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Acharya proposes 2 AMCs and 2 rating agencies for valuation of stressed assets The Reserve Bank of India is proposing its toughest measures yet to recover loans from defaulters by prescribing December deadline for the loan restructuring of top 50 defaulters in a way that the assets turn viable and also in an environment where vigilance departments do not stifle the right economic outcome. Picking up from where former governor Raghuram Rajan left, deputy governor Viral Acharya proposed setting up two asset management companies, one private and the other quasi with government stakeholding, and two rating agencies backing for valuation of stressed assets. The rate of bad loans has come to such an alarming level that banks should be shown some `tough love' by barring those non-performers from taking deposits and lending.In some cases, merger of banks should also be considered to reduce dependence on government capital. “This situation should be a cause for concern to all of us,

Sachin Dave & Reena Zachariah Govt proposed in budget that anyone who bought shares in unlisted cos before Oct 1, 2004, and not paid STT will have to pay LTCG tax The government may be looking to roll back or tweak a budget announcement, imposing long-term capital gains (LTCG) tax on holders of ESOPs and private equity investors, people close to the development said. In the budget, the government had introduced a provision whereby anyone who acquired shares in unlisted companies before October 1, 2004, and had not paid securities transaction tax (STT) will be liable to pay 10% LTCG tax. “Several representations were made by stake holders, and the government may look into this.While the demand is for a complete rollback, the government may come out with a clarification so that genuine investors are exempted,“ a person close to the development said. The government had brought the provision to plug a loophole being used to evade taxes. “Several representations were made by the

Subscribers of Employees´ Provident Fund Organisation can now withdraw money from their account using one common form and will not be required to file documents like marriage invitation cards for taking advances. Business Standard New Delhi,22 February 2017

Any bank account suspected to have been ´misused´ for money laundering or shell company operations won´t be exempted from probe under ´Operation Clean Money´ despite having low deposits, the CBDT said on Tuesday. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the policymaking body of the department, issued specific guidelines to ascertain ifaparticular cash deposit is genuine or not and withaview to "maintain consistent approach during verification" under ´Operation Clean Money´ where 1.8 million people were contacted by the taxman. "In case, there is information or apprehension/ suspicion thataparticular bank account(s) has been misused for money laundering, tax evasion, entry operations in shell companies, the monetary cutoff or cash balance based cut off prescribed in clauses above requiring noverification, shall not be applicable," it said. The instructions earlier made it clear that in case of an individual (other than minors) not having any business income, &

Settling two contentious issues —definition of territorial waters and administration of interstate transfers —appears key to the passage of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill in the second half of the Budget session, beginning in the second week of March. Issues over compensation law were cleared by the GST Council last week. It will take up the remaining Bills —Central GST, State GST and Integrated IGST —on March 4 and 5. Resolving these issues would make way for the July 1 rollout of the uniform indirect tax legislation. The Council has sought the views ofalaw committee on the matter. "All GST laws are being vetted. There are areas of concern. Constitutional conflicts that will have to be carefully negotiated," saidasenior government official. On the issue of territorial waters, the Centre has agreed to give states the power to collect taxes on economic activities within 12 nautical miles. But it did not agree to treat these areas as part of the relevant state´s te

Officials may issue notices, carry out surveys in some big cases where no response has come Income Tax officials could soon be at your doorstep if you have deposited a huge amount during the note-swapping exercise last year, and have not yet explained the source of the cash. “We have tried to keep the exercise non-intrusive. But if people have not come forward, then some kind of verification is needed especially in cases that involve deposits of large sums,“ a senior income-tax department official told ET. Under the `Operation Clean Money', the I-T department had sent out SMSes and e-mails to about 18 lakh people who deposited over `5 lakh each during the 50-day window from November 10 to December 30, because the desposits did not tally with their income. The depositors were asked by the I-T department to explain the source of the money by logging in to its portal. By February 15, about 7.3 lakh people responded to the emails and ex plained their deposits. According to th

Making A Monetary Difference The upcoming payments bank by IndiaPost will make it possible to send and receive money only on the basis of the Aadhaar number Your 12-digit Aadhaar number could soon become your single-point payment address. With the upcoming payments bank by IndiaPost, over 112 crore Indians will be able to send and receive money only on the basis of the Aadhaar number; it won't not matter whether it is linked to a bank account or not. IndiaPost CEO AP Singh told ET that currently, Aadhaar is not a payment address in itself, but the payments bank, which plans to start operations from September 2017, will change that. The bank, which hopes to cover at least 650 districts of the country in the initial stage, aims to “simplify and universalise“ payments systems. “We will bring out a solution to make Aadhaar a payment address, which will work with or without a bank account.That means that people who already have an Aadhaar should be able to receive payment from a