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  Finance Ministry pulls up officers of I-T department for poor GST mop-up GST receipts for the month of May have slipped to Rs 940 billion against a target of Rs 1 trillion set for each month of 2018-19 The finance ministry has pulled up officers of the indirect tax department for their supposedly inadequate performance in collecting the goods and services tax (GST), which is shortly going to complete a year. It has also described as a “mystery” as to how officers, especially in Tamil Nadu and a few other states, have given more refund than the tax collected for April 2018. The assessment comes hot on the heels of the report card on GST collections released by the finance ministry this week. GST receipts for the month of May have slipped to Rs 940 billion against a target of Rs 1 trillion set for each month of 2018-19. That the dip has caused consternation in the government is evident from the unique exercise. With the data from the GSTN platform, the department of revenue has

 Mobile phone handset companies seek rationalisation of GST on batteries  Indian handset makers have asked the government to rationalise taxes levied on batteries and issue a clarification that the goods and services tax (GST) on lithium-ion batteries used in smartphones and feature phones should be levied at 12%, on par with the rate on parts used to make mobile phones.  “… it may be clarified that 12% GST on parts for mobile manufacture covers batteries, which are to be inserted into the mobile. There is no revenue implication on this measure; but it will greatly ease the pain which our manufacturers are being subject to,” the Indian Cellular Association said in a letter to revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia dated June 6. A copy was seen by ET.  The association had said earlier that there is a “tendency” on the part of the revenue administration to deny the 12% rate to batteries for manufacture of mobiles and 18% for sale to the replacement market and put them in the 28% categor

Govt working towards reducing GST rates: Min The GST Council is working towards rationalising GST rates, Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla said today. A big announcement from the government regarding GST is imminent, he said at an event here. Currently, the GST has four rates of 5 per cent, 12 per cent, 18 per cent and 28 per cent. The all powerful GST Council had, in its meeting on January, decided to slash the GST rate on 54 services and 29 items. In its November, 2017 meeting, the council had removed 178 items from the highest 28 per cent category while cutting tax on all restaurants outside starred-hotels to 5 per cent. He further said the government is working to promote the growth of SME as it is an important sector to the economy including in output, employment and exports. The Business Standard, New Delhi, 08th June 2018

RBI amends Gold Monetisation Scheme to make it more attractive The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has made changes in the Gold Monetisation Scheme (GMS) to make it more attractive.  The revamping of the scheme is aimed at enabling people to open a hassle-free gold deposit account.  The short-term deposits should be treated as bank's on-balance sheet liability, the RBI said in a notification.  "These deposits will be made with the designated banks for a short period of 1-3 years (with a facility of roll over). Deposits can also be allowed for broken periods (e.g. 1 year 3 months; 2 years 4 months 5 days; etc.)," it said.  The interest rate payable in the case of deposits for maturities with broken periods should be calculated as the sum of interest for the completed year plus interest for the number of remaining days, it added.  In 2015, the government launched the GMS with the objective of mobilising the gold held by households and institutions in the country.  &qu

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