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New RBI norms may ease equity funding norms, increase investor interest for firms The Reserve Bank of India's move to allow up to 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) in regulated financial services companies other than banks or insurance companies through the automatic route is likely to benefit several fintech startups as it is expected to ease equity funding norms, increase investor interest, and also help them expand into more financial services. So far, activities of NBFCs such as underwriting, investment advisory and stock broking were among 18 categories under the 100% FDI automatic route regime. Startups that didn't fall in these categories had to take the approval route. Now, all regulated financial services companies can take the automatic route. In its notification last week, the RBI said other financial services will include activities which are regulated by any financial sector regulators including RBI, Securities and Exchange Board of India, and the Insura

Individuals and entities can pay taxes online using debit or credit cards once the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is rolled out, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said on Sunday. The government proposes to roll out the new indirect tax regime from April 1 next year and has made refunds, returns filing and payment processes online. “With regard to payments, the best thing that will happen is all payments will have to be made online. You can use any mode of payment, electronic, NEFT, RTGS. You can do it through debit cards or credit cards of any bank,“ Adhia said while addressing the Global Investors Summit here. The Economic Times New Delhi,24th October 2016

Early stage companies that are yet to see significant profit and loss-making companies looking to turnaround will now have more elbow room to hire star CEOs. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has significantly relaxed a company law provision that capped the remuneration payable to top managers. Earlier, it had also eased the rules governing disclosure requirements under the law. The ministry recently amended Section II of Part-II of the Schedule V of the Companies Act, 2013. The section deals with the monetary limits for remuneration that can be paid to the managerial personnel without central government approval. These limits were specific to companies that had no profit or inadequate profit. By way of this amendment, the ministry has effectively doubled the remuneration payable without prior approval of government across different categories based on paid-up capital. In further relief to pure-play professionals who are neither related to promoters nor have any other form

Following reports of cyber security threat in the Indian banking system, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has initiated an urgent review of the overall risk management and has decided to set up a high-level committee to ensure prudent response and quick, corrective measures for any cyber threat. The move follows the damage-control exercise that the government, the Reserve Bank of India and banks initiated after a cyberattack that put 3.2 million bank debit cards at risk. While State Bank of India blocked 600,000 cards — which the bank will replace free of cost and send to customers — other banks such as Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank have asked their customers to change the security codes or replace the cards. A senior Sebi officer said although the securities market systems were being upgraded constantly, it was decided to constitute a high-level committee to ensure fullproof security. The committee will be headed by a whole-time member of Sebi and will tac

Undeclared wealth of Rs 65,250 crore disclosed under the one-time compliance window has not seen any significant addition after tax authorities completed scrutiny of all the filings, sources said. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had on October 1 announced India's biggest ever black money haul when he disclosed provisional numbers of filings made in the four-month compliance window ended September 30. As many as 64,275 declarants disclosed a sum of Rs 65,250 crore on which no tax was previously paid. Jaitley had said these were provisional numbers and a final tally would be arrived at after counting all the postal and other declarations. Earlier, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India President Devaraja Reddy had said that as per information from the Central Board of Direct Taxes, about Rs 71,000 crore of undisclosed income was declared under the Income Declaration Scheme (IDS). He added "the amount could go up and not come down". However, officials invo

Income-tax officials develop cold feet after eyebrows are raised over scheme A tax department scheme that allows defaulters to pay a penalty to avoid legal tangles in cases of undisclosed foreign assets has barely made any headway and now appears to have stalled. The compounding scheme introduced in 2015 was aimed at encouraging tax evaders to come clean on foreign bank accounts and declare undisclosed income. Now, after approving only one case of compounding, it's being said that tax officials have become extremely cautious about clearing other applications because “eyebrows are being raised“. They insist on getting informal clearance or vetting from either the Central Board of Direct Taxes or the Special Investigation Team probing black money cases before approving compounding applications, officials told ET. In July, the income-tax department approved the compounding application of Yashpal Kapur, managing director of New Delhi-based Everest Transmissions, a manufacturer

GSTN to get real time import data from CBEC for levy of iGST, says official Come November 8, and the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN), which is expected to provide common and shared IT infrastructure for GST implementation, will on-board to its platform the details of about 80 lakh existing assessees of excise, value-added tax, customs and service tax, a top official said. “On this date (November 8), we are releasing enrolments. This means getting these existing eight million assessees on to our system. This move will help them do business without any hassle from April 1 next year, which is the likely GST implementation date,” Prakash Kumar, Chief Executive Officer, GSTN, told BusinessLine on the sidelines of a PHDCCI event here on Friday. Kumar noted that although assessee details will come onto the GSTN platform, the existing assessees will not be able to “play around” with their returns from November 8 itself. The objective is to clean the data, sort out inconsistencies