CA Online

STILL ATTRACTIVE PPF rate may see a marginal cut of 20-25 bps; but it will continue to be one of the best debt instruments for investors, say experts Investors in the Public Provident Fund (PPF) and other small savings schemes should get ready for another rate cut. If the government follows the Gopinath Panel formula that links small savings in-terest rates with government bond yields, the PPF rate could be cut by almost 100 basis points to 7%. According to the Gopinath Panel formula, the interest rates of small savings schemes are slightly higher than the average yield of government bonds of the same maturity in the preceding three months. In case of the PPF , the rate is 25 basis point above the average 10-year government bond yield.The 10-year yield has dropped to 6.5% and has stayed decidedly below the 7% mark throughout the past three months. If the government follows the formula, the PPF rate could fall to almost 7% in the January-March quarter. Analysts feel the government

Barring some clauses, centre and states have agreed upon most of proposed Central GST law The Goods and Services Tax Council on Thursday cleared a substantial part of the central legislation for the proposed tax regime, marking a significant progress towards this reform. The thornier issue of division of tax administration between the centre and states that can possibly delay the implementation of the new tax regime will be taken up on Friday. “A substantial part of the C-GST law barring four to five clauses where we need some more deliberations have been cleared...The council has reached broad consensus on the law,“ a government official said after the first day of the GST Council meeting, not wanting to be named. The C-GST law refers to the central GST law, which will be complemented by state GST laws and an integrated GST law that deals with inter-state delivery of goods and services. The government is keen to roll out the new regime from April 1, 2017, but now the deadl

In future, you may have to prove you have sufficient parking space before being aallowed to buy a car. Urban development minister M. Venkaiah Naidu told reporters on Thursday that it would be made compulsory for car owners to provide an adequate parking space certificate. “No car or vehicle will be registered without an adequate parking space available certificate. I am very keen on this. I am holding discussions with the surface transport minister and also sensitizing the states. We would be moving in that direction,” Naidu. “In future, it will be mandated. No permission will be given to any construction without a toilet,” Naidu said at the launch of a toilet locator mobile app. Officials in the ministry said to enforce such a decision nationally, amendments will have to be made to the Motor Vehicles Act. Separately, the government in August had introduced the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2016 in the Lok Sabha. The amendments, aimed to increase road safety and compensation,

The Union ministry of consumer affairs, in association with the Bengaluru’s National Law School of India University (NLSIU), will soon inaugurate  Online Consumer Mediation Centre (OCMC). The Centre, which perhaps is the first of kind of such initiative, will initially deal with only cases related to e-commerce companies and will facilitate online and even physical mediation between consumers and companies. The basic purpose of the Centre to encourage consumers and companies to go for pre-litigation and provide them with an option to settle disputes amicably. Officials said the Centre which had been set-up in NLSIU will have eminent lawyers and judges in its panel of mediators. Customers who have duped by e-commerce companies can avail this facility by just filling in an online form and paying the requisite fees. After this, the customers have to provide supporting documents like invoice etc and also explain the type of help that he wants from the Centre. The Centre promise

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, comprising the Union finance minister and state representatives, mainly their finance ministers, cleared most of the draft model GST Bill on Thursday. This leaves mainly the contentious issue of administrative turf between the Centre and states for Friday. Some state finance ministers did not rule out the Centre resorting to voting for resolving the issue of control over assessees under the proposed regime. Beside administrative turf, the Friday meeting will take up the Integrated GST (IGST) and compensation Bills. Agreement over these would be crucial for introducing these in the coming session of Parliament. "The basic model GST Bill has been concluded. Things we have kept aside, such as the issue of cross-empowerment and IGST, will come for discussion tomorrow," Jammu and Kashmir finance minister Haseeb Drabu told reporters after the meeting. He said it was decided earlier as well to go through the entire draft model law fi

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, comprising the Union finance minister and state representatives, mainly their finance ministers, cleared most of the draft model GST Bill on Thursday. This leaves mainly the contentious issue of administrative turf between the Centre and states for Friday. Some state finance ministers did not rule out the Centre resorting to voting for resolving the issue of control over assessees under the proposed regime. Beside administrative turf, the Friday meeting will take up the Integrated GST (IGST) and compensation Bills. Agreement over these would be crucial for introducing these in the coming session of Parliament. "The basic model GST Bill has been concluded. Things we have kept aside, such as the issue of cross-empowerment and IGST, will come for discussion tomorrow," Jammu and Kashmir finance minister Haseeb Drabu told reporters after the meeting. He said it was decided earlier as well to go through the entire draft model law fi

The Union cabinet on Wednesday approved a draft ordinance to additionally empower states and allow industries to pay wages digitally, through direct bank transfers or by cheque. At present, the 80-year-old law only permits cash payments. “The government proposes to bring an amendment to Section 6 of the Payment of Wages Act, which will further provide crediting the wages in the bank account of the employees or payment through cheque along with the existing provisions of payment in current coin or currency notes,” a cabinet statement read. A government official said on condition of anonymity that the cabinet has forwarded the draft ordinance to President Pranab Mukherjee for his assent. The draft ordinance proposes changes to Section 6 of the Payment of Wages Act of 1936. The section sought to be amended says that “all payment of wages should be made in cash, with a provision enabling employers to obtain written permission of the worker to pay either by cheque, or by crediting the wage