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The Prime Minister’s Office has asked nodal ministries to speed up efforts to bring all states on board for the inclusion of oil, natural gas, electricity and coal under the ambit of the goods and service tax (GST). States have been reluctant because so far, they have the freedom to levy their own taxes — a significant part of the state revenue.  Niti Aayog had reached out to the PMO with a blueprint to make the energy sector more competitive and ensure uniform pricing across India, a senior government official told ET, requesting anonymity. “Nodal ministries have taken recognition of the directive from the top and have initiated discussions with all stakeholders and states,” the official added.  The next meeting of the GST Council will be held on January 10. Various stakeholders, including consumers, have demanded the power sector be brought in the ambit of GST, which may lower tariffs 10%.  NITI Aayog is of the view that such a variety of subsidies and taxes distorts the market a

Days after issuing a circular that sought to clarify taxes on valuations, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) withdrew it following a Congress party press conference at which it said the move would exonerate Rahul and Sonia Gandhi over income-tax liabilities in the Associated Journals Ltd (AJL) case.  The withdrawal means that the taxman will again start challenging valuations in cases where there was a fresh issuance of shares. Experts said the withdrawal of the circular has created confusion for several companies that had received tax demands on valuations. “I don’t know why the government is creating so much confusion in the investing space. Just a simple clarification was required so that genuine investments from listed companies, Sebi-registered AIFs (Alternative Investment Funds), holding companies into subsidiaries, angel funds into DIPP-registered startups, other similar investments should have been made exempt,” said Jeenendra Bhandari, partner, MGB, a chartered accou

Vijay Mallya, after a great run in building a liquor business, is now the poster boy of 21st century India’s Robber Barons, though more qualified men compete for that title.  If banks are to be blamed partly for the magnitude of the losses in Kingfisher Airlines default, the remaining lies at the doorsteps of the Reserve Bank of India.  Sometime in 2010, being kind trumped other obligations. The regulator abandoned its role of a referee and decided to play the saviour. It extended the muchabused Corporate Debt Restructuring scheme to the services sector too as it attempted to save an airline that was about to run aground instead of flying. Despite the noble intentions, it met its fate.  While the extension of that restructuring provision might be justified in the absence of a bankruptcy law then, it still exposes the regulatory weakness which let itself to be pulled in the direction that vested interests desire. That ultimately led to bloating up of Kingfisher Airlines’ debt and de

In 2017, the government announced a plan for an infusion of 2.11 trillion rupees ($30.06 billion) into 20 state banks by March 2019 to meet Basel-III global demands  A parliamentary panel on Thursday asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to ease its rules on capital requirements for banks so that they can increase lending.  "Such stringent norms stipulated by the RBI for our banks ... is unrealistic and unwarranted," said a report tabled in parliament by the Parliamentary Committee on Finance.  The report comes after the government and some of the board members of the RBI have put pressure on the central bank to relax capital requirements for banks as they seek to boost credit and economic growth. Former RBI governor Urjit Patel, who quit last month, opposed the government's demand for lowering capital requirements and warned about the need for a cushion to offset unexpected risks.  Indian banks are required to maintain a minimum capital to risk weighted asset ratio (

The Narendra Modi government could be staring at a shortfall in Goods and Service Tax (GST) collection of anywhere between Rs 500 billion and Rs 1 trillion this fiscal, according to estimates put out by analysts over the last month.  Any potential shortfall in GST revenues – a prospect that the Centre has tried to ignore – will have an impact on government spending, which in turns has implications for India’s economic growth. A report put out by the State Bank of India’s research wing this week expects a shortfall of “around Rs 900 billion in GST and excise collections”.  Out of this, Rs 105 billion is on account of recent reduction in petrol taxes.  The SBI report reckons that it could result in a federal spending cut of nearly Rs 700 billion, or one-fourth of projected capital expenditure for 2018-2019. This, it notes, would be twice the Rs 360 billion cut in capital spending that the Centre carried out in 2017-2018 in order to make sure the fiscal deficit didn’t cross 3.5% of

The fee for late filing of the returns is Rs 25 per day for Central GST and an equal amount under State GST.  The government has waived late fees for non-filers of summary and final sales returns for the July 2017-September 2018 period by businesses registered under the goods and services tax (GST).  However, these businesses would have to file their returns for the 15-month period by March 31, 2019, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) said. Giving effect to the decision of the GST Council in its December 22 meeting, CBIC has notified waiver of late fees for non filing of GSTR-3B, GSTR-1 and GSTR-4 and non-payment of taxes between July 2017 and September 2018.  While GSTR-3B is the summary sales return filed by businesses, GSTR-1 is the final sales return. GSTR-4 is filed by businesses who have opted for composition scheme, under which they have to file returns quarterly. The fee for late filing of the returns is Rs 25 per day for Central GST (CGST) and an equa

The volume of UPI transactions for December stood at 620 million. Transactions via the unified payments interface (UPI), the country’s flagship payments platform, crossed a value of Rs 1 trillion in December, according to the data released by the National Payments Corporation of India.  The value of UPI transactions in December stood at Rs 1.02 trillion, against Rs 82,232 crore in November — a rise of 25 per cent.  The volume of UPI transactions for December stood at 620 million, a growth of 18 per cent over the previous month. The UPI transaction volume for November stood at 525 million.  Mobile wallet transactions for the month of October stood at 368.45 million, with a value of Rs 18,786 crore. This was a rise of 25 per cent and 13.5 per cent, respectively, over the previous month. According to the latest set of data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), card transactions in the month of October saw a rise of 9 per cent in volume to 1.4 trillion and 12 per cent rise in va