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Amendments to help 1.8 million women in the organised sector; Bill will now go to the Lok Sabha The Rajya Sabha on Thursday passed the amendments to the Maternity Benefit Act that seeks to provide 26 weeks of maternity leave to working women and 12 weeks to commissioning mothers and introducing an enabling provision of “work from home“ for nursing mothers. The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave its ex post facto approval to the bill on Wednesday. The provisions are applicable to all establishments employing 10 or more people. The amendments will help about 1.8 million women in the organised sector, the Cabinet had said. The bill will now go to the Lok Sabha, where the government enjoys a majority, and after its passage in the lower house and presidential assent, the changes will be notified by the labour ministry, making them formal. As per the proposed amendments, maternity leave for women working in both private and public sector will be enhanced to

The textile industry is watching to see what the final rate of tax under the proposed goods and service tax (GST) regime would be. This is because of the tax implications the new law will have on major input goods going into the textile production process such as cotton and man-made fibres. According to a report by financial analysis firm ICRA, a lower 12 per cent rate, as recommended by the Arvind Subramanian committee last year, is likely to have a negative impact on the textile sector, especially affecting cotton value chain. Currently, cotton attracts zero central excise duty under the optional route. Compared to this, man-made fibre attracts excise duty at the manufacturing stage. Hence there is an incentive for the downstream players in manmade sector to avail of the input tax credit (ITC). With an optional duty structure at the cotton yarn stage itself, the downstream sectors — weaving, processing and garments — also operate under the optional route, Anil Gupta, vice-p

The Reserve Bank of India ( RBI) on Thursday proposed that a customer should have zero liability in case of a third- party fraud on the account or card, provided the customer notifies the bank within three working days of receiving the communication from the bank regarding an unauthorised transaction. In case of delay in reporting, the liability should be limited to not more than Rs. 5,000, RBI said. For sure, the zero liability can be claimed only if the customer is not fully or partly responsible for such unauthorised transactions to take place. If the bank is responsible for the fraud, the customer is automatically absolved of any liability. It will be mandatory for a customer to register for alerts for electronic banking transactions, RBI said in draft guidelines on customer protection on its website. However, the customer will be liable in a limited manner if the negligence is on the part of the customer, such as where she has shared payment credentials. In such cases,

www.caonline.in News... 1.Statutory Bank Audit Online Multipurpose Empanelment Form (MEF) for the year 2016-17 is live at www.meficai.org. The last date for submission of online MEF Form for the year 2016-17 is 31st August, 2016 and for submission of hard copy of "DECLARATION FOR MEF 2016-17" is 12th September, 2016. 2.The Parliament passed the Enforcement of Security Interest and Recovery of Debts Laws and Miscellaneous Provisions (Amendment) Bill,2016 empowering banks to confiscate security in the case of loan default. 3.Reimbursement of seconded employees’ salaries to seconding company not subject to TDS. [DCIT vs. Mahanagar Gas Ltd. (ITAT Mumbai)]. 4.Now Company Secretaries or Cost Accountants having PAN, or their firm can also act as e-return intermediary. CBDT notification dated 09.08.16. 5.15.08.16 is the last date to Issue of TDS certificate for June quarter of 2016-17 by all deductors.

The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed a Bill seeking increase in overtime working hours. The Factories (Amendment) Bill, 2016, introduced by Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, seeks to increase the upper limit of workers' overtime hours from 50 hours in a quarter to 100 hours in some cases and from 75 hours to 125 hours in others involving 'public interest'. The Bill was allowed despite strong objection from the Opposition members, who raised concern that this could erode the power of states to decide on the matter. The government had first introduced the Bill 2014 in the Lok Sabha in August 2014, following which it was referred to a Parliamentary Standing Committee. While the original Bill contained provisions such as relaxation in norms related to female participation in certain industry segments and reducing the number of days an employee should work to be eligible for benefits such as leave with pay from 240 to 90, the government decided not to change those. &quo

The Cabinet on Wednesday gave ex- post facto approval to the amendments made to the Maternity Benefits Act, that aims to raise maternity leave for women from 12 weeks to 26 weeks. The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, protects the employment of women during the time of her maternity and entitles her of a full paid absence from work to take care for her child. It is applicable to all establishments employing 10 or more persons and the amendments will help around 1.8 million women workforce in the organised sector. These amendments include increasing maternity leave from 12 weeks to 26 weeks for two surviving children and 12 weeks for more than two children, 12 weeks maternity leave to a ‘ commissioning mother’ and ‘ adopting mother’ and mandatory provision of creche in respect of an establishment having 50 or more employees, the statement said. Business Standard New Delhi,11th August 2016

Foreign investment will now be able to flow into financial services such as commodity broking and other such areas not covered in the 18 areas specified for non- banking financial companies (NBFCs). The Cabinet on Wednesday approved amendments to the Foreign Exchange Management ( Transfer or Issue of Security by the Person Resident Outside India) regulations on NBFCs to this effect. A proposal in this regard was made in the Budget for 201617 by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. As much as 100 per cent foreign investment can come into these services under the automatic route, if these services are regulated by financial sector regulators like the Reserve Bank of India, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority. Besides commodity broking, foreign investment would also be allowed to come into asset finance companies, depository participants and infrastructure debt funds, sou