CA Online

Tweaked definition of `agriculturalist' to enable select farm goods to be brought under tax net India has incorporated a new definition of `agriculturalist' in the goods and services tax law to enable select farm items to be brought under the tax net nationwide. While farmers won't have to register to pay the tax, registered buyers may need to collect the levy on a `reverse charge' basis, similar to the purchase tax principle adopted in Punjab and Haryana. Most farm produce will likely be exempted from the new tax and some cash crops are expected to at tract the threshold rate. As per the latest definition, an agriculturalist is a person or a Hindu undivided family undertaking cultivation of land by own labour or labour of the family or by servants paid wages in cash or kind or by hired labour under personal supervision or supervision by any family member. The draft central and integrated GST laws, which were approved by the GST Council, have incorporated the new de

The government has asked all banks to provide mobile banking facility to all customers  by March31 in a bid to push digital transactions.”What we have asked the banksto do is to enable all customerswhohave mobilesformobilebanking... Weareaskingbankstoruna nationwidecampaignupto March31toensurethatevery customerwhohasamobile phoneisenabledformobile banking,” ElectronicsandIT SecretaryArunaSundararajan toldreporters. Business Standard New Delhi,02th March 2017

Entitlement at minimum `300 per day in C-category towns compared to Rs 160 now The labour ministry has nearly doubled the minimum wage for agricultural labourers including those hired on contract, barely six months after a significant increase in minimum wages for non-agricultural labourers. The Centre had on August 1 last year raised minimum wages for non-agricultural workers 42%. According to a labour ministry notification, an unskilled agricultural labourer will be entitled to a minimum wage of `300 per day in C-category towns compared to `160 now while those in B and A category towns will get ` 303 and `333 respectively. Similarly, semi-skilled workers will be entitled to a daily minimum wage of `364, `335 and `307 in A, B and C-category towns while skilled workers will be paid `395, `364 and `334 under three catego ries respectively. Highly skilled workers will get `438, `407 and `364 in A, B and C-category towns. Wages prescribed by the state government will prevail over

The Government circulated draft of the GST Model Law requesting for suggestions from the industry . The industry and experts have been poring over the draft. The article seeks to highlight the need to reconsider one of the provisions related to input tax credits. The proposed GST Legislation appears to deny tax credit in relation to input services for which payments are made after three months of the date of the invoice of the supplier. In fact the proposal mandates payment of interest inaddition to the denial of credit. Also, under the current legislation,customer can re-claim the credit reversed earlier on making payment against the invoice. However, a similar provision is missing under GST and consequently may result in permanent loss ofinput credit of tax paid earlier. It appears that this proposal was inserted to mitigate benami transactions. This anxiety is clearly misplaced for several reasons: A) The compliance prescribed un der the GST regime requires every person making a su

The government´s efforts to disclose unaccounted deposited in banks ban have received response. At the end of February, the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY), also known as Income Declaration Scheme II, saw declarations crore, of which the Mumbai accounted for Rs.500 crore. Offeringafinal option of black money, the had on December 17 provided time until March 31 to come clean on deposits of banned currency notes in banks. For those holding unaccounted cash, the PMGKY proposed to tax 50 per cent of the declared amount and park 25 per cent in an interestfree deposit for The informal tax collection target for the scheme was over Rs.75,000 crore, double that of the Income Disclosure Scheme I. To collect that amount, the disclosure would have to be to the tune of Rs.1.5 lakh crore. The scheme is part of the Taxation Amendment) Act, by the Lok Sabha in December 2016. The tepid collection has prompted the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to conductavideo conference wi

Spooked by a recent breach of foreign ownership limit at HDFC Bank, regulators and intermediaries are grappling with the question of monitoring foreign investors in real time. Both held talks on exchange of data to track realtime behaviour of foreign investors.According to sources, the Securities and Exchange of India (Sebi) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) met last week to discuss the February breach at HDFC Bank.They also discussed whether new systems can installed to observe foreign shareholdings and prevent breaches of investment limits. At present, only the RBI monitors foreign investments daily. Its alarm goes off each time foreign ownership in a company breaches a certain limit, which is typically lower than the actual ceiling.However, that alarm goes off after market hours only; intraday, it never rings. Hence, the need for realtime monitoring. "There isa need for realtime data integration between depositories, custodians, and stock exchanges.If the stock exchange has

The government will consider the demands made by foreign retailers for allowing nonfood items such as home care products under the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy, Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Monday said. Last year, the government had allowed 100 per cent FDI in marketing of food products which are produced and manufactured in India. "Many big global retailers are keen to set up their stores in India after we allowed 100 per cent FDI in food processing sector. But they are demanding they should be allowed to sell nonfood items such as home care products," Badal told Press Trust of India. The minister on Monday heldameeting with representatives of 22 countries for inviting them to participate in World Food Fair to be organised in New Delhi in October. She said the representatives sought that foreign retailers be allowed to import food products for initial six to eight months to test these items in Indian market before establishing facilities in the country.