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Tighter norms for gold jewellery exporters The Centre is considering fresh measures to stop malpractices in the export of gold jewellery, said two persons familiar with the development. A trade notice issued by the Noida Export Promotion Zone Customs collector on Thursday asked jewellery exporters not to import gold on loan. They will now have to take gold on loan only from nominated agencies and banks. Importing gold on loan is considered a banking transaction where interest is paid and hence, “banking transactions for gold exports, like taking gold on loan, shall be done in India,” said Rahul Gupta, chairman of the Export Promotion Council for EOUs and SEZs (EPCES). Another person familiar with the development said that a recent meeting of development commissioners of SEZs discussed misuse of facilities by jewellery exporters and decided to review the practice of job work outside SEZ areas. “If it is found that misuse is rampant more stringent measures may be taken,” the source s

More than 2.9 million file GST returns As many as 2,964,653 filers had submitted returns for July under the goods and services tax (GST) regime by the Friday evening. Friday was the deadline for filing returns. The number of filers are likely to increase as the day ends. GST Network, which is responsible for the information technology backbone of the indirect tax regime, has estimated about 4.8 million returns would be filed. Those who have filed returns constitute over 34 per cent of total assessees, of about 8.7 million, under the GST regime.However, of the 8.7 million assesses, 2.2 million are yet to complete the migration process. A last minute rush had led to the GSTN portal crashing last week, forcing the government to postpone the tax filing deadline by five days to August 25. Those who wish to claim transitional input tax credit can file returns by August 28. About 4.8 million taxpayers had saved their sales data on the portal till August 23 and they are just a step away fr

Customs Seeks to Put Exports in Cruise Mode Cargo to bypass inspectors, to sport RFID chip from Oct Keen to reduce inspector raj from movement of India's exports, the customs department is devising a plan that will allow goods to move from factory to ships without any checks.From October, consignments would not be required to be sealed in the presence of inspectors. Instead they will sport an RFID chip with details of the consignment that can be accessed by a reader. “Supervised sealing of containers will be discontinued from October,“ said a government official. Instead, electronic self-sealing with RFID chip will be introduced, the official added. Only those consignments with perceived risk will be closely examined. This would enable cargo to move expeditiously and prevent unnecessary hold ups at ports bringing down transaction cost of exporters and also chances of corruption. The development follows the risk based assessment introduced by the Customs through SWIFT, or Sing

SC verdict may stall Aadhaar linkage to stock trading Last week, exchanges issued a circular, asking brokers to furnish Aadhaar details of all clients  The Supreme Court (SC) ruling the right to privacy as a fundamental right under the Constitution has triggered uncertainty over the mandatory linking of Aadhaar for stock trading. Brokers said they will now wait for the SC judgment that will test the validity of Aadhaar.  “We will wait for the judgment on use of Aadhaar. Any relief would be welcome for stock market participants. We don’t have any issue with Aadhaar, however, linking all accounts is a difficult and costly task for brokers,” said Alok Churiwala, managing director (MD), Churiwala Securities. Last week, stock exchanges issued a circular, asking brokers to furnish Aadhaar details of all existing clients by December 31. In the circular, exchanges said the failure to submit documents within the time limit could result in a ceasure of accounts. The move had sparked panic am

Aadhaar seeding in bank accounts in peril SC ruling on privacy could lead to individuals refusing to share details for linking bank accounts The Supreme Court’s (SC’s) ruling on privacy being a fundamental right could hit banks’ efforts to link accounts with Aadhaar numbers, say bankers and lawyers. It is mandatory now to link Aadhaar with bank accounts by the end of this calendar year, but bankers say Thursday’s ruling could mean an individual may flat out refuse to share his or her Aadhaar number. A five-Bench will now rule if Aadhaar would be mandatory, but bankers are already seeing red flags in forcing someone to give up their identification (ID) number.“A person can challenge it since biometric identification is an extreme privacy issue,” said an official with a public sector bank. “It seems the only way the government can force people to link Aadhaar with their account number is to enable passing on the welfare schemes and subsidies. If a person chooses not to share his/her

Government may nudge state-run banks to present M&A options The government will now nudge state-run lenders to present potential targets for merger and acquisitions after putting in place a procedure for quick decisions consolidation proposals and banks have been told to identify synergies across platforms including business operations and geographical spread, a senior finance ministry official said. “They will present such options and those banks which have also shared similar inclinations, we will bring them together to pursue it further,” the official said. The union cabinet on Wednesday approved an alternative mechanism of a panel of ministers to decide on consolidation proposals for state-run banks. “It is not necessary that a larger PSB should overtake a small or mid-size lender. If there is a synergy, two or three banks can merge to create a bigger and stronger entity,” said another finance ministry official, adding that the idea was to create stronger banks that can rai

GST could help banks enhance credit monitoring The new goods and services tax regime is bringing some unintended benefits for banks. Many lenders, including DCB Bank, ICICI BankBSE -0.15 % and Axis BankBSE 0.52 %, are now offering companies the option of filing their monthly GST returns through their website. This will help banks enhance their credit appraisal systems, keep track of corporate invoices and cash flows, and also get access to new clients by tapping their suppliers. This service offered by banks is particularly useful for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that are intimidated by the new GST regime but are comfortable with internet banking. “Our site helps customers create an invoice and reconcile their accounts,” said Praveen Kutty, president for retail and SME banking at DCB Bank. “Our expectation is that customers using our site to fill their monthly returns will eventually make ours their primary bank account. It also enhances our ability to give loans, monitor ca