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  Indian economy to grow at 7.3% in FY19 and 7.5% in FY20: World Bank The investment rate, as represented by the gross fixed capital formation, stood at 7.6 per cent in 2017-18, growing from a low of 1.6 per cent in 2013-14 Keeping its previous estimate of India’s GDP growth in 2017-18 unchanged at 6.7 per cent, the World Bank has signalled that the economic slowdown has bottomed out, and maintained its growth forecast for 2018-19 at 7.3 per cent and 7.5 per cent for 2019-20. The government’s Central Statistics Office, in its second advance estimate, had pegged the gross domestic product (GDP) growth at 6.6 per cent, marginally above 6.5 per cent in the first advance estimate. However, the pleasing growth projections come with the assumption that investments will grow at 6.7 per cent in 2019-20. The investment rate, as represented by the gross fixed capital formation, stood at 7.6 per cent in 2017-18, growing from a low of 1.6 per cent in 2013-14. “Continuing subdued rate of

  Parliamentary Panel asks government to review employees pension scheme A parliamentary panel has asked the government to assess the Employees Pension Scheme 1995 and consider a revision of the minimum monthly pension of Rs 1,000, saying the social security benefit is too meagre to fulfil even the basic needs.  Trade unions have been demanding for a very long time that minimum pension may be raised to Rs 3,000 a month. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour in its 34th report tabled in Parliament on Wednesday said that it firmly believes that this (Rs 1,000) is way too meagre.  The committee recommended that government conduct an assessment of the pension scheme with particular reference to the right to sustenance of the pensioners, and based on the findings, consider a revision of the amount.  The Employee Provident Fund Organisation had started providing minimum monthly pension of `1,000 under the Employees Pension Scheme 1995 from September 1, 2014. The committee

Sebi considers clearing house interoperability Sebi’s plan of clearing house interoperability is aimed at reducing stock market trading costs and minimising trading outage The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is weighing interoperability of clearing houses and lower margin requirements in an attempt to reduce trading costs and minimise the impact of trading halts, four people aware of the matter said. “The issue was discussed extensively by an internal Sebi committee on secondary market on 8 March, which discussed removing the operational and technical constraints in implementing the proposal,” said the first of the four people, all of whom spoke under condition of anonymity. The market regulator has been weighing the idea for several years, and has lately revived discussions to help soften some of the impact from the return of LTCG tax, a second person said. Clearing and settlement of share transactions on stock exchanges happens at clearing houses, which are ru

Investing in equity mutual funds may get cheaper Investing in equity mutual funds is set to get cheaper. The Securities and Exchange Board of India may soon ask mutual funds to cut an expense fee they charge investors and this will be taken up in the next Sebi board meet on March 28. Along with the recently-introduced separate fee restriction for selling schemes in smaller towns this could end up reducing cost of investing in equity mutual fund schemes by as much as 20%.  The mutual fund industry is now allowed to charge 20 basis points to every scheme. This was introduced in 2012 as compensation for the loss that the industry incurred for not being allowed to use the proceeds they made from exit loads — a fee that mutual funds charged investors for premature withdrawal.  Now, Sebi wants to reduce this fee of 20 basis points to 5 basis points. The proposal was discussed in the Mutual Fund Advisory Committee, appointed by the regulator, held late in February, said three people f

  LS passes Finance Bill 2018; unlisted stocks to get indexation benefits Finance Bill passed by Lok Sabha without debate; relief for start-ups, PPF holders The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed the Finance Bill 2018, allowing the benefit of inflation adjustments to stocks that were unlisted till January 31 while levying long-term capital gains (LTCG) tax. The move might provide tax benefits to shareholders of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), others who have invested in employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), and in certain merger and acquisition cases. The Bill retained the LTCG tax without removing the securities transaction tax (STT) and the indexation benefits provided to all shares. The amendments to the Bill also provided relief to start-ups and immunity to the holders of public provident funds (PPF) from any attachment of their funds by authorities. For the first time in years, the Bill was passed without any debate in the Lok Sabha and drew flak from the Opposition. Since

  Representations received to withdraw LTCG: FinMin In his Budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had proposed introduction LTCG tax of 10 per cent on stock market gains exceeding Rs 1 lakh. Finance ministry today said it has received representations for withdrawal of the long term capital gains (LTCG) tax on listed securities proposed in the Union Budget 2018-19. In his Budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had proposed introduction LTCG tax of 10 per cent on stock market gains exceeding Rs 1 lakh. In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla said "representations" have been received requesting for withdrawal of the proposal to introduce tax on LTCG on listed securities through the Finance Bill, 2018. "The decision will be reflected in the official amendment, if any, to the Finance Bill, 2018, at the time of consideration and passing by the Parliament," the minister said. Meanwhile, the Finance Bill 2018 could not b

  Income Tax department attaches benami properties worth Rs 39 billion Show cause notices for provisional attachment of benami properties were issued in over 1,500 cases Income tax department has provisionally attached benami properties of over Rs 39 billion in more than 1,200 cases, the Finance Ministry informed the Rajya Sabha today. In a written reply, Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla also said the tax department has identified more than 1,600 benami transactions till end-February. "Show cause notices for provisional attachment of benami properties were issued in over 1,500 cases and provisional attachment has been made in over 1,200 cases. The value of properties under attachment is over Rs 39 billion," he said. In another reply, Shukla said till date, in three phases of 'operation clean money', the income tax department has identified around 22.69 lakh persons whose tax profile was found to be inconsistent with the case deposits made by