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Petrol, diesel to be under GST soon, says Dharmendra Pradhan Oil prices are on the decline over last few days during which it has come down by one rupee aggregately With petrol and diesel kept out of the purview of GST, the state owned oil industry is losing Rs 200 billion annually in terms of input credit, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Thursday. However, he said, with the GST regime stabilising and apprehensions over GST collection gradually receding, “it is a matter of time that petrol and diesel are brought under GST”. “Refinery, pipeline, exploration… all are under GST. I am not getting back that money, the input credit. So, I am making it costly. I am losing Rs 200 billion per annum, only by government companies, in input credit. So, it is just a matter of time (before petrol and diesel are brought under GST),” he said. “The current taxes on petrol and diesel are like a cash cow. Nobody wants to lose this revenue. But it is not far away. It has to come to GST

Owners of more than one house get tax leeway The Mumbai bench of the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) upheld the right of a taxpayer to change the selection of a house property that would be treated as self-occupied and having a ‘nil’ annual value. Consequently, the notional rent from such a house will not be taxable. In other words, if the taxpayer has in his Income-tax return declared a particular house property to be self-occupied, he can at a later stage during actual tax assessment of his case substitute this with another house property owned by him, which perhaps is in a more posh location. By doing so, it may be possible for him to reduce the notional rent that has to be offered for tax and lower his I-T outgo. Under the I-T Act, where an individual owns more than one house, he can only treat any one of his properties as ‘self-occupied and having a nil annual value’. Annual value, in general terms, is the notional rent that the property would ordinarily fetch. The

UIDAI Allows Downloading Own Aadhaar Update History Information to help ascertain residency status for past few yrs The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has unveiled a feature that allows people to download their own Aadhaar update history, adding to the provision  of self-authentication it had provided earlier.  The update history will help people while applying for services such as passports and visa or for sundry jobs since it can ascertain their residency status for the  past few years.   UIDAI chief executive Ajay Bhushan Pandey said the Aadhaar update history can be downloaded from the authority’s website and used to support assertion of address,  etc. The feature is currently in the Beta phase.  “Providing Aadhaar update history will bring in more trust and further empower people because they can now use their update history to the authorities while applying  for jobs, school admissions, various services or benefits, etc., because in most such cases the

  Businesses not Under GST to Get 180 Days to Pay Back Their Loans In a temporary relief to small businesses not registered under the Goods and Services Tax, the Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday extended loan repayments deadline to  180 days from the due date without being classified as a non-performing asset.  This latest announcement comes after the regulator’s April diktat which had allowed GST registered MSME borrowers with a turnover of up to ?25 crore to delay loan  repayments by 180 days.  “Having regard to the input credit linkages and associated issues, it has now been decided to temporarily allow banks and NBFCs to classify their exposure, as per the  180 day past due criterion, to all MSMEs with aggregate credit facilities up to the above limit (up to ?25 crore), including those not registered under GST,” the RBI  said. The central bank has been facing demands that it remains lenient on the medium and small enterprises as it is the biggest employer and is facing seve

RBI Relaxes Bond-Loss Provisions Again; Move to Protect PSB Margins PSU BANKS can spread April-June MTM losses over the next four quarters   The Reserve Bank of India remains kind to banks, relaxing provisions for bond losses once again.  The RBI has extended the lifeline to state-owned banks, which face a double-whammy of treasury and loan losses.  The central bank has allowed them to spread their mark-to-market losses incurred in the April-June quarter equally over the next four quarters, a move that will help  protect their dwindling profit margins.   “It has been decided to grant banks the option to spread the mark-tomarket losses on investments held in Available for Sale (AFS) and Held for Trading (HFT) portfolio  for the quarter ending June 30, 2018, equally over a period of four quarters, commencing from the quarter ending June 30, 2018,” the RBI said in its bi-monthly policy  statement.  If a bank incurs a loss of ?100 crore in the three months ended June, it can se

RBI increases repo rate by 25 bps to 6.25%; maintains neutral stance The central bank's April policy tone was dovish and it had actually lowered inflation forecasts for the first and second half of 2018-19   The six-member monetary policy committee (MPC) on Wednesday unanimously voted for a rate hike, citing the fear of inflation, partly flared by the recent spike in  crude oil prices. The hike in policy repo rate to 6.25 per cent from 6 per cent was contrary to market expectation that the central bank will hold rates and the  unanimous decision came as a surprise to the markets. The central bank’s April policy tone was dovish and it had actually lowered inflation forecasts for the first and second half of 2018-19. On Wednesday, the inflation  outlook was revised up once again.  With the hike in the June policy, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has reversed the rate cutting cycle it had engaged in since January 15, 2015. The last rate hike  happened on January 28, 2014, when

  Retrospective benefits on gratuity not on the cards, says NDA govt The law was amended to bring parity between public and private sector employees (including PSUs) after the gratuity limit was raised for central government on similar  lines The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has decided against passing the benefits under the new gratuity law, which doubles the present maximum payout, with  retrospective effect.  This is owing to employers fears of a higher payout. The government received several requests from workers’ representatives belonging to public sector units (PSUs)  and the private sector for doubling the limit for gratuity payout on par with central government employees.  Parliament had passed the Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill, 2018, in March this year, in a bid to raise the gratuity limit to Rs 2 million from the Rs 1 million  earlier.   The law became applicable on March 29, through an official notification.  “On earlier occasions also, the