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Govt May Miss Revenue Collection Target CBEC Chief The indirect revenue collection by the government may fall short of the target this fiscal due to disruption caused by the GST rollout, a top official said on Sunday. For the year ending March 2018, the government had budgeted `9.68 trillion collection from customs and GST. However, the official of the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) made it clear that there is no plan to revise the revenue collection target for the year. “The revenue collection target from customs and GST, which put together is `9.68 trillion for the current fiscal, seems difficult for the department (to achieve) at the moment, keeping in view the recent GST rollout,“ Vanaja N Sarna, chairperson, CBEC told PTI here. The Economic Times, New Delhi, 30th October 2017

GoM Suggests Cut in Tax Under Composition Scheme The Group of Ministers set up to make GST composition scheme more attractive on Sunday suggested lowering tax rates for manufacturers and restaurants under the plan to 1%. At present, while manufacturers pay GST at 2%, the rate for restaurants is 5%. Traders currently pay 1%. The GoM headed by Assam finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has also suggested doing away with the tax rate distinction between AC and non-AC restaurants, those which are not covered under composition scheme, and tax them at 12%. It also suggested that hotels which has room tariff of more than `7,500 should attract 18% tax rate. Composition scheme is open for manufacturers, restaurants and traders whose turnover does not exceed Rs 1 crore. The Economic Times, New Delhi, 30th October 2017

DISQUALIFICATION OF OVER 300000 DIRECTORS  MCA Calls Meet to Examine Grey Areas in Cos Act Ministry officials to also frame govt response as several debarred directors have moved court After several directors went to courts against their debarment by the government, the ministry of corporate affairs has called an urgent meeting to discuss if there are “grey areas“ in the Companies Act that need to be addressed. A meeting of senior officials has been called on Monday to not just frame government response to these litigations but also to address any such grey area.The ministry in September cancelled registration of over 200,000 defaulting companies and, by extension, it had also debarred over 300,000 directors of companies.The amended Companies Act that came into effect in 2014 has provision for deregistering companies that fail to file returns. Moreover, Section 164 of the Act provides that any person who is or has been a director in a company which has not filed financial state

India cautions against linking safeguard provisions to food security solutions Developing countries led by India and others want world trade rules to ensure that they will not be challenged legally if they breach a country’s agreed limits for trade-distorting domestic support India has cautioned against what it says are un-implementable transparency and safeguard provisions that are being sought to be linked by some countries to an agreement on a permanent solution for public stockholding programs for food security (PSH)—a core Indian demand —at an upcoming meeting of trade ministers in Buenos Aires. Developing countries led by India and others want world trade rules to ensure that they will not be challenged legally if they breach a country’s agreed limits for trade-distorting domestic support, such as minimum support prices for crops. The matter tops the agenda of trade ministers who are set to gather in Buenos Aires for the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) 11th ministerial mee

Govt, RBI drawing up list of new banking reforms The finance ministry and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) are drawing up a list of reform measures to accompany the recent Rs 2.11-lakh- crore bank recapitalisation plan.These are being prepared in consultation with banks and might be classified into short-, medium- and longterm measures. Officials are tight-lipped about what these reforms might entail as preparations are still on. However, there are indications that some of the measures announced in Indradhanush — a seven-point plan to revamp state-owned banks but not completed — might be taken up again.“If there are some areas which have already been identified and on which action has not been taken, these will be included in the new effort,” outgoing Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa told Business Standard “It has been made amply clear that injection of capital, by itself, is not enough. It has to be accompanied by several other measures, internal and external, to the banks. I thi

NPCI, NSDL in fray to develop e-wallet for exporters The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and the National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) are in the fray for operating the proposed ewallet system for exporters under the goods and services tax (GST) regime.The government is yet to decide on the agency that will develop the notional credit system to help exporters with working capital flow.GST Network (GSTN), the information technology backbone of GST, is also being considered for this. In the government´s push foracashless economy, NPCI developed the Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) app for making payments, available for customers of 55 banks across the country.NSDL, the country´s first and largest depository, handles most of securities held and settled in dematerialised form. It is also a GST Suvidha Provider, which facilitates filing of returns.The directorate general of foreign trade (DGFT) is working out the amount of credit an exporter will initially need.E-wall

GST has not helped garment exports  Traders Garment exporters have told Parliament´s standing committee on commerce that they are yet to see any benefit from the goods and services tax (GST), with no decrease in input costs.A delegation of the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) also said shipments might dip in the globally competitive market.Bangladesh and Vietnam, for instance, have cost advantages on account of preferential trade agreements with major export markets and buyers are moving to these destinations for sourcing. Asaresult, they have warned, they might be forced to shed jobs.GST´s compliance requirements, they´ve complained, has strained their time and cost resources.“The overall effect on apparel exporters, especially small and medium ones (MSMEs), is burdensome and stressful due to substantial increase of working capital and higher transaction cost. MSMEs have to recruit the services of chartered accountants to manage GST payments and refunds,” said Ashok Rajani,