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GST hurdle: E way bill put on hold The government on Thursday deferred the electronic way (eway) bill indefinitely on the first day of countrywide rollout as consignments faced delays.Businesses faced disruptions after the portal stopped functioning from around noon, causing wide spread confusion. Companies were seen approaching the National Informatics Centre (NIC), which is developing the e-way portal, with a flood of complaints over the past couple of days. “In view of difficulties faced by the trade in generating eway bill due to initial tech glitches, it has been decided to extend the trial phase for generation of e-waybill, both for inter and intrastate movement of goods,´´ GST@GoI, the official government handle, posted on Thursday evening. The new rollout date will be announced later.The NIC has sought 15 days to fix the problems. E-way bill will help the central and state tax authorities track interstate and intrastate movements of goods that are part of consignments o...

1,235 new FPIs register with SEBI in Apr–Dec FY’18  As many as 1,235 fresh foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) were registered with SEBI in April–December of the current fiscal, mainly due to their continued interest in the Indian capital markets, latest data from the regulator showed. In comparison, close to 3,500 new FPIs registered with Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in the entire 2016-17 fiscal. ‘Euphoric sentiment" The number of FPIs with the markets regulator climbed to 9,042 at the end of December from 7,807 at March-end, resulting in an addition of 1,235, according to SEBI data. “The reason for increasing FPI registrations is continued interest in the Indian equity, bonds and real estate,” said Arvind Chari, head, fixed income and alternatives, Quantum Advisors. Further, market experts are of the view that several measures taken by SEBI added to India’s attractiveness. In addition, SEBI’s Board, last month, decided to relax entry norms for FPIs will...

Core sector growth slows to 4 Percent  in Dec Output growth recorded in December is the lowest since July 2017, when these core sectors had witnessed a 2.9% expansion Growth of the eight core sectors slowed to a five-month low of 4 per cent in December 2017 due to negative performance of segments like coal and crude oil, official data showed today. The output growth recorded in December is the lowest since July 2017, when these core sectors had witnessed 2.9 per cent expansion.These eight industries -- coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity -- had witnessed a growth of 5.6 per cent in December 2016. The output of coal and crude oil sectors contracted 0.1 per cent and 2.1 per cent respectively during the month under review.Growth in steel and electricity generation slowed to 2.6 per cent and 3.3 per cent respectively in December last year as against 15.9 per cent and 6.4 per cent in the same month of 2016. Refinery pro...

CSO revises FY16 GDP growth to 8.2%, FY17 unchanged at 7.1% Under the third revision, the CSO has estimated GDP growth in 2014-15 at 7.4 per cent from earlier estimates of 7.5 per cent. The Central Statistics Office on Wednesday revised the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate for 2015-16 to 8.2 per cent from the earlier estimates of 8 per cent and kept the 2016-17 growth unchanged at 7.1 per cent. The real GDP or GDP at constant (2011-12) prices for the years 2016-17 and 2015-16 stands at Rs 121.96 lakh crore and Rs 113.86 lakh crore respectively, showing growth of 7.1 per cent during 2016-17 and 8.2 per cent during 2015-16, the CSO said in a statement. In terms of real GVA (gross value added), it said the GVA at constant (2011-12) basic prices grew 7.1 per cent in 2016-17, as against a growth of 8.1 per cent in 2015-16. According to advance GDP estimates of CSO, the GVA growth on 2011-12 price was estimated at 6.6 per cent for 2016-17. The CSO today released the first rev...

SEBI agrees to transfer Rs 16.7 billion of surplus funds to government Extra funds with regulatory bodies have been a contentious issue for year. Capital markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), has agreed to transfer Rs 16.7 billion of its surplus funds to the government. The Centre has been eyeing these resources, which would enable it to reduce the fiscal deficit. The move, however, was seen as contentious as it potentially amounted to an infringement on the independence of the regulatory body. “Sebi has agreed to the long-pending government demand to transfer surplus funds with it into a public account,” said a source. The surplus funds with Sebi — and over a dozen other regulators such as the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) and Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) — were pointed out in a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG). According to a 2017 report of the CAG, these...

GST e-way bill to go live on budget day, industry fears disruption GSTN expects that around 700,000-800,000 GST e-way bills will be issued every day across the country, CII wants their validity to be increased to 5 days from one day now The e-way bill, key to preventing tax evasion under the goods and services tax (GST), will be rolled out nationwide from Thursday, the day finance minister Arun Jaitley will present the Union Budget 2018, amid persistent concerns in some quarters that its enforcement could trigger fresh economic disruption. The GST e-way bill, an electronic documentation tracking the movement of goods, is mandatory for all inter-state movement of goods from 1 February. It is designed to prevent underreporting and evasion of taxes.The e-way bill is a key part of the GST architecture. It was put on hold until after GST, which was implemented from 1 July, stabilized. Over 2.84 million GST e-way bills have been generated in the trial phase so far. “We rolled out t...

Banks to negotiate only with top bidder in insolvency cases  Bankers have decided that they will negotiate only with the highest bidder when resolving cases of corporate insolvency.  The decision was taken at a meeting held by the Indian Banks' Association on Monday following consultations with the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India and resolution professionals. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) hasn't laid out any rules on this matter.  Conventionally, the creditors negotiate with the top few bidders to get the best value for the insolvent company.  "Since the IBC code did not specify that negotiations can be held with only the highest bidder, clarity was required given that in some cases resolution professionals and lenders entered into talks with multiple players," said a senior official aware of the developments.  Banks, however, will now follow the guidelines prescribed by the Central Vigilance ..  "This is expected to stream...

BUDGET SHOULD FOCUS ON  ECONOMIC JOB  GROWTH, SAYS  CHIDAMBARAM The fifth and last Budget of the Narendra Modi government would need to address the problem of economic growth and meet the challenge of creating jobs, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram and former deputy chairman of the erstwhile Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia said on Tuesday. Participating in a panel discussion after former president Pranab Mukherjee launched Chidambaram’s book, Speaking Truth to Power, a collection of his essays published in newspapers, Ahluwalia and Chidambaram disputed recent claims in a study that the Modi government created 7 million jobs. Ahluwalia termed the inferences of the study based on Employees' Provident Fund Organisation data was “flawed”. Chidambaram said the Economic Survey was “an utter confession” that in the four years the Modi government has failed to deal with three of the biggest issues — employment, education and agriculture. He said the attempt...

PM EMPLOYMENT SCHEME ALLOCATION MAY BE HALVED FinMin had informed labour min of reduction in budgetary support to PMRPY to Rs. 5 billion in RE The finance ministry may likely trim budgetary support towards the Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan Yojana (PMRPY), a flagship programme for incentivising job creation, substantially for the present fiscal year in the Union Budget to be presented on Thursday. Government sources said the finance ministry had informed the labour ministry of a reduction in the budgetary support towards the PMRPY to Rs. 5 billion in the Revised Estimates, from Rs. 10 billion allocated in the Union Budget 2017-18. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced the PMRPY in the Union Budget 2016-17 to incentivise employers for boosting employment generation. In this initiative, the government pays the employers’ contribution of 8.33 per cent of wages under the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS) in the first three years of hiring a new employee. The EPS is adminis...

 TAX SOPS TO WOO INDUSTRY SET FOR A COMEBACK A recent notification by the Assam government announcing a scheme for reimbursement of taxes paid by state-based industries has been a kin to setting the proverbial cat among the pigeons. Tax experts expect the move to trigger a race among other states to offer similar sops to woo investment.  While the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council has left it to each state to come out with individual schemes for reimbursing industries that enjoyed various area-based exemptions, the sops by Assam government queers the pitch by extending these sops to new industries and those expanding their existing units. The Assam Industries (Tax Reimbursement for Eligible Units) Scheme, 2017, notified on January 19, allows eligible units reimbursement of state GST (SGST) after utilisation of the input tax credit of available SGST and integrated GST (IGST). The benefits have been extended to new units and also to those expanding existing ones. The ...

 EPFO: Firms can pay dues, update ownership details Taking another step towards going paperless, retirement fund body Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) on Tuesday said it has launched facilities for employers to pay dues and update ownership deatils online. the EPFO has provided facility of online submission of Form 5A (Return of Ownership), it said in a statement. The EPFO added it has discontinued the physical submiion of the form. earlier, the employers had to submit a physical copy of Form 5A to the concerned EPFO feild office upon new registration of establishment and wheneverthere was any change in ownership details. Now, employers can updatre Form 5A online and submit with e-signature. This will not only reduce the unnecessary paperwork, but also avoid visits to EPFO feild offices.  The Business Standard, New Delhi, 31st January 2018 ------