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Modi says govt 'flexible' to provide relief to the poor as demonetisation is enforced Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday claimed banks had received deposits worth Rs 5 lakh crore since he announced the demonetisation scheme on November 8, and would  soon give loans at cheaper interest rates.  Modi said his government wasn’t “obstinate” about implementing the scheme, and has shown “flexibility” to provide relief to the poor.  The PM also seemed to suggest that the money recovered because of “note ban” will help government provide housing to the poor in rural areas by 2022.  He also advised the poor to not let their Jan Dhan bank accounts be misused. Modi asked people not to allow others to deposit Rs 2.5 lakh in their accounts, with promises of getting a cut. “The law is strict. The account owner will get punished,” he said.  Addressing a Bharatiya Janata Party election rally in Agra, the PM came across less combative than his speeches in Goa and Belgaum, Karnataka, on Nove

Small businesses, self-employed professionals have to gear up for higher scrutiny of their income, expenses As the initial frenzy over de-legalising of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes ebbs, many small business owners and self-employed professionals are learning to live with a new reality — there will be more scrutiny of their incomes, expenses and tax compliance. Many tax consultants and chartered accountants say there have been several enquiries from clients seeking guidance on how to rework their businesses to remain tax compliant. “Bulk of these enquiries are from traders and self-employed professionals who have a fairly large cash component in their business dealings that usually escaped the book of accounts,” says Paras Mehra, a Delhi-based chartered accountant.   Pavan Kumar Vijay, founder and managing director, Corporate Professionals, says: “We have received at least 50 requests from clients looking to restructure their businesses or register new companies.” Experts say man

Withdrawal, deposit and other banking services allowed; senior citizens exempted Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) on Friday said banks on Saturday will not exchange old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes with the new ones to perform other banking related duties, which have been on hold since November 8. Senior citizens would be exempted from this restriction. However, a customer can still withdraw and deposit money at the counters. A customer can withdraw up to Rs 24,000 in a window of seven days, starting from the first day of withdrawal. “All these days our own customers have suffered because we have not been able to do their work. So, we have seen lot of pending work at branches, especially for our existing customers. We, from IBA, have taken a view that on Saturday we shall be exclusively doing work for our own customers. And we will not be doing exchange of notes (for outside customers),” said Rajeev Rishi, chairman, IBA. The IBA decision is only for Saturday and from Monday onwards custom

WIDENING TAX NET Capital gains made on investment in Indian shares beginning April 1, 2017 to be taxed here India and Cyprus have signed the revised tax treaty along with the protocol, plugging a gap that allowed investments routed through the country to escape tax in India. The protocol signed on Friday is expected to come into effect in India, in respect of income derived in fiscal years beginning on or after April 1, 2017. The amended tax treaty provides for source-based taxation of capital gains arising from alienation of shares, implying that capital gains made on investment in shares of Indian companies will be taxed in India. It provides for grandfathering of investments made prior to April 1, 2017, which would continue to be taxed in the country of residence. India has similarly updated its tax treaty with Mauritius, which has a 32.8% share in FDI into India since April 2000. Cyprus has a 2.88% share over this period. “The signing of the revised of the revised India Cyprus tax

The government on Friday put out a revised draft of a bill to check unauthorised chit funds and Ponzi schemes, proposing strict measures such as up to 10 years imprisonment and heavy penalty on operators of such schemes. The revised draft of `Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes and Protection of Depositors' Interests Bill, 2016 seeks to provide for a comprehensive code to ban unregulated deposit schemes and protect the interests of depositors. The bill stipulates that any deposit taker who promotes and accept deposits in an unregulated deposit scheme may be punishable with imprisonment for minimum term of two years which may be extended to 10 years and with a fine which may extend to twice the amount of aggregate funds collected from subscribers, members or participants in such schemes or arrangements. The bill also provides for the central government to autho rise creation of an online data base of information on deposit taking activity in India. Public comments on it have bee

SBI Alone Has Seen Rs 1.34L Cr Inflow: Chairman Bhattacharya Total deposit mobilisation by banks crossed Rs 4 lakh crore on November 14, according to the Indian Banks' Association. The amount is expected to have since gone up as State Bank of India, the country's largest lender, has seen “demonetisation deposits“ grow from Rs 1.04 lakh crore on November 14 to Rs 1.34 lakh crore at 4pm on November 18. According to SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya, a large part of the deposits would be withdrawn as depositors get back to spending. But 10-15% of the money that citizens have been forced to deposit in banks should stay back, she said. Speaking to TOI, Bhattacharya said that SBI has done 11 crore transactions since demonetisation and has collected deposits of Rs 1.34 lakh crore. Part of the reason for the higher number of transac tions was that a large number of citizens were turning up to exchange notes, with several suspected to be repeat visitors. According to Bhattacharya, th

NEW DELHI With the united opposi tion attacking the ruling dispensa tion in Parliament over the demo netisation issue, the government is unlikely to bring three bills related to GST in the coming days and hopeful of pushing them n latter half of the Winter session which began on Wednesday. The government is keen to push the passage of three legislations related to the main GST bill in the ongoing Winter session, as Parliamentary nod for these bills is must for rolling out GST from the target date of April 1, 2017. The three bills related to GST are--the Central Goods and Services Tax Bill, the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Bill, the Goods and Services Tax (Compensation for Loss of Revenue) Bill.  17TH NOVEMBER, 2016, THE ECONOMIC TIMES, NEW DELHI