by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Corporate, Corporate Reports, Economy, Large Enterprise, Markets, News, Politics
Kapil Sibal
New Delhi : The Congress on Saturday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “patting himself in the back” over the World Bank report on India’s ease of doing business, saying it was only for the “creamy layer of businesses” and that the Prime Minister was “not well-informed about its facts”.
The party said that Prime Minister Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley should also hold a press conference on India’s slide in the global hunger index.
Prime Minister Modi on Saturday attacked the Congress for questioning the World Bank Report on ease of doing business in India and said with GST and other reforms, its report next year would show further improvement in ranking.
“I don’t know whether the Prime Minister is informed about all the facts or not. I don’t think he is aware of the concept of ease of doing business.
“Prior to 2015, there was only one city in every country that was taken into account and that was Mumbai (for the World Bank Report). Now, in 2015, they changed it to two cities. So, Mumbai and Delhi are the two cities for business in India,” said Congress leader Kapil Sibal.
“The businesses don’t take place only in these two cities of the country. The PM has forgotten that there are crores who do small businesses in other cities of the country. Is the PM thinking about them – the informal sector, small traders and factories,” he added.
Sibal said: “He is the Prime Minister of the country and all the business communities, and not just a handful of them. This is called creamy layer of businesses.
“He is not the Prime Minister of the creamy layer of businesses who are located at the top end of the pyramid in Delhi and Mumbai,” he added.
Sibal said the two factors taken into consideration for the report were e-filing, which he said was started by the UPA government, and Insolvency Act which was also conceived by the Congress-led UPA.
“Now the World Bank does not consider the impact of all this. So, I do not know why the Prime Minister is patting himself on the back. Does he realise that our Health Index has gone down from 87 to 108. Why does not he (Modi) or Finance Minister (Arun Jaitley) do a press conference on that?” Sibal asked.
“The global Hunger Index in India is worse than most countries of the world. Why does the Finance Minister not do a press conference on that?” he asked.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Corporate, Corporate Governance, Large Enterprise, News, Politics
New Delhi : Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said that the number of trade registrations under GST has seen an increase of 30-35 per cent in the first three months, and that the total assessee base has already crossed one crore, which is an “encouraging” indicator.
“Till now the trade registrations for Goods and Services Tax (GST) is very encouraging; 72 lakh traders have moved from the old system (previous indirect tax regime); 28 lakh people are new registrants. Total assesses have reached above one core,” Jaitley told reporters here at a press briefing.
“In the first three months, there has been a 30-35 per cent increase in registrations, which is a good indicator,” he said.
The Finance Minister added that currently the transition phase was on as the goods still being sold were manufactured during the earlier indirect tax regime.
“In initial months, the goods sold were manufactured in the old system. The transition phase is going on. The goods with new packaging will come into the system. We have reached about Rs 93,000-94,000 crore worth of monthly trading collections including IGST,” he said.
According to the September collection figures under GST, Rs 92,150 crore was collected from 42.91 lakh businesses up to October 23.
Over Rs 95,000 crore was collected through GST during July, the first month of its implementation, while the figure for August was over Rs 91,000 crore.
For August, only 55 per cent of businesses had filed returns till September 25.
Every month the businesses filing returns is seeing an increase, he added.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : In a relief to GST taxpayers, the government on Tuesday waived the penalty for filing late returns for the months of August and September, and the money already paid as penalty will be credited back to businesses.
“To facilitate taxpayers, late fee on filing of GSTR-3B for August and September has been waived. Late fee paid will be credited back to taxpayer ledger,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced in a tweet.
Late fee of Rs 200 per day was being charged from businesses.
For the month of August, only 55 per cent of businesses had filed returns till September 25. September 20 was the last date to file GSTR-3B.
For the month of September, the last date to file GSTR-3B was October 20.
GSTR-3B is a summary return of details of outward supplies, inward supplies, credit and payment of Goods and Services Tax (GST).
The government had earlier waived off penalty for late returns for the month of July.
GST expert Pritam Mahure told IANS, “It’s a beneficial move and will benefit taxpayers who are yet to file or have filed delayed returns. However, the late fee is getting credited in ledger and thus cannot be set off against tax liability as of now.”
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, Economy, News, Politics
Washington : Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said the slowdown effect of demonetisation and GST roll-out on the Indian economy has played out and the country’s growth is now headed towards being more balanced and sustainable.
“The Indian economy is poised for strong, sustainable and balanced growth backed by the government’s strong focus on implementing structural reforms.
“There is clear evidence now that slowdown effect of demonetisation and GST has now more or less played out,” Jaitley said at an interactive seminar here on ‘India Opportunity’ organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci).
“The implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) from July 1 and its gradual complete transition, follow-up to demonetisation and enacting other structural reforms by the government would take the economy towards higher growth trajectory,” he added.
Jaitley is currently on a one-week official tour to Washington D.C. to attend the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank and other associated meetings.
He is accompanied by Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel and Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg.
The Finance Minister spoke on the bold reforms carried out in India which now have created impressive opportunities in infrastructure assets resolution under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) process and in the financial sector, the Finance Ministry said in a statement.
Further, he stated that foreign direct investment (FDI) flows to India have increased in 2016-17 over 2015-16, indicating improved global confidence in the Indian economy.
He also spoke about the interface between the global and the Indian economy, national investments and the Infrastructure Fund and reform initiatives of the government, especially to improve ease of doing business.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, Investing, News, Politics
Arun Jaitley
New York : The use of discretion by ministers in investment needed to be withdrawn and left to market mechanisms, while the world can expect a bigger and cleaner Indian economy in the coming years, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Tuesday.
Addressing a gathering here at Columbia University, he said that when the NDA government came to power in 2014, global investors had lost confidence in India due to rising corruption and scandals.A
Moreover, foreign direct investment (FDI) faced hurdles as the “doors were too narrow”, the approval mechanism was slow and tax legislations unclear, he said.
“It was quite challenging to convince investors all over the world,” he added.
The rise of corruption was mainly because of the “extraordinary discretion” vested with the government.
Earlier, he said here that the Indian government has been able to change domestic public opinion in favour of inviting foreign investment into sectors of production that were earlier considered out of bounds both for ideological as well as security reasons.
“We have been able to invest FDI in almost every sector of the economy,” Jaitley said on Monday night at an investors roundtable jointly organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the US-India Business Council.
“Areas that were earlier considered sacrosanct, like defence manufacturing, we have been able to convince public opinion that it is better to invite foreign expertise to set up manufacturing in India,” he said.
“Suddenly we find a lot of joint ventures coming up (with foreign firms) for defence investment.”
Jaitley is on a week-long official visit to the US during which he will attend the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to be held in Washington.
—IANS
