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Government set up e-commerce think tank to encourage local players The government has set up a think tank to look into ways to encourage home-grown ecommerce players and develop a domestic policy to respond to doubts raised by other countries on India’s stance on cross-border digital trade, a senior official said. “The think tank has been set up with the purpose to see what should be done domestically to take advantage of the existing situation in India’s ecommerce sector and what can be done in future,” the official told ET.Led by commerce and industry minister Suresh Prabhu, the think tank includes officials from ministries of finance, home affairs, corporate affairs, and electronics and information technology, among others, besides representatives from telecom, IT and ecommerce firms including Bharti Enterprises, Reliance Jio, TCS, WiproNSE -0.58 %, Ola, Snapdeal, Makemytrip, Urban Clap, Justdial, PepperFry and Practo. The group also has representation from Technology, Inform

Income tax department forms committee to look into tax risk of super-rich leaving India The income tax department has set up a committee to look into the tax implications of the super-rich leaving  the country to settle abroad and also arrive at the country’s stand on such migrations. ET had reported last month that 23,000 dollar-millionaires have left India since 2004, the highest in percentage terms among all countries. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has set up a five-member working group led by a joint secretary-rank official and four revenue officers to look into the taxation aspects of such high-net worth individuals (HNIs), sources told ET. Setting up the group, CBDT not ed that in recent times, there has been a trend of high net worth individuals migrating from their country of residence to other jurisdictions. It noted such a migration is a “substantial tax risk since they may treat themselves as non-residents for taxation purposes in the first jurisdiction ev

RBI defers implementation of Ind AS by one year The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday decided to defer implementation of Indian Accounti ng Standard (Ind AS) by one year for the banks.Scheduled commercial banks (SCBs), excluding regional rural banks (RRBs), were required to implement Ind AS from April 1, 2018. Necessary legislative amendments – to make the format of financial statements, prescribed in t he Third Schedule to Banking Regulation Act 1949, compatible with accounts under Ind AS – are still under consideration of the government," the apex bank said in a statement.In view of this, as also the level of preparedness of many banks, it has been decided to defe r implementation of Ind AS by one year by when the necessary legislative changes are expected, it said. By that time, the necessary legislative changes are expected, it said. In a note in January, India Ratings estimates had pointed out that SCBs may need up to Rs 89,000 crore towards incremental provisio

Small saving schemes account for 20.9% of government borrowing in FY18 Centre took Rs 1,002 bn from here in 2017-18, sharply up from Rs 904 bn a year before and Rs 123.6 bn in FY14 There has been a sharp rise in government borrowing from small saving schemes in the past five years; also, the contribution of market borrowing was a 17-year low in 2017-18. According to data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), small savings schemes such as post office deposits, National Savings Certificate (NSC), and Kisan Vikas Patras (KVP) accounted for a little over a fifth (20.9 per cent) of all central government borrowing in FY18, up from 17.2 per cent a year before and 2.4 per cent in FY14. This is the highest contribution from small savings in 19 years (see chart). The share from here in total government borrowing has been largely growing at the expense of the bond market (market borrowing); the latter’s share declined to 72.8 per cent in FY18, from 94.2 per cent in FY14. This, analysts

 Ind-Ra revises up growth forecast to 7.4% for FY19 on strong agri growth Agriculture, industry to boost growth India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) has scaled up its projections for economic growth to 7.4 per cent, from the earlier 7.1 per cent, for 2018-19 on expectations of strong agricultural and industrial growth. This is somewhat different from IHS Markit, a compiler of the purchasing managers’ index, which had recently lowered its FY19 growth projection to 7.3 per cent, from 7.4 per cent earlier, on account of weak dema Earlier, the International Monetary Fund had projected India’s economy to grow at 7.4 per cent in FY19, while the World Bank expects the economy to grow at 7.3 per cent in FY19. The Economic Survey had pegged economic growth at 7-7.5 per cent for the year. The second Advance Estimates released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) had pegged FY18 growth at 6.6 per cent, down from 7.1 per cent in the previous financial year. The Union Budget for 2018-19

 Relief ahead for banks as deadline for resolving 10 major NCLT cases nears The pruned second NCLT list comprises 25 companies whose loans have turned into NPAs The coming weeks will be important for the banking sector, especially the government-owned ones. For, the last date for resolving 10 of the 12 major cases of bad loan accounts referred to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) is within the next month. These 12 cases were in the first list of such cases which the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had ordered to be sent to NCLT for resolution under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). The final resolution date for eight of these 12 (commonly referred to as the NCLT-1 list) is between April 14 and April 30; another two are between May 4 and May 6. Another is mid-November. The 12th, Jyoti Structures, had its last date on March 31. The pruned second NCLT list comprises 25 companies whose loans have turned into non-performing assets (NPAs). The more important point is if

RBI gives provisioning relief to stressed banks  The Reserve Bank of India has temporarily relaxed provisioning norms for lenders to defaulters undergoing bankruptcy resolution in a move that could help banks bolster their financial results for the year and quarter ended March.  Provisions for accounts referred to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) have been reduced to 40% of dues at the end of March for secured loans, down from 50% earlier, RBI told banks in a circular issued to them on Wednesday.  However, the regulator said in the note, which ET has seen, that provisions will go back up to 50% for secured loans at the end of the June quarter. Provisions are money that banks have to set aside from their gross profit as a cushion against the failure to recover dues from borrowers. There’s no change on provisions for unsecured loans, which stand at 100% as soon as a case is referred to bankruptcy court.  A bank chief welcomed the move but wasn’t too sure about its effect.