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Centre proposes to extend Aadhaar linking deadline to those willing to enrol The government proposed extending the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar with bank  accounts and mobile phones from December 31, 2017 to March 31, 2018, but only exclusively  for those who are “willing to enrol for Aadhaar”. A one-page note, with writing on both sides of it, passed on to a Bench led by Chief Justice  of India Dipak Misra on October 25 contained the proposal. Offering the three-month leeway  for the "Aadhaar-willing" citizens, the note however insisted that those already with  Aadhaar will be “required” to sync their Aadhaar numbers with SIM cards, bank accounts, PAN  and “other schemes where Section 7 (Aadhaar Act) notifications have been issued”. The government’s suggestion created such a furore in court that Justice Misra asked the  government to re-think its proposal to make it voluntary for Aadhaar-holders also. The court asked Attorney-Ge...

IGST relief likely for foreign banks  MNCs  The government may be looking to give some respite to foreign banks and multinationals which  are saddled with the additional cost of paying 18% integrated goods and services tax (IGST)  on the services provided to their international offices, said two people close to the  development.  An advisory to this effect may be issued by the tax department in the coming weeks, one of  the persons cited earlier said, requesting not to be named.  “The tax officials realise that this (tax on multinationals) is an unintended consequence,  and this could get resolved in the coming weeks,” the other person said. Under the GST framework, a multinational — especially a foreign bank or infrastructure  company — that has a branch or operation in India, has to pay IGST. Many foreign banks have  already started paying 18% IGST to avoid any litigation. This tax liability has emerged  under the G...

Sebi restructures expert panel on fair market conduct Regulator Sebi has reorganised its committee on 'fair market conduct' that advises it on measures to improve surveillance of markets and strengthen rules for algo trades. The fair market conduct committee is chaired by former law secretary T K Viswanathan. Besides Viswanathan, the panel consists of 14 members, including top executives of leading  bourses NSE and BSE as well as government representatives. Members of the committee include BSE's Ashishkumar Chauhan; NSE's Vikram Limaye; Anup  Bagchi, Executive Director of ICICI Bank; Kaku Nakhate, country head at Bank of America  Merrill Lynch; KPMG Chairman and CEO Arun Kumar and HDFC Mutual Fund Managing Director  Milind Barve. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had constituted this committee in August  this year. The committee is mandated to suggest measures for improvement in PIT (Prohibition of Insider  Trading) norms,...

Govt waives fine for delayed filing of Aug Sep GST returns The government on Tuesday waived penalty on delayed filing of the initial goods and services tax (GST) returns for the months of August and September.“To facilitate taxpayers, late fee on filing of GSTR3B for August and September has been has been waived,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley tweeted. He said that the late fee, which has been already charged to businesses, will be credited back to taxpayers  accounts.The government had earlier waived late fee for delayed filing of the maiden returns for July under the GST regime.Businesses have been demanding that the government waives penalty for delayed filing of 3B returns.As per the data, 5.58 million GSTR3B returns were filed for July, 5.13 million for August and over 4.2 million for September. The Business Standard, New Delhi, 25th October 2017

GST collections rise to Rs 92,150 cr in September Collections under the goods and services tax (GST) rose by Rs 1,481 crore to Rs 92,150 crore in September against Rs 90,669 crore in the previous month.However, these were marginally lower by Rs 133 crore than Rs 92,283 crore in July.Little over 50 per cent of the assessees filed summary returns for September. Of eight million assessees, 4.29 million filed GSTR3B. As many as 3.94 million had filed GSTR 3B by Friday, the deadline for September filing.To enable late filing, the authorities have waived late fee for August and September.For the first three months, the Centre and states collected around Rs 2.75 lakh crore, slightly more than the targeted tax collections of Rs 2.73 lakh crore.  The target has been taken from the Union budget estimates for 2017-18, assuming 14 per cent growth in state revenue collections. The 14 per cent growth was taken, according to a formula of compensating loss-making states.This would give Rs 48,0...

Bank capital infusion to highways  Modi govt unveils Rs 9 trillion plan to boost economy The plan, unveiled by finance minister Arun Jaitley, includes spending Rs 2.11 trillion towards pumping capital into banks and another Rs 7 trillion on a roads and highways project. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government announced it would invest over Rs 9 trillion to recapitalise state-owned banks and build new roads and highways on Tuesday, its biggest move yet to shore up an economy growing at its slowest in three years.Plans include spending Rs 2.11 trillion towards infusing capital into banks over the next two years and another Rs 7 trillion over the next five years on the roads project, some of which will run through economic corridors as well as remote border and coastal areas. The Rs 2.11 trillion is far higher than the Rs20,000 crore the government had previously planned to invest, in 2017-18 and 2018-19, in recapitalising banks.Separately, the government also announced an i...

Exporters can claim refund for GST paid in Aug, Sept Exporters can soon start claiming refunds for goods and services tax (GST) paid in August and September as GST  Network(GSTN) will launchan online app for processing of refund this week, said its Chief Executive Officer Prakash Kumar. The GSTN, the company handling tech infra for the indirect tax regime, has from October 10 started issuing refunds to exporters for integrated GST(IGST) they paid forJuly, after matching GSTR 3 Band GSTR 1. For August and September, while the initial return GSTR 3Bhas already been filed, the final return GSTR1 has not yet been filed.“A separate online app for claiming IGST refunds for August and September  would be made available on the GSTN portal this week,” saidKumar. The GSTN has developed the app where in exporters can save and upload their sales data, which a repart of GSTR1after filling up export details n Table6A.The table will be the next racted separately and after exporters dig...

Indian firms lead world on disclosing CSR spend Study India has witnessed a marginal dip in corporate social responsibility related reporting by the top 100 companies, but continues to be among the best in the world in this aspect, a 49 country study has found.It also tops the list of countries with the highest rate of corporate social responsibility related information in annual reports, the study said, adding 98 percent of the top 100 companies have the details. As agains ta 100 percent compliance observed in 2015, the reporting  rate dipped marginally to 99 percent for 2017, the study by global consultancy major KPMG has said. The Business Standard, New Delhi, 24th October 2017

Many Issues on GSTN Sorted Effort on to Make It Hassle Free Several issues around the GSTN portal have been addressed and efforts are on to make the filing smooth, the network's chairman Ajay Bhushan Pandey said.In an interview to PTI, Pandey said a group of ministers (GoM) headed by Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi reviews the functioning of the GST Network (GSTN) every fortnight to ensure that it is working smoothly. The GoM will meet next on October 28 to review the actions taken to make the filing of GST process smooth. This will be the third meeting of the GoM since it was constituted in September.“Many of the issues which had arisen prior to the constitution of the GoM, have been addressed. The attention to these issues from government side is from a very high level. The CEO of Infosys personally attends the GoM meeting. The objective is to make the return filing process very smooth,“ Pandey said. He said the GoM in the next meeting will decide on the futur...

GST Invoicing Norms for Retailers Eased Retailers need not issue separate invoices for exempted items, can club all purchases in one bill Retailers won't have to issue long invoices detailing prices and taxes for each item under the goods and services tax (GST) regime, further easing the billing and compliance burden on them. They will also not have to issue separate invoices for exempted items taxed at the 0% rate and can club all purchases in one bill. The GST Council has approved these changes based on the recommendations of the law committee set up to review demands by stakeholders. The two changes will make invoicing and filing easier for retailers. They can issue invoices clubbing all goods taxed at one rate and mention just the total tax, facilitating smaller and less cumbersome invoices. Under the earlier arrangement, all items had to be mentioned separately along with their prices and taxes. Retailers had argued that the end-customer is concerned with the net sal...

Govt Plans to Set Rules for Food Exports Packaging Regulations to be in sync with those in developed markets such as US and EU The government is working towards new packaging norms for export of food items to address concerns over food safety and health standards even as some Indian food products face rejection in developed markets.The ministry of commerce and industry has constituted a standing committee to formulate packaging standards for export of 500 products including fresh fruits and vegetables, spices, tea, and coffee. The regulations will be in sync with those of developed markets such as the US, Vietnam, the European Union, and Japan, said an official from the ministry.“A large amount of contamination can happen during transit if the packaging is not done properly,“ said the official. “The government is keen to promote exports of fresh and processed food products and is hoping that these regulations will help in increased business for exporters,“ the person sa id on c...