CA Online

Markets regulator Sebi has decided to appoint auditors for conducting forensic audits of financial statements of listed companies to check frauds.  The move comes amid Sebi ordering forensic audit of a slew of companies including Fortis Healthcare.  Of late, there have been concerns voiced over certain auditors for being negligent while examining books of listed firms with various inconsistencies in financial statements being ignored.   Sebi has now invited applications from eligible CA firms "for empanelment to take up assignments relating to forensic audit of financial statements of listed companies. Spelling out the eligibility criteria, Sebi said that the applicant should have minimum 10 years of experience in the field of audit or forensic audit; should have at least 5 partners or directors involved in forensic audit related work, the regulator said in a public notice.  "Application shall not be considered where disciplinary action or proceedings have been initiated

The constraints which any regulatory agency has in fixing the goods and services tax (GST) rates in a country include the fact that it should be low enough to ensure compliance as well as not cause inflation, and high enough to generate revenue for the government. The concerns which led the GST Council to initially prescribe multiple rates was primarily to generate the same revenue as before, and in that light, keep the effective indirect tax rate on the commodity as close as in the previous jurisdiction. Rate rationalizations over a period of time have tried to bring down the rates in sectors to boost economic activity and move from a high rate of 28% to 18% for most commodities. In the most recent rate rationalization, the highest tax bracket of 28% has been rationalized further with rates on daily-use items like perfumes, cosmetics, toiletries, hair dryers, shavers, mixer grinder, vacuum cleaners and lithium-ion batteries, being lowered to 18%. For a number of consumer durables

The Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Second Amendment) Bill, 2018 that recognises homebuyers as financial creditors to real estate developers. The bill also proposes a special dispensation for small sector enterprises.  The IBC Amendment Bill now requires clearance from Rajya Sabba to replace the June 6 ordinance that sought to put these amendments into force to aid quick resolution of several bankrupt firms. Moving the bill in Lok Sabha, interim finance minister Piyush Goyal said, “We want to address concerns expressed by the MSME sector and homebuyers. We have learnt from two years of implementation of IBC, and through the amendments, we want to strengthen IBC Bill.”  The minister also said that the objective of the bill was not to liquidate the companies but to save jobs in those companies.  “After years of lethargy in recovering bank loans, finally we now have a new law — the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016, which has started bringing big bank

Improvement over 80.8% in year-ago period even as concerns rise that govt may not be able to meet target of 3.3% of GDP India’s fiscal deficit at the end of the first quarter of the current financial year was 68.7% of the budgeted target for 2018-19, better than 80.8% a year ago.  The data comes amid growing concern that the government may not be able to meet the target of 3.3% of GDP, with the recent cuts in goods and services tax (GST) causing revenue loss while the national health protection scheme and the minimum support prices (MSP) to farmers could add to spending. “Notwithstanding the mild improvement in the fiscal deficit in Q1 FY19 relative to the year-ago level, various fiscal concerns persist, including whether the budgeted targets for GST revenues, dividends and profits and disinvestment would be realised, and whether the outlays required for revised MSPs, the national health protection scheme, fuel and other subsidies, and bank recapitalisation would prove to be adeq

The tax department today put up in public domain draft GST returns forms -- Sahaj and Sugam -- for seeking comments from stakeholders.  Besides, taxpayers who have no purchases, no output tax liability and no input tax credit to avail in any quarter of the financial year shall file one 'Nil' return for the entire quarter.  "In month one and two of the quarter, such taxpayer shall report NIL transaction by sending an SMS. Facility for filing quarterly return shall also be available by an SMS," the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) said while unveiling the draft returns forms. Small taxpayers would be those who have a turnover up to Rs 5 crore in the last financial year and can file quarterly return with monthly payment of taxes on self-declaration basis.  The return form 'Sahaj' is for businesses which make supplies to only consumers (B2C). It includes details of outward supplies and inward supplies attracting reverse charge as well as summ

The 6-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), headed by RBI Governor Urjit Patel, started three-day deliberations here today to decide on the key interest rate amid elevated oil prices and inflation hovering around 5 per cent.  Experts are divided in their opinion about the likely action of Reserve Bank of India on the benchmark lending rate. While some said the central bank will maintain status quo on Wednesday, others did not rule out another rate hike. The MPC is meeting for the third bi-monthly Monetary Policy Statement for 2018-19. The resolution of the MPC will be made public in the afternoon of August 1.  RBI had increased the benchmark short term lending rate (repo rate) by 0.25 per cent to 6.25 per cent in its last policy review in June on inflationary concerns.  The retail inflation, which is factored in by the MPC, spiked to a five-month high of 5 per cent in June on costlier fuel. The government has mandated the Reserve Bank to keep inflation at 4 per cent (+/- 2 per

The recent cuts in goods and services tax (GST) rates will exert pressure on India’s fiscal consolidation road map and are therefore credit negative, Moody’s Investor Service said on Monday.  In a research note, Moody’s estimated the revenue loss from these tax cuts at around 0.04-0.08% of gross domestic product (GDP) annually.  “Although the proportion of revenue loss is small, the vacillation in tax rates creates uncertainty around government revenue and comes amid persistent upside risks to its expenditures,” Moody’s said. Rates on a number of consumer durable items such as refrigerators, washing machines and small television sets were lowered with effect from 27 July.  “The tax cuts, which follow cuts in January 2018 and November 2017, will weigh on the government’s revenue collections and are credit negative because they will pressure the government’s fiscal consolidation effort, which is already diminished relative to the original fiscal deficit targets set last fiscal year,”