News digest: GST e-way Bill, Rahul Gandhi's elevation, and more

GST Council firm on e-way Bill despite traders' concern

An electronic system to track movement of products under the goods and services tax (GST) system will be put in place across the country (inter-city as well as intra-city) by June 1, 2018. Read More...

More traders paying taxes on GSTN: Sushil Kumar Modi

The proportion of tax-paying traders has increased to 70 per cent of those registered on the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) as the technology backbone built by Infosys has begun to stabilise and make it easier for them to file returns, said Bihar Finance Minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Saturday. Read More...

Rahul Gandhi takes charge of the grand old party

Rahul Gandhi on Saturday took charge as president of the Congress in the presence of the 132-year-old party’s brass and his family members. Read More...

UIDAI suspends Airtel, Airtel Payments Bank's e-KYC licence

In its strongest action yet, the UIDAI has temporarily barred Bharti Airtel and Airtel Payments Bank from conducting Aadhaar-based SIM verification of mobile customers using the eKYC process as well as e-KYC of payments bank clients. Read More...

US may stop spouses of H1B visa holders from working

The Trump administration is considering revoking an Obama-era rule that extends work authorisation to the spouses of H1B visa holders, a move that could affect thousands of Indian workers and their families. Read More...
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News digest: Exports rise 30%, Adani to build highways, and more

Exports jump 30%, trade deficit high at $13.8 bn

The GST Council's efforts to resolve exporters' woes on refunds seem to have started yielding results. Exports grew 30.55 per cent in November, a month after it contracted 1.1 per cent, also due to the low base effect and rising petroleum prices. In fact, petroleum products, along with engineering goods, gems and jewellery, and chemicals, drove nearly 80 per cent of the rise in merchandise exports. Read more


Govt okays sops for leather sector, waives fee for small digital payments

The Cabinet on Friday cleared a Rs 2,600-crore proposal to boost job creation in the leather industry, lowered the merchant discount rate (MDR) on transactions up to Rs 2,000 through debit cards, BHIM UPI or Aadhaar-enabled payment systems to promote digital transactions, and approved a series of Bills, including one amending the Specific Relief Act to smoothen enforcement of contracts. Read more

Growth slowdown bottoming out, says RBI governor

While expectations on price rise remain stable for the moment, “considerable caution and vigilance is warranted on the inflation front” but the slowing in growth could be over, said Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel. Read more

Adani group to foray into highway construction sector

The Adani group, which has a presence in the power, coal and maritime sectors, would soon foray into the highway construction sector. Read more
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Large companies disappointed with key GST issues, await clarity

Large companies are disappointed that many key issues following the rollout of Goods and Service Tax such as anti-profiteering laws, transition credit issues, and denial of certain input credit was not addressed by the GST Council in its meeting yesterday. Large corporates, who pay 90 per cent of the total tax revenues, now hope that their concerns will now be addressed in the next council meeting in November.

“The government has addressed the immediate concerns of 90 per cent of tax payers who contribute approximately 10 per cent of the tax collection by relaxing the compliance norms. But the concerns of minority taxpayers who pay 90 per cent of the tax revenues, will hopefully be addressed in next council meeting,” said Sachin Menon – Partner and Head of Indirect Tax at KPMG in India. Citing an example, Menon said the 35 per cent abatement on GST payable on existing car leases is indeed welcome but is not good enough as still the lessee will end up paying 28-30 per cent GST as against 15 per cent service tax in the earlier regime. 

The corporates are also grappling with other issues such as how to comply with the anti-profiteering provisions which has the potential of litigation, and restrictions on single credit note against multiple invoices.
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GST Council may finalise e-way rules today

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council is likely to lower tax rate on Saturday on job works making fabric to garments to 5 per cent and put in place a mechanism for online registration of goods above a certain value before they can be transported. The Council, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, will also review at its meeting the implementation of the GST regime since July 1 and may finalise a mechanism to operationalise anti-profiteering provision to protect consumer interest.

Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) Chairperson Vanaja Sarna said the movement of goods between states has smoothened with 25 out of 29 states abolishing check posts.

"About 25 states have removed those check posts. So far, it has been going all right," she told PTI.

This would further smoothen after e-way bill in GST that requires any goods more than Rs 50,000 in value to be pre- registered online before it can be moved is implemented.

"As the e-way bill process for the whole of India gets panned out, we should be able to do something which will be better," Sarna said.
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