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E- wallet players have been kept out of the new Unified Payments Interface ( UPI) at the behest of banks. Banks felt including e- wallet services, which is set to make money transfer simpler, might not be in the interest of banks, said an official who is a part of the team working on UPI. The Payments Council of India, which represents these wallet players, had communicated to the National Payments Corporation of India ( NPCI) that they would like to be part of the UPI system. However, they have not been included so far. These non- bank players have an edge in the mobile wallet space as first movers. They established themselves before the banks entered the space. These players had cashed in on the rise of smart phones and offered safe and simpler transactions to consumers. Even though banks are late entrants to this space, they would be able to establish soon thanks to their customer base. Experts say the dynamics of the digital money transfer will change with banks getting a

www.caonline.in News... 1.Online empanelment for concurrent audit of branches of Punjab and Sind Bank started from 16.05.2016- 31.05.2016. 2.HUDCO invites applications from eligible CA firms for certification of accounts for the F.Y 2016-2017. 3.Extension to 10.06.2016 of last date for various MCA e-forms having due date between 25 March to 31 May 2016,with additional fee waiver. MCA Circular no.06/2016. 4.Income declaration scheme 2016 to open from 01.06.16 to 30.09.16. Payments towards taxes, surcharge and penalty to be made by 30.11.16. CBDT press release of 14.5.16. 5.With effect from 01.06.2016, if payment consideration (or any part of it) is received in cash of sale of any goods/ provision of any service (exceeding Rs. 2. lacs), TCS @ 1% should be deducted. For more News Like us on https://www.facebook.com/caonlineofficial Or Subscribe on mail visit : www.caonline.in

Plans writing to government for urgent change in the Sebi Act, after nod from board The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) plans to write to the central government to change the provisions of its securities laws that deal with the quantum of penalty the market regulator can impose. The matter will be discussed at Sebi's board meeting later this week, according to sources. Following a nod from the board, Sebi might write to the government for ‘urgent’ amendments to the Sebi Act, the sources added. The regulator wants to bring in certain clarifications to ensure that the discretion to impose penalties always lies with its adjudicating officers (AOs). The move could impact cases between 2002 and 2014, a lot of which are still pending before the regulator. The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) has also been remanding back matters to Sebi to re-decide and impose higher penalties. “We want to insert a clarification that the discretion to impose a penalty has always r

An interministerial group on labour headed by finance minister Arun Jaitley is expected to meet soon to take a call on how aggressively the government should pursue its agenda of reforms. This comes after attempts to build consensus on big-ticket legis lative changes in labour laws failed because of stiff opposition from the trade unions and the government not enjoying sufficient strength in the Rajya Sabja. “The government will soon hold discussions at very senior le vel in which a decision is likely to be taken as to what extent it should push labour reforms,“ a senior official told ET, requesting not to be identified. The Narendra Modi-led NDA government had last year set up an interministerial group on labour, comprising power minister Piyush Goyal, petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan and minister of state in Prime Minister's Office Jitendra Singh to deliberate on all labour law changes with trade unions. However, the group could not manage to take unions completely

Six registered agencies are said to be working collectively to come up with a new ratings system for such projects In a global first, India is set to come out with a new ratings system for infrastructure projects in the coming months, to boost domestic funding and foreign investment in the infra space. Such a move will help prospective investors put money in a project based simply on the merits of the undertaking. India is also likely to ask the BRICS Bank to adopt the same ratings system, as the multilateral development lender plans to set up a new credit ratings system for infrastructure projects. Six registered credit agencies, including Crisil, CARE Ratings and India Ratings are said to be working collectively to come up with a new ratings system for such projects, Business Standard has learnt. In his 2016-17 Budget speech, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that “a new credit rating system for infrastructure projects which gives emphasis to various in-built credit enhanc

Reduction of import duty on various mobile handset components may hurt local manufacturing. While lower import duties may reduce handset prices by up to ten per cent, it may discourage manufacturers to procure such components locally. Budget 2016-17 had increased import duties on various components like printed circuit board (PCB), battery, charger and earphones. The move was aimed at discouraging imports. On May 5, department of revenue under Ministry of Finance withdrew some part of the import duty. Currently, import duty on speakers, chargers/adaptors, battery and earphones stands at 12.5 per cent, compared with 29.44 per cent announced in the Budget. Sources say manufacturers have been lobbying for abolition of the duty since March. Since most companies are not prepared to set up component manufacturing facilities in India, they had asked the government to reduce import duties. However, industry sources say, abolition of the two per cent import duty that was imposed during

Process unlikely to be a long drawn one, say officials India will amend the Avoidance of Double Tax agreement with Singapore soon. The negotiation process is unlikely to be a long drawn one, since it requires a simple modification, according to officials in the income tax (I-T) department. Indian officials are in the process of reaching out to the Singaporean authorities for the amendment. Singapore will likely get the same two-year transition benefit of 50 per cent capital gains tax like in the case of Mauritius. Limitation of Benefit is much higher in the case of Singapore, a threshold of Rs 50 lakh against Rs 27 lakh for Mauritius. The southeast Asian nation has emerged as the largest contributor of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the last financial year. For the nine-month period between April and December 2015, Singapore accounted for Rs 71,195 crore in FDI against Rs 39,506 crore through Mauritius. The changes to India-Mauritius Double Taxation Avoidance Convention last