, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said. Foreign shareholding through FIIs/FPIs in Capital First has crossed the limit of 24 per cent  of its paid-up capital, the RBI said in a notification. “Therefore, no further purchase of shares of this company would be allowed through stock  exchanges in India on behalf of FIIs/FPIs,” the RBI said. As on June 30, 2017, foreign portfolio investors held a total of 25.69 per cent in the  company, according to data on the BSE. FIIs, NRIs (non-resident Indians) and PIOs (persons of Indian origins) can invest in primary  and secondary capital markets in India through portfolio investment scheme (PIS). The RBI monitors ceilings on FII/NRI/PIO investments in Indian companies on a daily basis....

Over 25% of trucks idle amid drop in interstate movement of untaxed and under-reported cargo, leading to a fall in retail freight charges; transporters postponing truck purchases as there's no tax clarity on sale of second-hand vehicles More than a fourth of India's 6 million-strong truck pool is said to be idle after the goods and services tax (GST) came into force on July 1 amid a drop in interstate movement of untaxed and underreported cargo, leading to a fall in retail freight charges. That's having a knock-on effect on the transport and truck-making businesses, at least in the short term, experts said. Interstate retail freight rates are down 40-50%, the sharpest decline in over three decades, said SP Singh, senior fellow at the Indian Foundation of Transport Research and Training (IFTRT). Such steep declines in freight rates were seen in 1984, 1988, 2008 and just after the 2016 demonetisation, say transporters. To be sure, transport operators are reporting log...

Log into your e-filing account to check if you have any outstanding demand or refund If you receive an email claiming to be from the income tax (I-T) department that there’s an outstanding tax demand that you need to pay immediately, don’t get alarmed.  Get cautious. In all probability, that email is from cyber criminals, trying to trick you into revealing your bank account details. Experts say there has been an exponential rise in such emails in the past month. “Cyber criminals are sending these emails in July as it’s the time when most people  file returns and tax is on their minds,” says Amarpal Chadha, tax partner and India mobility leader, EY. He says his clients have also received emails stating there is  a refund pending with the I-T department and the recipient can claim it instantly. These emails provide a link the receiver needs to click to pay the outstanding tax demand or get the refund. Once an individual clicks on it, he is redirected to a web...

If industry experts are to be believed, the recently implemented goods and services tax (GST) regime might have inadvertently openedachannel for gold importers to  launder money out of the country. Many bullion importers, it is learnt, have been exploiting the zeroduty facility under India´s free trade agreements (FTAs) with several countries for this purpose. According to an industry veteran who did not wish to be named, "under two treaties that India has signed with other countries -FTA and Comprehensive Economic  Partnership (CEP) -gold can now be imported without paying the 10 per cent customs duty, as the 12.5 per cent countervailing duty has been subsumed in the goods and  services tax (GST), which is 3 per cent for gold". These importers prefer gold coins as they offeragreater scope for overinvoicing than gold bars. And, through overinvoicing, they are able to illegally send extra dollars out of the country. Since the rollout of GST on July 1, it is e...

Banks, insurance companies, mutual funds and pension funds will now chip in to createacommon strategy to further the government´s financial inclusion agenda  inatargeted manner and based onacustomer´s need. A national strategy for financial inclusion is almost ready and soon all financial entities would be directed to coordinate with each other to introduce products step  by step. They might even have to customise offerings based on the financial inclusion journey of a customer, Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor SS Mundra told Business Standard  in an interview. But before that, the financial institutions would put their heads together to educate customers about the importance of various products. A national strategy for financial education is also getting formulated asacorollary to the inclusion strategy. An interregulatory coordination group, plus an outside group of experts (the financial inclusion advisory committee) is busy creating the plan. The ...