CA Online

For now there is no change or review in the norms put by the UIDAI for banks to carry out enrolment and updation activities The UIDAI has said that the Supreme Court order restricting use of Aadhaar will have no bearing on enrolment and update services being carried out at banks, post offices and government premises.  The move comes as service providers may still use offline verification tools that leverage the unique ID without authentication.  The apex court has ruled that Aadhaar is not mandatory for opening bank accounts, but the norms set for banks and post offices to undertake Aadhaar enrolment and updation activity will stay as these are different from authentication services, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) CEO, Ajay Bhushan Pandey told PTI in an interview. "As Aadhaar is going to be used in the offline mode, for opening bank accounts and other services, and because use of Aadhaar in Direct Benefit Transfer, Pan-ITR has also been held constitutional,

Also, the off-market transactions undertaken by non-residents in line with FDI guidelines, qualified institutional buyers, venture capitalist without payment of STT too could avail the 10% LTCG rate Initial public offerings, bonus, rights issues and ESoPs will be eligible for concessional rate of 10 per cent long-term capital gains (LTCG) tax even if the Securities Transaction Tax has not been paid earlier. In the 2018-19 budget, the government had after a gap of 14 years reintroduced concessional 10 per cent on LTCG tax exceeding Rs 100,000 from sale of shares, subject to payment of Securities Transaction Tax (STT) at the time of acquiring the equities. The finance ministry also decided to exempt certain transaction from payment of STT for availing the concessional 10 per cent LTCG rate. The ministry has notified a list of carve-outs which will be exempt from the requirement of paying STT. These include IPO, follow-on public offer (FPO), bonus or rights issue by a listed company,

Over 50% of respondents believe that job prospects will improve, while 29% say they won’t The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) consumer confidence survey is important because confident consumers buy more goods and services, providing a boost to the economy. But it’s also a barometer of how happy people are with the government’s management of the economy. With the general elections so near, could the consumer confidence survey provide some clues to the political future? Let’s take people’s perception about their employment prospects first. In December 2013, a few months before the last general elections and soon after the taper tantrum that unsettled India’s economy, only  29.1% of those surveyed said their economic condition had improved from what it was a year ago, while 34.4% said it had worsened. The rest said there had been no change in their job prospects. The net response, or those who thought their job prospects were brighter than what they were a year ago minus those who tho

The finance ministry expects the GST collections to cross Rs 1 trillion in November and December on account of festive season demand and the anti-evasion measures initiated by the revenue department.  The Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue rose to Rs 944.42 billion in September and officials feel it could surpass the landmark 1 trillion on increased demand during festival season.  "With the current trend for GST mop-up, it is expected that the monthly collections could again touch Rs 1 trillion around November and December," an official said. The collections during November and December 2018 would reflect the sales and purchases made during the months of October and November 2018.  According to the official, people usually hold back their purchases till Ganesh Chaturthi, which marks the onset of festive season and fell in September this year. Besides, the revenue department's initiative to plug loopholes in the system to curb evasion too would help in raising revenu

The government is mulling permitting 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in insurance broking to give a boost to the sector, sources said.  The FDI policy, at present, allows 49 per cent foreign investment in the insurance sector that encompasses insurance broking, insurance companies, third party administrators, surveyors and loss assessors as defined by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP). The DIPP is an arm of the commerce and industry ministry which deals with FDI related matters and promoting ease of doing business in the country.  Representations have been made to the government time and again on the issue that insurance brokers should be treated at par with other financial services intermediaries, where 100 per cent FDI is permitted. "Insurance broking is like any other financial or commodity broking services. The issue was recently discussed in a high level inter-ministerial meeting. The government is positively looking at the matter,&qu

The capital market regulator has told credit rating agencies — some of which were blindsided by the aura and size of IL&FS — to review borrowers as soon as their bond prices crash, and even place such securities on ‘rating watch’ if prices continue to languish.  Baffled by the rapid downgrades of IL&FS debt paper — from triple-A to ‘D’ (or, default) in less than two months — Sebi wants rating agencies to take cues from the market in evaluating bond issuers. The strategy to track widening bond spreads — the difference between a corporate bond yield and that of a government bond of similar maturity — was emphasised by Sebi officials at a recent meeting with large rating agencies, two persons familiar with the development told ET.  The move assumes significance with the financial market currently displaying a sudden risk aversion to debt securities of businesses like non-banking finance companies whose importance and valuation had risen in the last two years as banks shirked l

Market regulator Securities and exchanges board of India (Sebi) is examining Friday’s sharp moves in shares of Dewan Housing Finance Corp., Yes Bank Ltd and other lenders for possible trading irregularities, people with knowledge of the matter said.  Sebi is looking into whether brokers and investors colluded during the sharp selloff and subsequent recovery in financial shares, the people said, asking not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.  The rout, which deepened Monday, has erased about $13 billion from the value of a gauge of financials. The regulator is examining data from India’s two stock exchanges on which parties were buying and selling financial shares, and on the sequencing of the trades, the people said.  The market regulator may launch a full investigation if it uncovers evidence of wrongdoing, the people added. A Sebi spokesman didn’t respond to a message and phone calls seeking comment.  The move comes after Indian authorities and the central bank