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GST panel to consult MSMEs in October end to ease tax rigour Five-member ministerial panel set up by GST Council to meet MSME representatives on 29 October to seek views on how to make compliance under GST easierA five-member ministerial panel set up by the federal indirect tax body, the goods and services tax (GST) Council, will meet representatives of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) at its second meeting on 29 October to seek views on how to make compliance in the GST regime easier for them. The panel tasked with suggesting ways of making the quarterly tax payment scheme for small businesses more attractive wants to consult SMEs to make its recommendations as broad based as possible before they are placed before the Council to take a decision at its meeting on 9 November. The GST Council had at its last meeting on 6 October allowed firms with up to Rs1 crore annual sales to sign up for the quarterly payment scheme, up from the earlier Rs75 lakh and exempted inter-state...

Sebi norms for settlement in commodity derivatives Reliable benchmark price of the commodity should be used as reference for settlement price The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) asked on Monday asked asked exchanges to prefer physical settlement system for commodity derivatives contracts, a move that is expected to help hedgers manage risk better as well as curb excessive manipulation."The first preference of settlement type shall always be by the way of physical delivery," Sebi said in a circular. However, any exemption from physical settlement would be considered in certain scenarios with a proper justification. The cash settlement route would be considered in case physical delivery is difficult to implement due to any reason, including the commodity is intangible; difficult to store due to low shelf life or inadequate storage infrastructure; and difficult to physically handle and transport the commodity because of inadequate logistics and transport infr...

RBI governor calls for better access to currency swap lines He said emerging markets have been largely excluded from this global network, forced instead to husband huge foreign-exchange reserves they can deploy to stabilize their economies in the event of economic upheaval.“Some of us would go as far as describing this situation as virtual apartheid, in which systemic central banks protect themselves and their self interest. Meanwhile, EMEs on the receiving end of global financial turbulence are systematically denied access,” Mr.Patel said, referring to emerging market economies.“The time has come to end this sectarian approach and access to swap lines be made equally available,” he said.Mr.Patel´s remarks come as emerging markets brace for the ripples of changing centralbank policy in advanced economies. The Fed, the ECB and the Bank of England have begun taking steps to withdraw some of the monetary stimulus put in place to shore up their economies since the world tipped into...

Jewellers await BIS rules on self certification Reports of compulsory hall-marking of gold jewellery after the government notified the revised Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Act last week have sent ripples across the jewellery industry.Many big players have started claiming they sell only hallmarked jewellery.However, those selling non-hallmarked jewellery are prioritising sale of such jewellery and others are considering various options, including self-certification, till all jewellery is hallmarked. According a report released two years ago by the World Gold Council, “Only 30 per cent of Indian gold jewellery is currently hallmarked.There are wide spread differences in purity and an average under caratage of anywhere between 10 per cent and 15 per cent.” Making hallmarking of gold jewellery compulsory hasabig impact from the gold demand perspective as old jewellery will have to be converted to new compliant jewellery and its caratage will also have to be 14, 18 or 22, as mand...

Items in 28% GST rate slab need to be pruned The number of goods in the highest goods and services tax (GST) slab of 28 per cent would be brought down and a committee of officers will calculate the revenue impact before going in for further reduction in tax rates, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said on Monday.“It is required, the fitment of rates which has happened is mainly based on excise and VAT,” he said, when asked if the GST Council is considering pruning the number of items in 28 per cent tax bracket. The GST, rolled out from July 1, has subsumed over two dozen taxes and has transformed India into a single market for seamless flow of goods and services. All goods and services have been fitted in the fourtier GST rate structure of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent.Adhia said while fitting the goods and services in various tax brackets, the GST Council has taken into consideration only the excise duty and VAT rate applicable on those items prior to GST. “There are industries wher...

GST rate on AC restaurants may come down to 12% from 18%: Report Eating out has always been an expensive affair, more so if you want to enjoy a drink or two along with it. By the time you end up calculating the added taxes, service charges and cesses levied on the delicious butter chicken and naan you just had, you end up spending half of your evening and a good part of your hard-earned fortune on what was supposed to be a fine, relaxed evening. Then came Goods and Service Tax (GST). For better or for worse, the government decided to levy a standard tax on goods and services. Eventually in case of restaurants, it all boiled down to 12 per cent GST for non-AC restaurants and 18 per cent GST for AC restaurants. In case of five-star hotels, the charge was much more - 28 per cent.Currently, if any part of a  restaurant has an air conditioner, 18 per cent is charged as the GST, the Central Board of Excise and Customs had clarified in their FAQ. That also meant that take a ways f...

The Aadhaar confusion Voluntary yet mandatory With the Supreme Court’s next hearing expected in November, one can wait for some more time before linking it to bank accounts and mobile numbers, say expertsIf you download the Aadhaar enrolment form from the Unique Identification Authority of India’s (UIDAI’s) website (https://goo.gl/zYVW76), at the top it states that “Aadhaar Enrolment is free and voluntary”. But, the government is going all out to ensure this 12-digit unique identity number becomes a necessity. Everyone, including banks, mobile operators, and even jewellers, want it. In the latter case, the government was quick to step in and clarify that there was no need to provide the Aadhaar or PAN card for transactions above Rs 50,000. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley recently hinted that Aadhaar might be needed for travelling abroad and buying a car as well. Meanwhile, banks and mobile operators are sending messages, which ‘request’ that you link it immediately, in rather int...

CBEC to test online processsing of trade documents To promote ease of doing business, the revenue department has decided to launch shortly paperless processing of document sat Chennai and New Delhi on pilot basis.In March 2016, the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) had stated that it was in process of procuring IT infrastructure to captured igitally signed copies of the supporting trade documents. “Under project´Saksham´, the CBEC has upgraded its IT infrastructure, which would inter alia be used for introduction of paperless processing under Single Window Interface for Facilitation of Trade,” the Boardsaid. The Business Standard, New Delhi, 16th October 2017

[To be published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, Subsection (i)] Government of India Ministry of Finance Department of Revenue Central Board of Excise and Customs Notification No. 38/2017 – Central Tax (Rate) New Delhi, the 13th October, 2017 G.S.R. (E).- In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 11 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (12 of 2017), the Central Government, on being satisfied that it is necessary in the public interest so to do, on the recommendations of the Council, hereby makes the following amendment in the notification of the Government of India, in the Ministry of Finance (Department of Revenue), No.8/2017- Central Tax (Rate), dated the 28th June, 2017, published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, Sub-section (i), vide number G.S.R. 680(E), dated the 28th June, 2017, namely:- In the said notification, the proviso under Paragraph 1 shall be omitted. 2. The exemption contained ...

3 months into GST exports rise over 25% Exports grew at a six month high rate of 25.7 per cent in September year on year, maintaining the momentum of 13 months of interrupted rise and despite the problems of getting refunds under the goods and services tax (GST) regime.This was the second month of exports expanding in double digits after outbound shipments were up 10.29 per cent in August. The pace of export growth comes after they contracted for more thanayear. The country exported goods worth Rs 28.61 billion in September against  Rs 22.76 billion in the same month last year.In the third month into the GST, export growth picked up mainly owing to rising global crude prices, which pushed up processed petroleum exports by nearly 40 per cent, apart from a broad based improvement in exports of major foreign exchange earners such as engineering goods and gems and jewellery. This may give credence to the observations of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EACPM...

Aadhaar helped Indian govt check fraud save Rs 9 bn Nilekani The Indian government's Aadhaar card scheme, which has enrolled more than 1 billion people, has helped the exchequer save about Rs 9 billion by eliminating fraud in beneficiary lists, its architect Nandan Nilekani has said here.The system, launched by the previous UPA government, has been "enthusiastically" supported by the current government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, said the 62-year-old non-executive chairman of Infosys- India's second largest software services firm. It has really been a bipartisan thing, Nilekani said while participating in a World Bank panel discussion on Digital Economy for Development yesterday.He said that it is easier for the developing countries to leapfrog by building a right digital infrastructure.Aadhaar now has more than a billion people registered on its system, he said. "It has also saved the government about Rs 9 bill...