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E tailers  global warehouses may come under tax net Warehouses of e-commerce companies based in countries such as Australia, Japan, Italy,  Spain, the Netherlands, and Russia may not be exempted from paying the income tax in India  once the multilateral instrument (MLI) to prevent base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS)  comes into force. BEPS refers to the reporting framework mooted by the Organisation for Economic  Co-operation and Development (OECD) and signed by over 100 countries, including India, to  prevent exploiting gaps and mismatches in tax rules to shift profits by multinational  companies (MNCs) artificially to low-tax regimes. The representatives of 68 countries on June 7 this year signed an agreement (MLI) in Paris  to amend their tax treaties to bring them in alignment with measures to prevent BEPS.  However, there is still time for synchronising tax treaties with the multilateral  instrument. India has submitte...

Aadhaar linkage order burdens AMCs Asset management companies (AMCs) are feeling the burden of the Association of Mutual Funds  in India’s (Amfi’s) decision to make the Aadhaar citizen identification mandatory for  investment.  From January 1, Aadhaar details of customers, including existing ones, are to be mandatory  for investment in MFs. Insiders told Business Standard this was an order to Amfi from the  Union ministry of finance. "We just passed this on as an official communication to members,"  said an Amfi board member. He added no AMC was in favour, as this puts the onus on them to  link Aadhaar.  Most top officials preferred anonymity, as they did not want to be quoted against the new  rules of the game. Swarup Mohanty, chief executive officer (CEO) of Mirae Asset, says, "The task of getting all  investors to list their Aadhaar number with us is big. Failing which, the folios would enter  into a freeze zone and no ...

Last date for filing GSTR-2, 3 extended by a month GSTR-2 is the most important return for GST compliance since the availability of input tax  credit depends on it The government on Monday once again extended the deadline for filing the goods and services  tax (GST) returns for purchases and input-output transactions for July.  The last date for filing purchase return, or GSTR-2, was extended to November 30, from  October 31. That of input-output transactions, or GSTR-3, was put off to December 11, from  November 10.  “To facilitate trade, the last date for filing GSTR-2 and GSTR-3 for July 2017 has been  extended to November 30 and December 11, respectively,” a government tweet said. Archit Gupta, chief executive officer, ClearTax, said, “The earlier last date for filing  GSTR-2 coincided with the deadline for submission of audited income tax returns and as such  was putting a strain on some taxpayers.” GSTR-2 is the most impor...

Small traders set to get fresh GST relief Panel wants increase in composition scheme threshold to Rs 1.5crore; reduction in rate and allowing interstate supply.A highlevel panel goods and services (GST) in its meeting Sunday recommended major changes in the new tax system that may compliance burden assessees and make the scheme more attractive. It also proposed further the burden for restaurant The group of state ministers (GoM), led by Finance Minister Himanta Sarma, recommended that payers be allowed to file returns, even as those annual turnover of Rs1.5 crore had to pay the tax month, sources said.The GST Council in its meeting had decided allow taxpayers withaup to Rs 1.5 lakh to file quarterly payment and return filing.Additionally, the panel suggested a reduction in late filing fees to Rs 50 per day, against Rs 200 at present. In a mega relief for small and medium enterprises, the panel recommended an overhaul of the composition scheme in the form of reducing rates, hiki...

GSTN Dials Taxpayers for Feedback on Filing To make the biggest technology backbone for tax filing more convenient, GST Network (GSTN) has started conducting surveys by calling up taxpayers enquiring about their experience on the portal. GSTN chairman Ajay Bhushan Pandey said about 500 calls a day are made from a full-fledged call centre seeking feedback from businesses which have filed returns. “In the GST system, we constantly keep on collecting feedback from the public. We also do survey every day and proactively call business which have filed returns. We ask for their experience and where they had difficulty,“ Pandey told PTI. GSTN in June opened a call centre and publicised the helpline number for taxpayers with enrolment related queries. Some staffers from this centre have been assigned to get feedback of taxpayers who are filing returns and paying taxes on the portal. The Economic Times, New Delhi, 30th October 2017

Govt May Miss Revenue Collection Target CBEC Chief The indirect revenue collection by the government may fall short of the target this fiscal due to disruption caused by the GST rollout, a top official said on Sunday. For the year ending March 2018, the government had budgeted `9.68 trillion collection from customs and GST. However, the official of the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) made it clear that there is no plan to revise the revenue collection target for the year. “The revenue collection target from customs and GST, which put together is `9.68 trillion for the current fiscal, seems difficult for the department (to achieve) at the moment, keeping in view the recent GST rollout,“ Vanaja N Sarna, chairperson, CBEC told PTI here. The Economic Times, New Delhi, 30th October 2017

GoM Suggests Cut in Tax Under Composition Scheme The Group of Ministers set up to make GST composition scheme more attractive on Sunday suggested lowering tax rates for manufacturers and restaurants under the plan to 1%. At present, while manufacturers pay GST at 2%, the rate for restaurants is 5%. Traders currently pay 1%. The GoM headed by Assam finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has also suggested doing away with the tax rate distinction between AC and non-AC restaurants, those which are not covered under composition scheme, and tax them at 12%. It also suggested that hotels which has room tariff of more than `7,500 should attract 18% tax rate. Composition scheme is open for manufacturers, restaurants and traders whose turnover does not exceed Rs 1 crore. The Economic Times, New Delhi, 30th October 2017

DISQUALIFICATION OF OVER 300000 DIRECTORS  MCA Calls Meet to Examine Grey Areas in Cos Act Ministry officials to also frame govt response as several debarred directors have moved court After several directors went to courts against their debarment by the government, the ministry of corporate affairs has called an urgent meeting to discuss if there are “grey areas“ in the Companies Act that need to be addressed. A meeting of senior officials has been called on Monday to not just frame government response to these litigations but also to address any such grey area.The ministry in September cancelled registration of over 200,000 defaulting companies and, by extension, it had also debarred over 300,000 directors of companies.The amended Companies Act that came into effect in 2014 has provision for deregistering companies that fail to file returns. Moreover, Section 164 of the Act provides that any person who is or has been a director in a company which has not filed financial s...

India cautions against linking safeguard provisions to food security solutions Developing countries led by India and others want world trade rules to ensure that they will not be challenged legally if they breach a country’s agreed limits for trade-distorting domestic support India has cautioned against what it says are un-implementable transparency and safeguard provisions that are being sought to be linked by some countries to an agreement on a permanent solution for public stockholding programs for food security (PSH)—a core Indian demand —at an upcoming meeting of trade ministers in Buenos Aires. Developing countries led by India and others want world trade rules to ensure that they will not be challenged legally if they breach a country’s agreed limits for trade-distorting domestic support, such as minimum support prices for crops. The matter tops the agenda of trade ministers who are set to gather in Buenos Aires for the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) 11th ministerial mee...

Govt, RBI drawing up list of new banking reforms The finance ministry and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) are drawing up a list of reform measures to accompany the recent Rs 2.11-lakh- crore bank recapitalisation plan.These are being prepared in consultation with banks and might be classified into short-, medium- and longterm measures. Officials are tight-lipped about what these reforms might entail as preparations are still on. However, there are indications that some of the measures announced in Indradhanush — a seven-point plan to revamp state-owned banks but not completed — might be taken up again.“If there are some areas which have already been identified and on which action has not been taken, these will be included in the new effort,” outgoing Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa told Business Standard “It has been made amply clear that injection of capital, by itself, is not enough. It has to be accompanied by several other measures, internal and external, to the banks. I thi...

NPCI, NSDL in fray to develop e-wallet for exporters The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and the National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) are in the fray for operating the proposed ewallet system for exporters under the goods and services tax (GST) regime.The government is yet to decide on the agency that will develop the notional credit system to help exporters with working capital flow.GST Network (GSTN), the information technology backbone of GST, is also being considered for this. In the government´s push foracashless economy, NPCI developed the Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) app for making payments, available for customers of 55 banks across the country.NSDL, the country´s first and largest depository, handles most of securities held and settled in dematerialised form. It is also a GST Suvidha Provider, which facilitates filing of returns.The directorate general of foreign trade (DGFT) is working out the amount of credit an exporter will initially need.E-wall...