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Businesses Stay Optimistic Amid GSTN's Tech Hiccups ET speaks to stakeholders as portal tries to smoothen glitches related to filing of returns System seems to have encountered an error while processing your return...Please try after some time. GSTN portal is experiencing an abrupt surge in traffic, hence we're unable to service your request...' These are some of the responses from the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) portal when businesses attempted to file returns or upload invoices for July. Filing returns has emerged as a sore point after GST rollout on July 1, pushing the portal's functioning to the centrestage at the last GST Council meeting on September 9. A group of ministers headed by Bihar finance minister Sushil Kumar Modi has already directed Infosys -the backend service provider -to fix the system. Why did GSTN crash on September 4 and September 9? The portal is designed handle uploads of up to 50,000 invoices per second. Was it server capacity o

Cut 3% IGST for bullion jewellery exporters: IBBA The India Bullion Bankers Association (IBBA) has appealed to the government to exempt gold and studded gold jewellery and articles' exporters from paying 3 per cent IGST on bullion at the time of imports. The move will help boost export growth by unblocking funds, which is a cost for the exporter. IBBA comprises banks with bullion desks and includes the likes of Scotiabank, Kotak BankBSE -0.62 %, SBI, etc. IBBA recently wrote to the Sectoral Working Group, head for Banking, Financial & Insurance services under GST Council, DGFT and commerce ministry recommending removal of IGST at time of bullion import for exports of finish products.“To promote export growth, it will be pertinent to ease the process of exports as well as making it financially more competitive,“ said Shekhar Bhandari,business head (precious metals), Kotak Bank. The Economics Times, New Delhi, 20th september 2017

Sebi allows Reits, InvITs to issue debt The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Monday allowed infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs) and real estate investment trusts (Reits) to raise capital by issuing debt securities.The Sebi board, at its meeting on Monday, also made several other relaxations to the InvIT and Reit framework to provide a boost to stalled infrastructure projects. InvITs and Reits are investment vehicles that allow investors to take exposure to income-generating infrastructure and real estate. The earlier rules allowed launch of equityoriented Reits and InvITs, which offered only an indicative yield but not a fixed yield. Issue of debt-oriented Reits and Sebi has reiterated its InvITs would offer fixed returns intent to adopt a consultative to investors, which could provide approach in refining regulations a fillip to these instruments, to make these trusts successful bankers said. platforms,” said Further, Sebi has extended Bhairav Dalal, partner,

GST on petrol, diesel requires wider discussion: Nitish Kumar "Prices of petrol and diesel would continue to go up and down and their rate varies every day," Kumar told reporters on the sidelines of the weekly 'Lok Samvad' (interaction with the public) programme. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said the issue of implementing the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on petrol and diesel requires a wider discussion in the GST Council. “Prices of petrol and diesel would continue to go up and down and their rate varies every day,” Kumar told reporters on the sidelines of the weekly ‘Lok Samvad’ (interaction with the public) programme. Kumar, however, said taxes on petrol and diesel are a major source of development programmes everywhere in the country. “The issue of implementing the GST on petrol and diesel requires a wider discussion in the GST Council,” he said. Talking to reporters separately, Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who held the first meeting

Commodities repositories to be launched next week Finance and trading in negotiable warehouse receipts soon Trading in negotiable warehouse receipts, a decade-old idea, will be a reality next week, when two repository recordkeeping agencies start operations. The Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA) has licensed these two repositories. These will keep records of goods stored and moved from regulated warehouses, including warehouse receipt transfers, the same way share transfer records are kept by depositories. One of the two has been established by the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), an agriculture-centric one. The other, CDSL, has been promoted by the BSE. They’re going online when launched next week in Delhi. “We have been working on repository and issue of electronic negotiable warehouse receipts (eNWR) with the respective regulators since long. The move will allow faster financing against such receipts and stocks can be tracked online,” sa

Bank unions ask Jaitley to withdraw FRDI Bill Bank unions have requested Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to withdraw the FRDI Bill as it proposes to empower authorities with sweeping powers to wind up public sector banks and insurance companies. Already, there are many rules and legislation in place under the existing Acts that deal with winding up of financial institutions, United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) said in its representation to the finance minister. The Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance (FRDI) Bill, 2017, was tabled in the Lok Sabha last month. It was referred to the 30-member committee comprising members of both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. “The objective of this Bill is obviously to heavily empower the new authority with sweeping powers to dismantle and erase public sector financial institutions like banks and insurance companies and hence, it is apparently draconian. “We demand the withdrawal of this Bill,” it said. UFBU is an umbrella organisation of all

Exporters may seek exemption on tax payment Exporters plan to seek outright exemption on payment of goods and services tax, citing a crunch in working capital due to the uncertainty in the time taken to get refunds for unutilised input tax credit. Exporters, heads of export promotion councils and senior officials from the commerce ministry plan to submit a petition seeking the exemption when they meet the revenue secretary on Tuesday. “There is an apprehension that exports will decline, going ahead,” said an an official aware of the meeting. Exporters are likely to raise the issues of working capital and refunds which will be ploughed back into their business and the loss of interest. “Merchant exporters and those in the small and medium enterprises are up in arms,” the official said. Micro, small and medium enterprises now have to pay GST when buying from merchant exporters. The government has a two refund mechanisms for exporters. They can furnish a bond instead of paying integra