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Want them to be capital-ready, spot early signals of stress in loan books Amid mounting bad loans and dip in profits, financial services regulators of several countries where Indian banks operate have sought assurance from bank managements about the readiness of parents, shareholders to chip in capital when required. Meeting senior officials of local banks and the Reserve Bank of India, officials of these financial market authorities emphasised the need to spot early signals of stress in loans books and make necessary provisions before it's late. More than a dozen Indian banks run branches abroad. “Regulatory bodies from UK, Hong Kong, China, UAE and other countries held separate meetings with large and midsize banks this week to figure out how they are placed to remain well-capitalised and treat the special mention assets,“ a senior banker told ET. The exercise is part of the meeting hosted by RBI under the system of `regulatory college'.Each bank is required to make pre...

Digital payments can check black money and playakey role in fighting graft, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday as he asked the youth to become an “anticorruption cadre” as part of the “cleanliness” drive. Addressing his monthly Mann ki Baat radio programme, he said people, especially the youth, should become ambassadors of digital payments schemes rolled out by the government. “Lead this movement. Take it further as it hasavery major and prominent role in the fight against corruption and black money. To me, each and every individual involved in this mission constitutesanew anticorruption cadre in the country. Inaway you areasoldier in the cause of cleanliness and purity,” the Prime Minister said. He said gradually people are“sheddingtheirhardcurrency mindset” and moving towards digital currency and the youth are leading the way using their mobile phones as the new tool to make and receive payments. In the past two months, one million people have been rewarded, over 50,00...

Legal and tax experts share some concernds about the revised model GST lAW Anti profiteering clause:The intention of the antiprofiteering clause is to pass on the benefits accuring on the benefits account to However, both industry divided. model GST central an authority the benefits while transitioning such as rate reduction passed penalty been passed Experts parameters service. operational will have says Smita Sujit Advaita provision Experts complain that there is ambiguity around what constitutes “commensurate reduction in the price”. There is also lack of clarity on whether the provisions will be applied on application from the affected parties or through suo motu investigation by the relevant authority. “The government needs to be careful while framing the rules to bring objectivity in deciding whether the benefit has been passed on to the customers or not,” says Bipin Sapra, tax partner, EY India. Advaita´s Ghosh feels the antiprofiteering provisions are susceptible toacon...

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expected to formulate standard operating procedures (SOP) for approval of foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals by ministries. The proposal for setting up norms for FDI approvals in sensitive sectors, which are currently under government approval of the FDI policy, was discussed atarecent interministerial meeting. According to sources, several options came up for discussions at the meeting. In order to further improve ease of doing business, the government has decided to abolish the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) and formanew mechanism for expeditious clearance of foreign investment proposals. Business Standard New Delhi,27th February 2017

India’s domestic economy has been on the recovery curve, with the real estate and construction sector taking a leading position. Recent steps taken by the government —from the demonetisation drive and the Real Estate Regulatory Act (RERA) to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) — are all working towards bringing in transparency and increased investor confidence in the real estate market. India is fast emerging as an attractive investment market with positive macro-economic sentiment - government initiatives to spur investments and a developing real estate market, are all integrating to make India a positive market for attracting investors. Underlining India’s position as a robust commercial real estate market is its appeal as an established outsourcing hub, which is expected to fuel expansion initiatives by corporate real estate occupiers from around the globe. The overall sentiment among corporate occupiers remains optimistic in recent times a...

The tax department has reiterated that the PoEM rules, which require foreign firms to pay taxes in India if the effective control is here, will not apply to companies withaturnover of Rs.50 crore or less inafinancial year. Last month, the tax department had come out with the longawaited Place of Effective Management (PoEM) rules, which require foreign companies in India and Indian firms with overseas subsidiaries to pay local taxes if their businesses are effectively controlled by Indians. Then the rules did not setathreshold above which they were to apply. However, the accompanying press release states that the rules will not apply to companies withaturnover of up to Rs.50 crore inayear. That created confusion whether the threshold will be adhered to. Inacircular to clarify things, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said the provision "shall not apply toacompany havingaturnover or gross receipts of ~50 crore or less inafinancial year". PoEM rules essentially ta...

The creation ofa ´bad bank´ will speed up resolution of stressed assets in the banking system, but it will also require significant capital infusion in the staterun banks to meet any shortfall, saysareport. The recent economic survey mentioned about formation ofabad bank that will purchase stressed assets and take them to resolution. “The creation ofa ´bad bank´ could accelerate the resolution of stressed assets in country´s banking sector, but it may face significant logistical difficulties and would simultaneously requireacredible bank recapitalisation programme to address the capital shortfalls at stateowned banks,” Fitch Ratings said inareport here on Friday. It said the country´s banks have significant asset quality problems that are putting pressure on profitability and capital, as well as constraining their ability to lend. It expects the stressedasset ratio to rise over the coming year from the 12.3 per cent as at endSeptember 2016, with the ratio significantly higher among...

Co will establish ecosystem of partners that may include contract manufacturers and suppliers Apple has told the government that it plans to make most of its products in India and that it will establish an ecosystem of partners, which may include contract manufacturers and suppliers. The company is said to be planning a start with local production of its iPhone SE. “Apple plans to move up the value chain in their next phase, in terms of producing the entire suite of products, definitely all iPhone models, for which their entire ecosystem of partners needs to move in,“ IT secretary Aruna Sundararajan told ET. The company's main contract manufacturers Foxconn, Wistron, Pegatron and Inventec are closely watching its plans for that reason. “They (Apple) have two primary asks--one that they should be able to import the components that they need, and second that it should be cheaper for them to manufacture here than to import,“ she said. “The second question is where government has...

The government can lower tax rates if people pay their dues sincerely, Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday. “We can lower tax rates of GST, income tax and others if everybody pays taxes,” Goyal said while addressing businesses at the ‘EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards’ in New Delhi. On the demand of businesses to lower tax rates, he said industry chambers ask for zero or five per cent tax the proposed GST regime. “I wonder what revenue neutral rate it would be, if we will put every thing in zero or low rates. Do we have to make profit at the cost of the nation?,” the minister said. Goyal also appealed to the charter accountants to suggest their clients to pay their taxes. Talking about the wind power tariff touching an all-time low of Rs 3.46 per unit without sops like accelerated depreciation, generation-based incentives and tax holidays, he said this auction was just for 1,000 MW and many more will come. He also rubbished the advisory issued by an industry body to...

If you have made large cash deposits in the aftermath of demonetisation, you should brace for tougher scrutiny from the income tax department and keep documents like bank statements, passbooks, land records and sales records handy. The income tax department will soon ask you to furnish these documents to support your claims of these large cash deposits being made either from income exempt from tax like agricultural income or cash received from unidentifiable persons in the case of businesses or cash withdrawn from own bank accounts. Following the large cash deposits in bank accounts, the tax department started Operation Clean Money to scrutinize the source of all cash deposits to check if they were from legally declared income. The income tax department has data on 10.9 million accounts where deposits ranging from Rs2 lakh to Rs80 lakh were made in the period between 10 November and 30 December. Around 148,00 accounts were also identified wherein deposits of more than Rs80 lakh wer...

On states' insistence, those transporting goods within or outside states will have to queue up at border for checking of e-permits The revolution the proposed goods and services tax (GST) promised might not be all that rosy because it would be hobbled by the need for an e-permit to be flashed at inter-state borders as the states insisted the old analogue practises continue. The states seem to have gotten their way and will continue with the old `permit raj' system, undermining one the biggest gains of GST. Though the paper permit may become an e-permit, those transporting goods within or outside states will still have to queue up at border checkposts where their e-permits will be checked. The centre resisted the move as its indirect tax administration moved away from the inspector raj era, but yielded to states' insistence on inclusion of this clause in the final GST law in order to build consensus and get the reform bill rolling. State tax authorities wanted this pro...