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GST Network today said it has started the facility for registration of casual  taxpayers -- those who conduct businesses occasionally. A casual taxpayer is a person who occasionally undertakes business transactions in a state/Union  Territory where he/she has no place of business. Goods & Services Tax Network (GSTN) Chairman Navin Kumar said that the registration as 'casual  taxpayer' will be valid for 90 days. A tax payer will also have the option to extend the registration duration once for a maximum of 90  days before the expiry of the initial period for which registration was granted.   "A taxpayer must go for registration as casual taxpayer at least 5 working days prior to the  commencement of business," Kumar said.   Rather than registering as regular taxpayer and being required to file 'nil' returns during off- business months, casual taxpayers can enrol for a limited period of time, GSTN said in a statement.   Aft...

The government expects the goods and services tax (GST) and increased surveillance to boost tax  revenues over the next two years, taking India’s tax-to-GDP ratio close to 12% by FY 20.  The higher revenues are projected to push up capital spend of the government, bring down fiscal  deficit to sustainable 3% of GDP and lower the revenue deficit to 1.4% of GDP by FY 20. The medium- term expenditure framework released by the government on Thursday shows tax-to-GDP ratio rising 30  basis points each in FY19 and FY20 to 11.6% and 11.9% respectively.  The government expects any shocks to tax collections due to the introduction of GST to be absorbed in  the current fiscal. It said “going forward in the years 2018-19 and 2019-20, the gains from expansion  of the tax base due to the introduction of GST and the increased surveillance post demonetisation  will ensure that tax-GDP ratio will increase by 30 basis points in each of the above FYs in...

A Bill, which seeks to deal with insolvency of financial service providers, was on Thursday referred  to a Joint Committee of Parliament. ´The Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance Bill, 2017´, was introduced in the Lok Sabha by  Minister of State for Finance Arun Ram Meghwal. Soon after, it was referred to the 30member committee comprising members of both the Lok Sabha and the  Rajya Sabha. The committee is expected to submit its report during the next session. The Business Standard, New Delhi, 11th August 2017 

The Centre on Thursday introduced in the Lok Sabha The Code on Wages Bill which seeks to fix  “universal minimum wage” aimed at benefiting over 400 million unorganised sector workers. The Bill to amend the laws on wages and bonus was introduced by Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya. It seeks to amalgamate four laws —Payment of Wages Act, 1936, Minimum Wages Act, 1948, Payment of  Bonus Act, 1965, and Equal Remuneration Act, 1976. The Business Standard, New Delhi, 11th August 2017

The EPF Act needs to be changed to allow movement between these two schemes; rules of NPS are also  more restrictive. Despite the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority’s (PFRDA’s) attempts to make the  National Pension System (NPS) more attractive, things haven’t worked too well, in terms of transfer  of Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) subscribers to NPS. More than 90 per cent of the subscribers are  either government employees (who don’t have a choice) or lower income groups who were given a one- time subsidy to enrol. Only five-six per cent of subscribers are from the corporate sector. And this  development happened after the amendment that allowed deductibility of employers’ contribution of the  salary over and above the Rs 1.5 lakh under Section 80C. The rest, a small percentage of people, invest  in NPS for the Rs 50,000 tax benefit announced in the Finance Bill, 2015. So, what stops an EPF subscriber to get better returns thro...

The government has notified the timeline for furnishing final tax returns for July and August under  the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime. The GST Council, chaired by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and  comprising state counterparts, had in June allowed businesses extended timeline for filing final GST  returns in forms GSTR-1, GSTR-2 and GSTR-3 for July and August. In the interim period, businesses have to file GSTR-3B which is a summary of self-assessed tax  liabilities with consolidated details of outward supplies and input credit. The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has now notified the dates for filing the GST returns  forms. As per the notification, outward supplies in Form GSTR-1 for the month of July will have to be filed  between September 1-5. For August, it is to be filed between September 16-20. The original date for  filing GSTR-1 was 10th of the next month. Details of inward supplies in Form GSTR-2 for July will h...

Sector has been focusing on bringing more customers via the Systematic Investment Plan mode One of every four rupees invested by individual investors in mutual fund (MF) schemes now belongs to  people from beyond the top 15 cities (B-15 in sector parlance). The Rs 20 lakh crore sector has been trying for participation from smaller cities and towns. As on  June-end, about 26.2 per cent or Rs 2.5 lakh crore of individual assets came from B-15 places. A year  before, it was Rs 1.6 lakh crore and made up 23.8 per cent of total individual assets. The latter was  Rs 9.48 lakh crore at end-June, against Rs 6.8 lakh crore a year before. The sector has been focusing on bringing more and more individual customers through the Systematic  Investment Plan (SIP) mode. There are now 14.5 million SIP accounts, which stoke a sticky and  consistent Rs 5,000 crore of monthly flow. A Balasubramanian, chief executive officer (CEO) of Aditya Birla Sun Life MF, says, ...

Textile exporters have urged the government to exempt them from the integrated goods and services tax  (IGST). The GST Council has finalised rates between 5 and 28 per cent of applicable IGST on various  products. Additionally, 5 per cent GST is applicable on job work also. “Merchant exporters cannot  benefit from the facility of exports under bond /letter of undertaking (LUT). There is no enabling  document prescribed by the government under which goods can be cleared by a manufacturer without  charging IGST meant for exports by a merchant exporter against bond/LUT. In absence of such a  provision, the manufacturer charges IGST on the goods supplied to the merchant exporter meant for  exports under bond/LUT. In the erstwhile central excise regime, there was a facility under which a  merchant exporter who has executed a bond (B-1 bond) was provided with C T 1 certificates. Introduce a  similar facility at the earliest so that the merchant...

Two days after suspending trading in 331 listed shell companies, the capital markets regulator,  Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), ordered stock exchanges to verify their credentials and  fundamentals. In a letter to the exchanges on Wednesday, the markets regulator hinted if  a company´s business model  appeared satisfactory, the trading ban could be revoked. The move comes after Sebi faced wide spread criticism from various quarters for classifying these  entities as shell companies on Monday. The market value of at least 10 companies on the list is over Rs 200 crore each. Also 161 of these companies were active in trading, with over 2.7 million public shareholders. Sebi had directed exchanges to impose stringent trading curbs on these companies by putting them in  the Stage VI of the Graded Surveillance Measure (GSM). The companies were identified by the Ministry  of Corporate Affairs (MCA), with the help of the Serious Fr...

The exchequer got 19.1 per cent more from direct taxes in the first four months of the current  financial year (FY18), but the amount paid by companies reflected their struggle with the goods and  services tax (GST). The total direct taxes after refunds grew 19.1 per cent at Rs 1.9 lakh crore  between April and June this year. Last year, during this period, it had risen 24 per cent. This isaminor deceleration, but when compared  in terms of percentage of Budget Estimates (BE), the figures this time are rosier. The collections constituted 19.5 per cent of the BE of direct taxes for FY 18. In FY 17, they had accounted for 18.8 per cent of the BE. What is startling, however, is the slow tax collection from corporate entities. This year, this grew by 7.2 per cent in the AprilJuly period, sharply lower than the 11.7 per cent in  the same period last year. Experts said the slowdown could be attributed to adjustments leading to destocking and the offeri...

GST breather for Railways; no tax on transfer of goods for self-consumption No exemption would be available if the transaction is classified as a good In a welcome break for the Indian Railways, no goods and services tax (GST) will be applicable on  inter- or intra-state transfer of equipment/materials (without transfer of title) for self- consumption. This is a major relief for the railways, with annual internal consumption estimated to be  about Rs 20,000 crore. In a notification to field units on July 11, the railways said, “Transfer of goods/stores from one  state/Union Territory (UT) to another state/UT is considered to be an exempted activity.” The  notification cited section 7 (1) of the CGST Act 2017, along with clause 1(b) the Schedule II of the  CGST Act, 2017 for the said exemption. Experts corroborated this, claiming that according to the GST Act, transfer of goods by any government  — Centre or state — or local authority to a similar ...