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The Employees´ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is expected to launch online facility for settlement of  claims, including EPF  withdrawal and pension fixation, by May this year to  put an end totedious paper  work by its members. At present, EPFO receive close to 10 million applications manually for settlement of EPF withdrawal claim, pension fixation or getting group insurance benefit by families of the deceased.“The process of connecting all field offices with a centrals erver is going on. We may introduce the facility for online submission of all types of applications and claims like EPF withdrawal and pension settlement by  May this year,” EPFO´sCentral Provident Fund Commissioner VPJoy said. Business Standard New Delhi,2nd February 2017

Despite the volatility in the equity market, shares of brokerage firms that have diversified their business model have rallied handsomely in the past year. Shares of Motilal Oswal Financial Services, Edelweiss Financial Services and IIFL Holdings have all doubled in the past one year against the Sensex´s 23 per cent gain. These firms have benefited from the thematic rally in stocks of nonbanking financial companies (NBFCs) for most of last year. For these entities, broking activities are no longer the mainstay as they have diversified into lending, private wealth management, asset management and even insurance. For instance, the contribution of the capital markets business for IIFL in the overall profit pie (profit before tax or PBT) fell to 13 per cent in FY16 from 21 per cent in FY15, and further to eight per cent in the nine months ended December 2016. For Motilal Oswal Financial Services, revenues from the capital market business declined to 38 per cent in Q3 FY17 from 46

Secondary adjustment provision in Budget FY18 could hit cash flow, dividend payout A new provision for secondary adjustment in transfer pricing, announced in the Union Budget for 201718, is likely to affect the cash flow of multinational corporations (MNCs) and the dividend distribution tax paid by their Indian subsidiaries. The provision has also sparked worry on Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) and service tax payable by the subsidiaries, as well as retrospective implementation from 201314. Experts claim the provision is in line with the norms of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) —an international economic organisation with 35 member nations —but its wording is giving rise to apprehension. Transfer pricing is the setting of the price of goods or services sold byasubsidiary to the parent. Aprimary adjustment is made, byatax administration, toacompany´s taxable profits on transactions with an associated enterprise inasecondary jurisdiction. At presen

With an aim to deepen the nascent commodity market, Sebi is likely to give mutual funds the go-ahead to trade in commodity markets in a month, while the regulator is also in talks with the RBI to allow institutional investors like banks and FPIs to trade in the segment. Mutual funds' participation in commodities derivatives would be the first one to happen among institutional investors," Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) Chairman U K Sinha today said, and hinted that the move could be implemented in a month. Sinha, whose term as Sebi Chairman ends on March 1, was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the regulator's international conference on commodity derivatives. On allowing participation of banks, alternative investment funds and foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) in commodities, he said Sebi is in active consultation with the Reserve Bank over the issue. "Our argument with RBI has been, in any case bank's have huge exposure to commodit

The Employees´ Provident Fund Organisation has extended the deadline for its subscribers to submit Aadhaar number to March 31 from February 28. An order also said the deadline for submitting Aadhaarlinked digital life certificate has also been extended till March 31, 2017. PTI< President nod for wages via cheques or emode The central and state governments can now specify industrial units and other establishments which will have to pay wages either through cheques or by electronic transfors into workers´ bank accounts, according toanew law. President Pranab Mukherjee recently approved the Payment of Wages (Amendment) Act, 2017, an official order said. The Act enables employers to pay wages to workers through cheque or by transferring into their bank account without their written authorisation. Business Standard New Delhi,18th Februray 2017

The income tax department is "verifying" over Rs.4.5 lakh crore of suspicious deposits made by 1.8 million people after the note ban and will send ´nonstatutory´ letters to those who have not responded to its SMS and email queries seeking explanation. Business Standard New Delhi,18th February 2017

After thrashing out the contentious issue of administrative turf, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is set to meet state finance ministers on Saturday for what could be the secondlast meeting of the Goods and Service Tax (GST) Council before the expected July 1 rollout of the new indirect tax system. On the agenda are the ratification of supporting pieces of the GST legislation andaproposed compensation law. Most of the contentious issues the council has been dealing with, including crossempowerment or dual control and rate slabs, have been dealt with in the previous meetings. The 10th meeting of the GST Council to be held at Udaipur would be crucial. The council´s consent to the draft integrated GST, central GST, and state GST Bills are required before the first two can be taken up in the Budget session. The Parliament session would reconvene on March 9. Each state´s legislature will also have to pass their own state GST laws. “The GST council meeting on Saturday could be the second