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The final decision on the Budget date will be a political one and will be taken by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs The finance ministry is said to be pitching for the Union Budget 2017-18 to be presented on January 31, an event which would give Parliament exactly three months to  approve the Finance Bill before April 1. The final decision on the Budget date will be a political one and will be taken by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA). Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said last week that while the government was in favour of advancing the Budget to enable the passage of the Finance Bill before the start of the next financial year, a final call on the matter will be taken after studying the state election schedule. Uttarakhand, Manipur, Goa, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh are slated to go to the polls early next calendar year. The Budget planners and policymakers in North Block are pushing for a January 31 Budget. It will be a Tuesday, which also raises the li...

Restrictions on Algo, colocations, PMS continued Tuesday issued several circulars, replacing those of the erstwhile commodity market regulator Forward Markets Commission (FMC). Last year, FMC ceased to exist after being merged with Sebi. While warehousing norms have been tightened significantly, other circulars include algo trading and co-location facilities for commodity exchanges. According to one of the circulars, portfolio management services would not be permissible in the commodity derivative market. Under the norms, warehouse service providers (WSP) will be corporate bodies with subscribed share capital of Rs 10 crore. An accredited WSP would have a minimum net worth of Rs 25 crore for multi-commodities and Rs 10 crore for a single commodity. The commodity exchange would have to ensure that the WSP, its promoters and key management personnel are “fit and proper” to carry out the business. All WSPs should also be approved by the Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority a...

U K Sinha said immediate priority is to bring the commodities derivatives market at par with securities market Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) chairman U K Sinha on Tuesday with met finance ministry officials and discussed the major reforms required to strengthen the commodity market, said sources in the know. Sebi chief told the ministry that its immediate priority is to bring the commodities derivatives market at par with the securities market. The regulator intends to introduce new products and categories, including options trading, to ensure better liquidity and fair price discovery. WHAT NEXT? To bring commodities derivatives market at par with securities market To bring new products and new categories of participants in the space Options trading in commodity futures Allowing banks, mutual funds, AIFs, foreign hedgers in the space Single licence for commodity and equity brokers The commodity derivatives has come under Sebi's purview since September 28,...

The new charges will be effective from October 1 Multi commodities exchange has increased transaction charges for agri and non agri commodities effective 1 October this year. The charges for non agri commodities were last revised in February 2014. For non agri commodities for daily average turnover upto Rs 350 crore charges have been raised from Rs 2.10 per Rs. One lakh of turn over to Rs 2.60 and for incremental turnover above Rs 350 crore it has been revised from Rs 1.40 to Rs.1.75. According to circular issued today by the exchange, for non agri commodities, transaction charges have been made equal and only one slab of Rs 1.75 has been fixed. Earlier for turnover upto Rs 20 crore charges were Rs 0.75 and on incremental turnover above Rs 20 core charges were Rs 0.50. In another circular MCX has removed various charges and fees that is being levied to the Members of the Exchange. This is also coming in force from October 1. Business Standard, New Delhi, 28 September 2016

CBEC draft rules say returns must have details of profit and loss account Businesses have to file at least three monthly returns and one annual return for each state, if draft rules proposed by the indirect tax department are introduced under the goods and services tax (GST) regime. The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) on Tuesday came out with one more set of draft rules and their formats on GST returns and refunds, after it released one set on Monday. The indirect tax regime is expected to be rolled out from April 1, 2017. Monthly returns are for output supply, input supply and summary accounts and would cover state GST, integrated GST (IGST) and central GST (CGST). Currently, businesses have to file valued added tax returns but these are quarterly. Service tax returns must be filed but only twice in a year and not state-wise, explained Pratik Jain, leader-indirect tax, PwC India. The GST returns has to contain details of profit, according to the profit and loss account, in...

Before fixing a new date for the presentation of Union budget for 2017-18, the government is likely to hold discussions with the Election Commission to avoid any clash with the schedule of five states headed for polls. Assembly elections are due to be held in February in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur. “When we traditionally had the Union budget presentation on the last day of February , the Election Commission always knew of it and would weave around poll schedule accordingly .Now that the government has decided to advance the budget, some kind of consultations need to happen with the Election Commission,“ a top official said. The Cabinet last week agreed to advance the presentation of the budget to complete the legislative exercise before the beginning of new financial on April 1 as it would help plan spending on schemes better and boost economy . The new date is yet to be decided. The finance ministry has proposed that the budget presentation be fixed fo...

Board Structure Gives Govt Strategic Control Of Network The structure of the board of the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) has enough safeguards to ensure the government has strategic control of the entity , its chairman has said, while asserting that security of sensitive data will have the highest level of protection. “Therefore, by the structu re of the board itself the government has ensured that no decision can be taken which is not supported by the government,“ GSTN chairman Navin Kumar told TOI, while expressing confidence that the system would be ready before GST rolls out on April 1, 2017. “This concern that (since) they (private entities) have 51%, they can control it -they cannot control it. No board meeting can take place unless at least 50% of directors present are from the government.“ The Indian Revenue Service officers' association has opposed the move to let GSTN manage the IT system. BJP Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy has also written to PM Narend...

Soon you will able to withdraw your pension using your smartphone Pensioners and members of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) can breathe easy with the state-run pension fund manager planning to develop a mobile application and move a large chunk of its services online. “We are developing an app for pensioners and hope to roll it out by early next year,“ V P Joy , central provident fund commissioner told TOI. The app for pensioners is expected to reduce the enormous amount of paperwork and time taken to process applications. Verification will be done through electronic know your customer (e-KYC) using the Aadhaar number. The organisation has also undertaken a massive effort to upgrade its technology so that subscribers are able to use its services online without any interface with officials at the EPFO. “The idea is that people can access most of our services online and that is where we are headed. Online services will start by early next year,“ he said, adding t...

Even as the last date of the income disclosure scheme (IDS) — a governmentprovided opportunity for those holding unaccounted money to come out clean — draws closer, the tax department has sent out mails exhorting people to make the most of it to avoid penal action. The mails were addressed to people who have made large transactions or investments disproportionate to their sources of income, government officials said. The four-month compliance window under the IDS for voluntary disclosure of domestic black money ends on September 30. With just a few days left, the government is anxious to make it a success. The tax department has sourced information on these people as well as their transactions from banks and property registration authorities across the states over the last six years. It reportedly has a list of more than 90 lakh non-PAN transactions. “The letter is not intended to offend anybody. It does not even mention the transaction that led to its issuance. We have just ad...

When passing wealth to their children, some parents want to give more to one than to the others. This could be because one son is financially worse off than his siblings, or one has a bigger family to provide for. In many business families, the patriarch hands over the reins of the business to the child he thinks is more capable. But, in doing so, many times parents end up hurting the child they think can do with less. Such arrangements often get challenged in court. There have been many such cases, like a recent one involving a famous business family in Mumbai. The children of the elder son, who severed ties with the family many years earlier, recently claimed a stake in the business alleging that their uncle ( younger son of the patriarch) had been enjoying the family wealth while they had not got what they deserved. One way to deal with such a situation is to form a trust. “ A well- drafted trust deed can minimise the possibility of a dispute. It’s flexible. A head of family c...

The advancement of the Union Budget day by a month will make the government richer as tax collections are set to be healthier, according to experts.Economists said that Rs.80,000-Rs.1 lakh crore could get added into the government kitty as budget proposals will get implemented with effect from the first day of the fiscal. For instance, the changes in levies such as service tax made in Budget 2016 came into effect on June 1. From next year such changes will be implemented from April 1.  This way the government will earn service tax revenues for two extra months. “It a very positive move and will bring in certainty once the budget is presented at the beginning of the year,” DK Joshi, chief economist, Crisil said. The government also put an end to the distinction between plan and non-plan expenditure. “Removal of the distinction between plan and non-plan expenditure will simplify and streamline decision-making and help in efficient use of resources,” Chandrajit Banerjee, director gen...