Govt plans mega public outreach to hardsell GST

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked ministers and MPs to engage in a major public outreach over the goods and services tax (GST) with legislation related to the tax reform expected to be passed by Parliament soon.

The PM told a recent meeting of the Union cabinet that the government needs to vigorously explain the benefits of the tax reform that he thinks will be a significant milestone for the NDA government. He is understood to have spoken of the need to involve the party organisation and MPs as well.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley is expected to introduce four bills related to GST in Parliament on Monday . In the evening, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has organised a workshop for lawmakers who will deliberate on the bills in the coming days. This will be followed by a presentation before the council of ministers on Tuesday where Jaitley and his team are expected to explain the details and the benefits.

PM Modi has flagged the need to explain the tax measures with the common man as a key target for his ministers and party MPs as the government believes the benefits of one of the biggest tax reform initiatives needs to be communicated properly, especially when there are concerns over the impact on prices. Publicity through media channels is already un derway with badminton star P V Sindhu featuring in an advertisement but more is expected to follow. The exercise comes as the GST Council, comprising state finance ministers and the Centre, is ready with the final plan and is hoping to roll out GST from July, three months behind the original deadline.

But briefing lawmakers is only a small part of the blitzkrieg lined up by the finance ministry , which has instructed its commissioners to fan out in the field and work along with the state tax bu reaucracy . Officers have been asked to organise at least one town hall meeting with tax practitioners, lawyers and businessmen in every town which has a population of one lakh or more.

“In cities like Mumbai and Delhi, we will have hundreds of meetings with trade bodies and other stakeholders,“ said a source.

Detailed FAQs and other publicity material have been prepared by the finance ministry along with power point presentations that will be used during the town hall meetings. While this will be shared with the field officers, the material will be translated into local languages.

Source - ET Realty

Smart City budget for Ghaziabad hiked to Rs 2,901 crore

GHAZIABAD: The divisional commissioner of Meerut, Alok Sinha, on Thursday cleared the Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation’s (GMC) Smart City proposal following a presentation by the civic body. The budget in the new proposal, which will be sent to the Union urban development ministry on March 31, has been pegged at Rs 2,901 crore.

TOI reported on March 17 that GMC had earlier estimated an expenditure of Rs 2,200 crore for various civic and infrastructure works.

The proposal has already been technically vetted by the Lucknow-based Regional Centre for Urban & Environmental Studies (RCUES), officials informed. “A high-powered committee of the state government will now review the proposal. The proposal will be finalised after the committee’s nod. A number of other cities will also present their proposals to the committee,” GMC executive engineer Sanjay Chauhan told TOI.

Ghaziabad will compete with 59 other cities in the country in the third round of the Smart City mission. The proposal consists of two components — area-based development and pan-city solutions. According to the proposal, a sum of Rs 2,122 crore will be spent on area-based development and about 1,495 acres of land in the trans-Hindon area of the city will be retrofitted and redeveloped. This area includes portions of Vaishali, Vasundhara and Kaushambi. An estimated budget worth Rs 779 crore will be used for pan-city solutions, aimed at making infrastructure and services better, which will involve the application of various smart solutions with the use of technology. Meanwhile, out of the total budget, the central government and the UP government will release Rs 500 crore each. Infrastructure works under way in the city with funds from the AMRUT scheme of the central government will further be adjusted into the budget.

The remaining amount will be raised through private partnerships while the GMC is also expected to make a certain quantum of the budget available.

Source - ET Realty 

Acquisition for Dwarka e-way 1km stretch in Delhi to kick off

GURGAON: It will take National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) a month and a half to acquire 24.03 hectares of land in the Bijwasan and Bamnoli areas of the capital to construct the incomplete 1km portion of the Dwarka expressway in Delhi. The authority issued a notification under the NHAI Act to ensure the process is completed without any hassle.

Unlike acquisition of land under the Land Acquisition Act, land acquired under the NHAI Act cannot be challenged in court.

Of the 4km of Dwarka expressway that is incomplete, from Urban Extension Road II (UER-II) passing through Dwarka Sector 26 in Delhi till Sector 111 in Gurgaon, 3km is on Delhi Development Authority (DDA) land, while the remaining 1km, which is private land, has to be acquired by NHAI.

To build this road, NHAI will acquire 24.03 hectares in Bijwasan and Bamnoli.

“We have identified the land and hope to complete acquisition at the earliest,” said NHAI project director Ashok Sharma.

The proposed 150m-wide Dwarka-Palam Vihar link, also known as Northern Peripheral Road or Dwarka expressway, which connects Dwarka in Delhi and NH-8 in Gurgaon, was envisaged 10 years ago and was to be ready before the Commonwealth Games 2010. The 27km-long road — 18km in Gurgaon and 9km in Delhi — has already missed six deadlines.

The detailed project report for the Delhi portion of the expressway is being prepared by NHAI through consultant AECOM.


Source- TOI

Middle-class home buyers get clarity to avail loan subsidy under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna

NEW DELHI: Giving clarity on the government's credit linked subsidy scheme (CLSS) for home buyers in the middle income group (MIG) segment, Union minister for housing Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday released the guidelines for the implementation of the scheme.

The move is set to bring down the monthly equated monthly installment (EMI) for the middle class by over Rs 2,000.

All middle class home buyers with annual incomes of above Rs 6 lakh and up to Rs 18 lakh per year will be eligible for receiving interest subsidy on housing loans taken in 2017 under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (Urban).

Interest subsidy will be provided on home loans for construction or purchase of house with carpet area of 90 square meters by those earning up to Rs 12 lakh per annum and of 110 sqm by those earning up to Rs 18 lakh per year.

No processing fee will be charged by banks or housing finance companies from the applicants under CLSS.

"Not only poor, but middle class is also on top of our PM's agenda. Middle income groups make substantial contribution to the economic growth of the country besides paying taxes and deserved support to fulfill the dream of owning a house which is a basic and genuine aspiration," said Naidu.

Prime minister Narendra Modi on December 31 announced the extension of CLSS to the middle class people, offering interest subsidy of 4% on housing loans of up to Rs 9 lakh of those with an income of Rs 12 lakh per year and of 3% on home loans of up to Rs 12 lakh of those earning Rs 18 lakh per year.

Housing loans above Rs 9 lakh and Rs 12 lakh will be at non-subsidised rates.

According to National Housing Bank MD and CEO Sriram Kalyanaraman, the interest subsidy of 4% under the scheme will bring down EMI by Rs 2,062 per month on a housing loan of Rs 9 lakh and interest subsidy of 3% will reduce the monthly outgo by Rs 2,019 on Rs 12 lakh loan, considering normal housing loan interest rate of 8.65%.

The scheme will be applicable just for one year starting January 1, 2017 and the government has allocated Rs 1,000 crore in Union Budget this year for the same.

"We may consider expending this MIG scheme based on the response and demand," informed Naidu.

The tenure of loan can be a maximum of 20 years or that preferred by the home buyer, whichever is lower.

The scheme gives preference to women with overriding preference to widows, single working women, people from scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, backward classes, differently abled and transgender people.

National Housing Bank (NHB) on Wednesday also signed memoranda of understanding with 45 housing finance companies, 15 scheduled banks, 2 regional rural banks, 1 cooperative bank, 4 small finance banks and 3 non-banking finance companies-micro finance institutions for implementation of CLSS(MIG) component of PMAY(Urban).

NHB and Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) have been designated as central nodal agencies for implementation of CLSS for both MIG and EWS/LIG who would reimburse interest subsidy to primary lending institutions.

The CLSS component of PMAY(Urban), launched in June 2015, was already applicable for the economically weaker sections (EWS) and low income group (LIG) with income of Rs 3 lakh and Rs 6 lakh per year, respectively. People in this group are getting interest subsidy of 6.5% on a home loan of up to Rs 6 lakh.

Source - ET Realty 

Online-generated documents will now be verifiable in Noida, Gr Noida

NOIDA: Having launched an online delivery of services for its 16,300 institutional, industrial and commercial properties in December, Noida Authority has gone a step further. Deepak Agarwal, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Noida and Greater Noida said on Tuesday that all documents and certificates issued by both Authorities of Noida and Greater Noida will soon be verifiable. These documents generated online will be supported with a digital signature as well as a unique bar code number to make them authentic.

According to officials, Agarwal has directed his team of officials to implement the move within a week. “We have also started intensive training programs of our staff who are involved in the online services at both Authorities,” he told TOI. “Allottee and anyone who wants to check the authenticity of a document issued online by the two Authorities will be able to go to the respective website and verify the documents,” he said. “This facility will be implemented within a week at both Authorities,” he added say the aim is to ensure speed and transparency.

With the online facility in place, allottees do not have to visit the Authority to get their works done and are able to get them done from anywhere. A host of services including permissions for mortgage, mutation of land, transfer memorandum, completion and functional certificates, lease rent deposit, water bill payments, etc are available for allottees to avail online. The services can be accessed from Noida’s website and Greater Noida’s website.

Agarwal said that with the online services, ease of doing business in both cities, approvals for building plans and interface with every allottee has become faster and straightforward. “Slowly we plan to go completely digital and to do away with manual applications and processes besides providing a single window access to information and services,” the CEO added.

Source - ET Realty

Cabinet passes four draft GST bills, to be introduced in Parliament soon

The Cabinet on Monday approved four supporting GST legislations – Compensation Law, the Central-GST (C-GST), Integrated-GST (I-GST) and Union Territory-GST (UT-GST), a government official said. The bills are likely to be taken up by the parliament this week as Prime Minister Narendra Modi rushes to roll out the new law, after years of delays.

Once approved by Parliament, the states would start taking their SGST bill for discussion and passage in the respective state assemblies. The GST Council, in its previous two meetings, had given approval to the four legislations as also the State-GST (S-GST) bill. While the S-GST has to be passed by each of the state legislative assemblies, the four other laws have to be approved by Parliament.

 Passage of all the legislations would pave the way for the introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) from July 1. The government is hoping the C-GST, I-GST, UT-GST and the GST Compensation laws will be approved in the current session of Parliament and the S-GST by each of the state legislatures soon. While a composite GST will be levied on sale of goods or rendering of services after the new indirect tax regime is rolled out, the revenue would be split between the Centre and the states in almost equal proportion.

This is because central taxes like excise and service tax and state levies like VAT will be subsumed in the GST. While the C-GST will give powers to the Centre to levy GST on goods and services after Union levies like excise and service tax are subsumed, the I-GST is to be levied on inter-state supplies.

The S-GST will allow states to levy the tax after VAT and other state levies are subsumed in the GST. The UT-GST will also go to Parliament for approval. The Council has already finalised a four-tier tax structure of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent, but the model GST law has kept the peak rate at 40 per cent (20 per cent to be levied by the Centre and an equal amount by the states) to obviate the need for approaching Parliament for any change in rates in future.

The GST Council has already cleared all five draft laws – the Central GST, Integrated GST, state GST, Union territory GST and rules on compensating states for revenue losses. There would be four tax slabs of 5, 12, 18 and 28 percent, plus a levy on taxes on items like cars, aerated drinks, and tobacco products to compensate states for any revenue losses in the first five years.  GST is expected to boost the rate of economic growth by about 0.5 percentage points, broaden the revenue base and cut compliance cost for firms.

Source- The Financial Express

Govt steps up efforts on quicker exit for startups

NEW DELHI: The government is working on a fresh set of initiatives for startups, including rolling out norms for resolution of companies that are facing financial stress within 90 days and new tax proposals. Sources told TOI that the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) will hold consultations over the next few days to provide a further boost to startups, including norms for allowing them to raise more debt from promoters.

While a committee had suggested that the time frame for deciding on a resolution package for startups be halved from the 180 days for companies, the ministry of corporate affairs has started work on notifying the norms although the process may take two-three months. “We need to hold public consultations before we notify the norms. But if everyone is on board and a company is not saddled with litigation, then the winding up process can start before the prescribed 90 or 180 days,” said an officer. The norms on faster exit are in focus after the arrest of Yogendra Vasupal, the co-founder of homestay aggregator Stayzilla.

The government’s latest effort, however, goes beyond quicker exit with DIPP’s consultations with other government agencies focusing on several issues related to corporate, financing and infrastructure. The finance part is also seen to be crucial as several companies are finding it tough to raise funds. “We want to ensure that startups have access to debt and equity to grow. Various measures are being discussed,” DIPP secretary Ramesh Abhishek told TOI.

So far, around Rs 650 crore has been cleared and the plan is to step it up significantly to over Rs 1,800 crore next fiscal and over Rs 2,300 crore by March 2019. This support is going to come from Sidbi, departments of science and technology and biotech as well as through the credit guarantee fund, whose Rs 2,000 crore corpus in four years will provide comfort to banks to lend to over 400 startups. To step up funding from the Rs 10,000 crore fund of funds, DIPP is seeking changes in the guidelines that will allow easier financing. The government expects around Rs 600 crore to flow to 15 venture funds next year, a significant jump from Rs 115 crore to five VCs this year.

Sources said that a further relaxation of Angel Tax is also in the works by recognising angel investors as a category and treating them similar to venture funds. Talks have also been initiated to allow for exit before one year without being burdened with capital gains tax, a benefit that is currently available in listed entities.

Source: Et Realty