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Economy under recovery after dual shock of demonetisation and GST: Research On the monetary side, areas of concern are rising bond yields which indicate potential slippages on the fiscal front The Indian economy is gradually coming out of the twin shock of demonetisation and GST which temporarily derailed growth, India Ratings said.The ratings agency, however, cautioned on the possible widening of the current account deficit (CAD) due to rising oil prices which was creating pressure on the currency. "Our research has shown that major macro parameters like manufacturing, capital goods production, non-food credit and consumption are showing signs of recovery," India Ratings chief economist Devendra Pant told PTI.On the monetary side, areas of concern are rising bond yields which indicate potential slippages on the fiscal front, he said."Things are improving now. If things behave as they are now and the policy remains conducive, growth in current fiscal is expected ...

Power Ministry, RBI meet on NPA norms postponed: Minister The Union Power Ministry's meeting with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) scheduled for Tuesday, on the revised RBI norms on banks' non-performing assets (NPAs), or bad loans, which have caused serious concern in the sector, has been postponed, according to Power Minister R.K Singh. As per the RBI's revised framework on NPAs issued in February, banks are required to classify even a day's delay in paying loan instalments as a default. Producers say this is too stringent for power companies, pointing to how they pay for coal in advance but discoms take 90-150 days to pay for the power.The ministry has approached the RBI seeking relaxation on the central bank's NPA norms."It (meeting) has been postponed and will take place some other day," Singh told reporters on the sidelines of a conference organised by state-run power generator NTPC .At a meeting with the government in March, the  Association of P...

GST, bank balance sheet affected India’s growth: UN The goods and services tax as well as protracted issues of corporate and bank balance sheet problems pushed India’s economic growth downward in 2017, but a gradual recovery is expected and the economy is forecast to growth at 7.2% in 2018, according to a un report. According to estimates in the UN Economic and Social commission fo asia and the pacific's flagship publication Economic and Social survey of asia and pacific, india's GDP grew at 6.6% in 2017, down from 7.1%. The report said india's GDP is forecast to grow 7.2% in 2018   The Business Standard, New Delhi, 09th May 2018

Centre to release inflation index for 10 services as trial The Centre will come out with a Producers Price Index next month for 10 services, including telecom and railways on an experimental basis. The move will help track inflation in these services, which will also include ports, insurance banking and air travel The Business Standard, New Delhi, 09th May 2018

Now, ICAI members can have CA ANZ membership Chartered accountants’ apex body ICAI on Tuesday said it has entered into an arrangement with Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand whereby its members based in the two countries would be able to have membership of CA ANZ. The Business Standard, New Delhi, 09th May 2018

Govt to prepare sectoral action plan within next 2 days to boost exports Apart from the two departments making up the commerce and industry ministry, this will apply to Ministries of Electronics and IT, Agriculture, Textiles, Petroleum, among others Keen to take advantage of growing global demand and forecasts of faster rise in international trade in 2018-19, the government has decided to prepare sectoral action plan within the next two days to boost exports.On Tuesday, during the first inter-ministerial meeting on sectoral export promotion strategy, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu asked officials from across ministries to prepare separate action plan on boosting exports of products being handled by their respective ministries and send it to the Department of Commerce within the next fortnight. The action plan will focus on short-term targets to boost outbound shipment of products, which are achievable within the next two months.Apart from the two departments makin...

GSTN to rope in private entities for tax payer profiling, fraud analytics GST Network has invited bids from private entities for "360-degree" profiling of taxpayers for early detection of fraud as it seeks to transform into an end-to-end platform for checking GST evasion, from being just a tax collection portal. The analytics company to be roped in will have the mandate for designing and developing a Fraud Analytics System. GST Network has however barred Infosys from bidding for the project to avoid conflict of interest. The system will take about an year to be operational and leverage existing data pertaining to GST registration, return filing and e-way bill, along with the information from other external sources such as Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), banks and state tax departments. According to the eligibility criteria, the interested bidder will need to have a turnover of Rs 300 crore and should have posted profit in the p...

SEBI writes to govt urging tax parity between cash and derivatives Differentiating tax structure incentivising participation in the derivatives segment, Sebi tells government The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) intends to have tax parity in the futures and options (F&O) segment. Sebi is of the view that the differentiating tax structure, particularly the securities transaction tax (STT), is incentivising participation in the derivatives segment.The market regulator has written to the government—which sets the tax rate for the capital market—on bringing tax parity between the cash and the derivatives segment. Currently, a STT between 0.1 per cent and 0.125 per cent is levied on F&O transactions. Within the derivatives segment, STT on sale of options—the most-popular segment—is just 0.05 per cent (if the contract is not exercised). On the other hand, STT is charged at a much higher rate of 0.1 per cent for delivery-based trades in the cash segment “Sebi ha...

RBI rushes in to prop up falling rupee India’s central bank reportedly intervened in the currency markets on Monday to prevent a further slide in the local unit, which breached the 67 mark to a dollar for the first time in 15 months amid a widening trade gap and runaway import bills fuelled by high crude-oil prices. Some state-owned banks were seen selling dollars aggressively, interventions that market dealers attributed to the central bank’s strategy to stem the decline of the Indian rupee against the US currency. The rupee is the worst performing among a dozen Asian monetary units in the past three months. It lost 4.25 per cent to the dollar during the period, show data from Bloomberg. On Monday, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is said to have sold about Rs 800 million collectively on the spot and exchange traded futures markets, dealers said. An email sent to RBI remained unanswered until the publication of this report. The currency market has seen such a strong central ban...

No objection from RBI and DIPP to FDI increase in Idea Cellular The Reserve Bank of India and the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) have not raised any objections to increase in foreign direct investment of Idea CellularNSE -0.88 %, taking its proposed merger with Vodafone India closer to realisation. Once Idea gets clearance to increase FDI in itself from nodal agency department of telecommunications (DoT), the two companies will need to ask DoT to transfer Vodafone’s licence to Idea for final approval of the mega merger that would create India’s largest mobile phone operator by revenue and subscribers, officials said. While RBI has not found any lapse on account of Foreign Exchange Management Act in the merger of downstream subsidiaries of Idea Cellular and Vodafone India, DIPP has asked DoT to get clarification and documentation on whether all upstream and downstream companies that hold shares in the Indian entities are FDI compliant. “We have to check whe...

Taxpayers may have to explain discrepancies in I-T, GST returns Government moves to link databases to get all relevant details of a firm, use fraud analytics to look for evaders The annual return forms for goods and services tax (GST) may ask taxpayers to explain any discrepancies between their income tax and GST returns as the government seeks to tighten rules to deter companies from evading taxes.This is part of the government’s efforts to collate all available sources of information in order to get the 360-degree profile of a taxpayer. The government is trying to link different databases to get all relevant information about a company—financial transactions, registration information and direct and indirect tax filings—and use fraud analytics to look for tax evaders. However, initially to deter taxpayers from evading GST by understating their turnover, the annual GST return form will seek details of taxpayers’ income tax return filings to see if they are understating sales tu...