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E-TAILERS GET THREE MONTHS’ BREATHER The revenue department has decided to keep in abeyance GST provisions relating to reverse charge mechanism, tax deducted at source (TDS) and tax collected  at source (TCS) for another three months till September end.  The GST Council in its meeting on Mrach 10 suspended the provision for decduction of TDS and collectionn of TCS, as well as implementation of the reverse  charge mechanism (RCM) till June 30. With this, e-commerce companies can heave a sigh of relief since they would not be required to collect 1 percent TCS while making payments to suplier under  GST. According to Central GST (CGST) Act, notified entities are required to collect TDS at 1 per cent on payments to goods or services supliers in excess of  Rs. 2.5lakh.  The resverse charge mechansim, under which registered dealers need to pay taxes in case the goods are procured from unregistered business alo stands  deferred till September end. The...

GST mop-up will touch Rs 1 trillion a month in FY19, says Hasmukh Adhia Refunds have improved substantially now, 90 per cent of claims have already been approved or rejected As GST rollout is to complete a year in a few days, finance secretary Hasmukh Adhia tells Dilasha Seth and Indivjal Dhasmana that the system has perfectly  stabilised now. Adhia, who played a critical role, in the roll-out says bringing petroleum under GST is no solution to their high prices. Edited excerpts: After the GSTN portal crashed in initial months and then at a time of original date of e-way bill, has the GST system stabilised now? I may beg to differ. There was no crash of the portal, there were minor glitches initially in certain applications. Those were set corrected very soon. Of  course, the system has perfectly stabilised now.  Both the Centre and states collected less than the target in the first eight months of GST roll out in 2017-18. Do you think the target will be met in ...

New EPFO rules: Now, withdraw 75% funds after 1 month of unemployment At present, a subscriber can withdraw his or her funds after two months of unemployment and settle the account in one go Retirement fund body EPFO on Tuesday decided to give its members an option to withdraw 75 per cent of their funds after one month of unemployment and keep  their PF account with the body.  The members would also have an option to withdraw remaining 25 per cent of their funds and go for final settlement of account after completion of two months  of unemployment under the new provision in the Employee Provident Fund Scheme 1952. “We have decided to amend the scheme to allow members to take advance  from its account on one month of unemployment. He can withdraw 75 per cent of its funds as advance from its account after one month of unemployment and keep  its account with the EPFO,” Labour Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar, who is also the Chairman of EPFO’s Central Board of ...

EPFO to consider widening range of ETF investments tomorrow Retirement fund body EPFO trustees will consider tomorrow widening the range of equity linked schemes or exchange traded funds (ETFs) to maximise returns on its investments in stock markets. Besides, the Employees Provident Fund Organisation's (EPFO) board will also consider a proposal to give extension of six more months to its five fund managers SBI, ICICI Securities Primary Dealership, Reliance Capital, HSBC AMC and UTI AMC for managing its corpus, says agenda listed for the trustees meet scheduled tomorrow. The five fund managers were appointed for three years from April 1, 2015. They were given extension till June 30, 2018. Now, it has been proposed to give the five fund managers further extension till December 31, 2018 or till the time of appointment of new fund managers. The EPFO has been investing in ETFs and now wants to enhance its range to maximise returns on its investments in stock markets. Presently...

India Inc's foreign direct investment dips 63% to dollar 1.17 bn in May In May 2017, India Inc's foreign direct investment stood at dollar 3.12 billion Indian companies' investments into their overseas subsidiaries/joint ventures fell by 63 per cent to dollar 1.17 billion in May this year, according to RBI data.In May 2017, India Inc's foreign direct investment stood at dollar 3.12 billion.In April 2018, the outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) of Indian firms was dollar  3.56 billion. Of the total investment by domestic firms in overseas ventures in May 2018, dollar 374.18 million was in the form of equity infusion, dollar 162.96 million in loan and dollar 630.45 million as guarantee issuances, as per Reserve Bank data.Among the major companies that made investment in their overseas subsidiaries/joint ventures included Indiabulls Real Estate dollar 368.09 million, ONGC dollar 57.94 million, Tata Hitachi Construction Machinery dollar 26.62 million and Wadhaw...

We're not NRIs, Sebi told by PIO fund managers Across markets, fund managers who are persons of Indian origin (PIO) are reaching out to Sebi, asking the regulator to differentiate them from nonresident Indians (NRIs) who have been barred from running or controlling foreign portfolio investors (FPIs). Unlike NRIs who hold Indian passports, PIOs and individuals who have obtained the OCI (or, overseas citizenship of India) card from the Indian government are citizens of other countries. According to a Sebi rule announced in April 2018, NRIs can longer be‘beneficial owners’ of FPIs (which collectively comprise the largest group of public investors in the Indian stock market). However, in drafting the new rule, the regulator has included PIOs and persons enjoying OCI status in the same group with NRIs. While the regulation is aimed at curbing fund round-tripping and money laundering, it has impacted several individuals of Indian origin who were born and brought up abroad but a...

RBI issues draft guidelines on setting up board of management for cooperative banks RBI says the board of management will be responsible for credit, risk and liquidity management of the urban cooperative bank The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has come out with draft guidelines on constituting a board of management (BoM) in addition to the board of directors, for urban cooperative banks (UCBs), with the aim of strengthening the governance in these banks.The BoM will be responsible for credit, risk and liquidity management of the bank, RBI said in a circular released on Monday. “As UCBs are accepting public deposits, it is imperative that a separate mechanism be put in place to protect the interests of depositors. Accordingly, it is proposed to implement a Board of Management consisting of members with special knowledge and practical experience in banking to facilitate professional management and focused attention to banking related activities of UCBs,” said the circular.The move f...

MP, Maha & Gujarat Big In India-UAE Food Security Plan  ON THE PLATE As part of the proposed pact, special food zones in India will store and export excess agriculture produce to the UAE market India and the UAE are hoping to put in place a food security partnership that envisages storage farms in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh to store excess agriculture produce for supply to markets in the Arab state during the visit of UAE’s foreign minister.  Talks on the agreement likely to figure in the UAE foreign minister’s ongoing India visit India and the United Arab Emirates are hoping to put in place a food security partnership that envisages storage farms in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh to store excess agriculture produce for supply to markets in the Arab state during foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s visit.  The plan comes in the backdrop of the UAE looking to address India’s energy security needs as both countries extend ...

Tax Breather for Ecomm Cos for 3 More Months Rollout of tax collection at source was deferred to July 1; implementation after systems fully ready India proposes to defer the implementation of tax collection at source (TCS), a move that will give a breather to Amazon, Flipkart and other ecommerce service providers. “It has been decided to defer it for three months,” said a senior government official aware of the development. Online platforms have to collect the tax from those selling goods on their sites while making payments for goods sold. The tax, designed as a measure to improve compliance by helping to track such transactions, was to come into effect on July 1. Ecommerce platforms, which have multiple sellers with small turnovers, have been wary of the provision, fearing an increase in the compliance burden. Their lobbying had already led to the tax being deferred by a year, just days before the goods and services tax (GST) rollout on July 1 last year. Exper...

EPFO Nod Likely Soon for Minimum Rs. 2k EPS Pension Move to hike allowance to benefit 40 lakh subscribers and cost Centre at least  Rs.  3,000 crore a year The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is expected to soon give its go-ahead to the proposal of doubling monthly pension for EPS subscribers to  Rs. 2,000.  This would benefit at least 40 lakh subscribers and cost the Centre a minimum  Rs.  3,000 crore per annum.  The issue, though not listed on the agenda for the upcoming central board of trustees’ meeting of EPFO on June 26, is likely to be tabled after permission from the labour minister, who is the chairman of the board. The Union Cabinet had in 2014 approved a minimum pension of  Rs.  1,000 a month for a year and later extended it till perpetuity in 2015. The differential cost of  Rs.  813 crore per annum to pay the minimum pension is borne by the Centre and going forward this could more than double if the...

Political shadow on GST Council decisions as election season takes over Reaching a consensus might get tougher, as already seen with issues like inclusion of natural gas in GST and imposition of a sugar cess, both central proposals being resisted A year after the levy’s rollout, decision making on the goods and services tax (GST) could get overshadowed by politics as the election season takes over.  Already, the frequency of meetings has come down from an average of over two a month till May to one in a gap of two and a half months. In fact, the meeting in early May was held through video conferencing. The next one is now slated for July 19.  Reaching a consensus might also get tougher, as already seen with issues like inclusion of natural gas in GST and imposition of a sugar cess, both central proposals being resisted.  While the Centre has argued for natural gas’ inclusion, this is being opposed by Andhra Pradesh. The Centre’s proposal for a sugar cess to compen...