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Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday tried to calm fears over an amendment to the Finance Bill giving more powers to income tax (IT) officials. He played down charges that this was an “undeclared Emergency”. The FM said the amendment related only to disclosure of the source of information regarding alleged tax evaders. Jaitley, in his reply to the debate on the Finance Bill, 2017, in to make Aadhaar cards mandatory for filing ITreturns and applying forapermanent account number (PAN), claiming it might become the only identity card in the future. He also assured of action against 929,000 entities which had not responded to the ITdepartment´s queries over amounts that did not match income profile deposited in their accounts between November 8 and December 31. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the demonetisation of old series Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 notes on November 8. Those who had money in these denominations were allowed to deposit it in their accounts til...

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) will go through a third-party assessment of its regulatory framework by the World Bank and the IMF this year, an exercise which will help the former align itself closer to global regulatory standards and get feedback on its current functioning. The assessment will be conducted as part of the Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP), a joint programme of the IMF and World Bank established in 1999. The programme analyses the resilience of a country's financial sector, the quality of its regulatory and supervisory framework, and the capacity to manage and resolve financial crises. This is the third time Sebi is going through this programme, with previous supervisions in 2012 and 2001, which was a pilot assessment. In September 2010, IMF had made it mandatory for 25 jurisdictions (including India), with systemically important financial sectors to undergo financial stability assessments under the FSAP every five years. Among ot...

The Employees´ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has decided to reduce administrative charges to 0.65 per cent of total wages of an employee from April 1,amove that will result in savings of Rs.1,000 crore annually for 600,000 employers. The EPFO´s decisionmaking body, the Central Board of Trustees, had approved the proposal to reduce the administrative charges to 0.65 per cent from the existing 0.85 per cent of total wages. Business Standard New Delhi,23rd March 2017

TAKING A CALL Move to benefit those looking at succession planning; the finance bill proposes to make Aadhaar a must for getting PAN card & filing income tax returns Gifts to trusts in the form of money or property for the benefit of relatives will not be taxed. The finance bill, approved by the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, has amended the original proposal that had expanded the scope of gifts to include money or property received for no consideration by trusts. Gifts received from trusts registered under section 12A of the Income Tax Act will also be excluded. Besides, trusts receiving dividend income will be exempt from the additional 10% tax on dividend income exceeding `10 lakh. The move benefits those looking at succession planning. The provision had been introduced in the finance bill to prevent abuse and the exclusion was made to avoid hardship in genuine cases, a government official said. “This is a welcome amendment and would not impact succession planning through trust...

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Wednesday said municipalities planning to issue bonds on private placement basis next financial year will have to submit audited accounts for past three financial years starting 201314 to bourses. The decision has been taken after receiving feedback from municipal corporations. In view of the operational procedures followed by them, it would be difficult for them to submit the audited accounts for the immediately preceding financial year, it said. Shankara Building IPO subscribed 51% on Day 1 The initial public offering(IPO) of Shankara Building Products was subscribed 51percent on the first day of the issue on Wednesday. The IPO received bid sfor 2,700,704 shares against the total issue siz eof  5,2,94,67 shares, data available with the NSE till1830 hoursshowed.   The non institutional investors category  was subscribed 10percent, while retail investorsportion 98 percent. The Bengaluru based retailer Shankara...

Harmonising efforts to curb flow of cash and unaccounted money into the political system, the Lok Sabha on Wednesday approved the government´s proposal to relax conditions for contributions made by corporate entities. This will also facilitate the broadening of political funding channels. Besides removing the cap for contributions, companies will also be allowed to keep the names of political parties confidential in their accounts. The move was proposed as part of the amendments to the Finance Bill, 2017, by the government. This effectively means that Parliament has passed it. The Rajya Sabha does not have any power to rejectamoney Bill. Till now, corporate entities could contribute only 7.5 per cent of average net profit in the past three financial years. This cap has been removed, allowing free flow of funds to political parties. For this, provisions of the Companies Act will be amended as part of the Finance Bill. Besides, another provision in the Companies Act w...

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is evaluating the category of benchmarks being currently used to compare the returns of mutual fund (MF) schemes. The net asset value (NAV) of MF schemes takes into account dividends for computing returns. The schemes are, however, benchmarked against “price return" indices that do not take into consideration the dividend component. On an average, the dividend yield for Indian equities works out to 1.25-2 per cent for a year. In other words, dividend yields can add anywhere between 1.25 per cent and two per cent to the returns of MF schemes “The NAV of schemes takes into consideration the valuation of the security as well as the dividend. So the NAV that comes out is a ‘total return’ NAV. The benchmark indices that are available are all ‘price’ indices. We need to move in a direction where there is a like-to-like comparison," said a Sebi official. Total return benchmark indices assume that any cash distribution, such a...

The government is considering allowing 100% foreign direct investment in insurance broking with a view to giving a boost to the sector and attracting more funds.The FDI policy, at present, allows 49% foreign investment in the insurance sector that encompasses insurance broking, insurance companies, third party administrators, surveyors and loss assessors as defined by DIPP. An official said representations have been made to the government that insurance brokers should be treated at par with other financial services intermediaries, where 100% FDI is permitted. The Economic Times New Delhi,22th March 2017

With the goods and services tax (GST) set to be rolled out from July 1, states have not made many changes in the indirect tax structure in their Budgets for 201718, assuming that adequate compensation would be provided to them for any shortfall in revenue receipts on this count,arecent study suggests. The Union Cabinet on Monday gave its nod to four of the five Bills approved by the GST Council. The Central GST, Union Territory GST, Integrated GST and Compensation Bills will now be tabled as money Bills in Parliament this week, which will do away with the need to get the nod of the Rajya Sabha where the ruling National Democratic Alliance does not haveamajority. The Council has approved four rates —five per cent, 12 per cent, 18 per cent and 28 per cent. Over the peak rate of 28 per cent,acess will be imposed on sin and luxury goods, as well as on coal. Money collected from the cess would go to states as compensation. The Centre has agreed to give full compensation to states for the ...

The NDA government has proposed to make Aadhaar mandatory for individuals to apply for a PAN (Permanent Account Number) card and file income tax returns from July 1 this year. Finance, Defence and Corporate Affairs Minister Arun Jaitley moved an amendment, to this effect, in the draft Finance Bill 2017 that was taken up by the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. Earlier this week, the Centre made it mandatory for beneficiaries to quote their Aadhaar number to avail themselves of benefits under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana for skill development, and the Self Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers. The Centre had identified 31 schemes in which the Aadhaar could be made mandatory. Notifications have been issued in recent months by departments to make Aadhaar compulsory for getting subsidised foodgrains under the National Food Security Act, jobs under the MGNREGA and pension benefits under the Employees’ Pension Scheme. The Hindu Business Standard New Delhi,22th M...

As the Finance Bill came up for debate in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, startups and some nonbanking financial companies (NBFCs) demanded an exemption fromaprovision of the draft legislation. According to the provision, income tax deduction is denied to those companies whose interest payment on overseas debt to associated enterprises exceeded 30 per cent of their earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda). Banks and insurance companies have already been exempted from the Budget proposal, technically calledaprovision on thin capital incorporated in the Bill following an action plan by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS). Eric Mehta, partnertransfer pricing, Price Waterhouse, said startups should be given exemption from this proposal as they have very low Ebitda in the initial years. Also, NBFCs should be out of this, in line with banking and insurance companies, he said. Sanjay Agarwal, ...