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GSTN to rope in private entities for tax payer profiling, fraud analytics GST Network has invited bids from private entities for "360-degree" profiling of taxpayers for early detection of fraud as it seeks to transform into an end-to-end platform for checking GST evasion, from being just a tax collection portal. The analytics company to be roped in will have the mandate for designing and developing a Fraud Analytics System. GST Network has however barred Infosys from bidding for the project to avoid conflict of interest. The system will take about an year to be operational and leverage existing data pertaining to GST registration, return filing and e-way bill, along with the information from other external sources such as Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), banks and state tax departments. According to the eligibility criteria, the interested bidder will need to have a turnover of Rs 300 crore and should have posted profit in the p

SEBI writes to govt urging tax parity between cash and derivatives Differentiating tax structure incentivising participation in the derivatives segment, Sebi tells government The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) intends to have tax parity in the futures and options (F&O) segment. Sebi is of the view that the differentiating tax structure, particularly the securities transaction tax (STT), is incentivising participation in the derivatives segment.The market regulator has written to the government—which sets the tax rate for the capital market—on bringing tax parity between the cash and the derivatives segment. Currently, a STT between 0.1 per cent and 0.125 per cent is levied on F&O transactions. Within the derivatives segment, STT on sale of options—the most-popular segment—is just 0.05 per cent (if the contract is not exercised). On the other hand, STT is charged at a much higher rate of 0.1 per cent for delivery-based trades in the cash segment “Sebi ha

RBI rushes in to prop up falling rupee India’s central bank reportedly intervened in the currency markets on Monday to prevent a further slide in the local unit, which breached the 67 mark to a dollar for the first time in 15 months amid a widening trade gap and runaway import bills fuelled by high crude-oil prices. Some state-owned banks were seen selling dollars aggressively, interventions that market dealers attributed to the central bank’s strategy to stem the decline of the Indian rupee against the US currency. The rupee is the worst performing among a dozen Asian monetary units in the past three months. It lost 4.25 per cent to the dollar during the period, show data from Bloomberg. On Monday, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is said to have sold about Rs 800 million collectively on the spot and exchange traded futures markets, dealers said. An email sent to RBI remained unanswered until the publication of this report. The currency market has seen such a strong central ban

No objection from RBI and DIPP to FDI increase in Idea Cellular The Reserve Bank of India and the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) have not raised any objections to increase in foreign direct investment of Idea CellularNSE -0.88 %, taking its proposed merger with Vodafone India closer to realisation. Once Idea gets clearance to increase FDI in itself from nodal agency department of telecommunications (DoT), the two companies will need to ask DoT to transfer Vodafone’s licence to Idea for final approval of the mega merger that would create India’s largest mobile phone operator by revenue and subscribers, officials said. While RBI has not found any lapse on account of Foreign Exchange Management Act in the merger of downstream subsidiaries of Idea Cellular and Vodafone India, DIPP has asked DoT to get clarification and documentation on whether all upstream and downstream companies that hold shares in the Indian entities are FDI compliant. “We have to check whe

Taxpayers may have to explain discrepancies in I-T, GST returns Government moves to link databases to get all relevant details of a firm, use fraud analytics to look for evaders The annual return forms for goods and services tax (GST) may ask taxpayers to explain any discrepancies between their income tax and GST returns as the government seeks to tighten rules to deter companies from evading taxes.This is part of the government’s efforts to collate all available sources of information in order to get the 360-degree profile of a taxpayer. The government is trying to link different databases to get all relevant information about a company—financial transactions, registration information and direct and indirect tax filings—and use fraud analytics to look for tax evaders. However, initially to deter taxpayers from evading GST by understating their turnover, the annual GST return form will seek details of taxpayers’ income tax return filings to see if they are understating sales tu

Sebi order on extending derivative trading: Key takeaways and challenges  In a move aimed at attracting investors dealing in Indian products on foreign exchanges in Singapore and Dubai, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Friday allowed domestic stock exchanges to extend equity derivatives trading until 11.55 pm. The new timings will also allow a better alignment with commodity markets amid implementation of universal exchanges, which function until 11:55 pm. In this Business Standard special piece, Deven Choksey, managing director of KR Choksey Investment Managers, looks at the Sebi order and explains the key takeaways. The first good thing about that the entire development is that it brings the equity derivative market in line with the commodity derivative market. Both markets will now have similar trading hours, which will reduce systemic risk in the markets. The second aspect, the extension of trading hours will result in providing a hedging facility to portfo

Why the govt is preparing a new telecom policy Why do we need a new communications policy? A lot has changed since India’s last telecom policy in 2012. The country now has the world’s second largest internet subscriber base and is seeing technological shifts in digital communications. With the advent of 5G, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things, India needs a vision document on how to use these digital tools for the growth and development of the country and what laws need to be drafted or amended. Moreover, given the capital-intensive nature of the sector, ease of doing business needs to be improved to attract investments. What are the goals of the policy? The department of telecommunications (DoT) on 1 May floated a draft policy, with a target of attracting investments of $100 billion in digital communications. The DoT plans to send it to the cabinet in four weeks. The policy’s objectives include broadband for all, with a thrust on fibre-to-home connections, creating