The PNB fraud, which happened via SWIFT, went undetected since it was not linked to core banking solutions (CBS) and because checks failed at several levels RBI has announced the setting up of a panel under the chairmanship of Y.H. Malegam to study rising cases of bank fraud and set out a blueprint to curb them.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has set 30 April as the deadline for banks to integrate SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) with core banking solutions (CBS) as it looks to strengthen internal controls in banks following the Rs11,400 crore PNB fraud.
“That (30 April) could be a deadline but it is an outer limit. Today, the urgency is such that everyone wants this project to be on fast track,” Usha Ananthasubramanian, managing director and chief executive officer of Allahabad Bank, and chairman of the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA), said on the sidelines of an IBA event on Friday.
“There is already a mandate from RBI that you need to comply with this straight through processing and combining SWIFT with CBS… Everybody has started…” she added.
The PNB fraud revolves around SWIFT. Branch officials of the lender fraudulently issued letters of undertaking, basically guarantees, to jeweller Nirav Modi-linked companies without getting proper approvals and without making entries in CBS, the software used to support a bank’s most common transactions.
The scam that happened via SWIFT went undetected since it was not linked to CBS and because checks failed at several levels, say experts.
RBI announced the setting up of a panel under the chairmanship of Y.H. Malegam, a former member of its central board of directors, to study rising cases of bank fraud and set out a blueprint to curb them.
In a letter to banks, RBI also reiterated that they must strictly comply with the principle of “four eyes”—that each SWIFT message must be processed by four bank officials: a maker, a checker, a verifier and an authorizer—two people who have seen the letter said on condition of anonymity.
“Apart from talking about maker-checker concept, RBI has asked banks to maintain a Chinese wall between officials dealing with SWIFT and CBS,” said a senior official at Mumbai-based bank, one of the two people cited above.
Even as the government grapples with incomplete details and mismatch errors in refund claims by exporters, it has refunded Rs 4,000 crore out of verified claims of Rs 5,000-6,000 crore on account of payment of Integrated GST (IGST) on exports under the goods and services tax (GST) regime. Incomplete details in refund claims and mismatch errors by exporters are creating a hurdle in processing the remaining refund amount, Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) Chairman Vanaja N Sarna said, adding that the exporters should come forward to rectify the errors as officials are working overtime to ensure a smooth payout of the refunds. “There are mismatch issues for which exporters should come forward and sort out. They are being requested to come forward through SMS/emails to sort out issues which are remaining. We are working 24×7 to allow refunds to exporters. They have to come and rectify their mistakes to get the refund,” Sarna told The Indian Express.
Government officials said that the total refund claims received by GST Network (GSTN) are approximately of Rs 13,000 crore, out of which claims worth only Rs 5,000-6,000 crore have been verified so far and forwarded to CBEC for facilitating disbursement of refunds. Separately, the government has also refunded Rs 2,000 crore as input tax credit to exporters, Sarna said.
Under GST, exporters are required to pay IGST on exports and then claim refunds. The second type of refunds to exporters under GST involve refund of GST paid on purchase of inputs.
For refund of IGST paid on exports, the exporters are required to file GSTR 3 B and table 6A of GSTR 1 on the GSTN portal and shipping bills on the customs EDI (electronic data interchange) system. For refund of the unutilised input tax credit on inputs used in making exports, the exporters are required to file Form GST RFD- 01A on the GST portal. In instructions issued to Customs authorities by CBEC on October 9, the CBEC had said that filing of correct EGM is a must for treating shipping bill or bill of export as a refund claim.
Explaining the errors filed in the refund claims, Sarna said that in some instances, exporters have filled metric tonne (weight) of exported goods instead of the refund amount. Or, in some cases, the shipping bill has a number in place of an alphabet. “Some things are missing, there are some blank spaces, the system won’t accept until that gets corrected. That rectification has to be done by the exporters,” she said.
Similarly, there are EGM (Export General Manifest) mismatches or invoice mismatches in the refund claims by exporters. “I have been asking CBEC officials to reach out to exporters. I recently visited Hyderabad, there we have started sending e-mails to exporters that this is the flaw, please come forward and repair it, so that we can give the refund. CBEC officials are calling people and asking them to come and rectify their mistake,” Sarna said.
As per a CBEC release dated November 29, the quantum of IGST refund claims as filed through shipping bills during July to October 2017, was approximately Rs 6,500 crore and the quantum of refund of unutilised credit on inputs or input services filed on GSTN portal, was about Rs 30 crore. The refund claims have subsequently been revised upwards to around Rs 13,000 crore, but only about half of them have complete details to facilitate complete verification, officials said.
A study as part of RBI’s Mint Street Memos series had earlier this month had stated that the implementation and refund delays under the new indirect tax regime of GST seem to have led to working capital constraints for firms, which in turn might have hurt their exports in October 2017. However, the subsequent initiatives taken by the government since then appear to have significantly alleviated exporters’ concerns which got reflected in the exports growth pick up in November and December 2017, it had said.
The study had indicated that a short-term liquidity shock impacted firms in the export sector, with the firms with high working capital/sales ratio such as such as, petroleum and gems and jewellery sectors hit the most due to the liquidity constraints.
Qatar’s economy has proven its resilience and continues to perform well amid the blockade, improving local liquidity and gaining the confidence of international investors, said Doha Bank CEO Dr R Seetharaman.
“The blockade (on Qatar by a quartet of nations) came as a rude shock to us. But Qatar has withstood… it has proven to be a resilient model. Qatar’s economy was performing around 2.5% last year.
This year we are not expecting less than 3.1% growth,” Seetharaman told Gulf Times in an interview.
He said Qatar improved local liquidity by disinvestment last year.
“If you look at Qatar economy, liquidity was under stress to start with. The government improved local liquidity. Now international investors have reposed confidence in Qatar. The banking system as a whole is improving.
“The loan to deposit ratio in the Qatari banking system has significantly improved and now stands at 112%. This is an improvement of the level, immediately post blockade, which was at 116%.”
Qatar’s banking sector had witnessed credit expansion of around 9%, the deposit book has grown of more than 10.4%, he noted.
He said in the days that followed the blockade, there were challenges in terms of international investors slowing down on Qatar.
“They were concerned about the Qatar economic momentum. Even the rating agencies looked sceptical, which explains the negative outlook on the sovereign.”
But, Seetharaman said, Qatar’s ‘AA’ rating, which is still very high, has not been challenged although the international rating agencies have changed the sovereign outlook to negative. The high rating (A) of Qatar’s banks is also not challenged.
Currently, Qatar holds Aa- by Fitch, AA- by S&P and Aa3 by Moody’s.
“With strong exports, positive economic outlook, and natural gas markets unaffected by the economic blockade, the overall growth for Qatar remains sustainable,” Seetharaman noted.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its latest World Economic Outlook revised up its forecast for world economic growth in 2018 and 2019, saying sweeping US tax cuts were likely to boost investment in the world’s largest economy and help its main trading partners.
Seetharaman also said new global forecast has a 3.9% growth this year and next. The advanced economies are expected to grow by 2.3% in 2018 and 2.2% in 2019.
The emerging and developing economies are expected to grow by 4.9% in 2018 and 5% in 2019.
India is projected to grow at 7.4% of its gross domestic product (GDP) in 2018 making it the fastest growing economy among emerging economies following last year’s slowdown due to demonetisation and the implementation of goods and services tax.
China, which is spearheading the ‘Belt and Road’ concept is expected to grow up to 6.6% this year, he added.
Highlights Once the GST return filing process stabilises, the DGARM will be put to action for 360 degree profiling and matching the database of people filing GST with I-T returns filed Officials said the revenue estimates for next fiscal are conservative and could go up depending on enforcement actions taken by the government
Revenues from the Goods and Services Tax could cross Rs 1 lakh crore a month towards the end of next fiscal once anti-evasion measures like matching of tax data and e-way bill are put in place, finance ministry officials said on Tuesday.
Once the GST return filing process stabilises completely, the Directorate General of Analytics and Risk Management (DGARM) will be put to action for 360 degree profiling and matching the database of people filing GST with Income Tax returns filed, they said.
The government has budgeted about Rs 7.44 lakh crore from GST in the 2018-19 fiscal beginning April 1. The estimated collection for 8 months (July-February) of the current fiscal is Rs 4.44 lakh crore. The March collection will take place in April, the start of new financial year, 2018-19.
Officials said the revenue estimates for next fiscal are conservative and could go up depending on enforcement actions taken by the government.
Collections under the GST, implemented from July 1 last year, were over Rs 95,000 crore for the first month, while in August the figure was just over Rs 91,000 crore. In September, it was over Rs 92,150 crore, October (Rs 83,000 crore), November (Rs 80,808 crore) and December (Rs 86,703 crore).
As of December 2017, 98 lakh businesses were registered under the GST regime.
“We will soon start matching of the turnover shown in GST returns with the income returns filed with the I-T department. It could begin by second half of next financial year,” a senior finance ministry official said.
“Once these measures are put in place, there is no reason why GST revenues would not average Rs 1 lakh crore every month,” he added.
Another official said that the focus of the department will also be on plugging the gaps in the gold and jewellery industry.
“Gold imports have been rising every month despite a 10 per cent customs duty. But where is this imported gold channelled to? With GST in place, the revenue authorities now have the power to seek details about end supplies,” the official said.
Import of gold attracts a 10 per cent basic customs duty. On top of that, a 12.5 per cent countervailing duty (CVD) was levied prior to GST. Since GST subsumed CVD, the GST rate on gold at 3 per cent has to be paid at the time of imports in the form of Integrated GST with effect from July 1.
India is the world’s second biggest gold consumer after China. The import mainly takes care of the demand of the jewellery industry.
The official said that once the system stabilises, the intelligence agencies within the revenue department could better monitor end usage of the imported gold.
“DGARM would be utilised to provide intelligence inputs and do big data analytics for taxmen for better policy formulation and taking action against tax evaders,” he said.
Set up under the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), DGARM will use internal and external sources for detailed data mining and risk management.
As per data on GST returns filed by companies opting for composition scheme, as many as 5 lakh firms reported such a turnover which works out to annual sales of Rs 5 lakh only.
Out of 10 lakh businesses that opted for the composition scheme during the July-September period, about 7 lakh have filed GST returns for the quarter.
The official further said that currently, there is little tracking of goods movement from one state to another and the e-way bill would act as a tool to check tax evasion as then movement of stock and its end use would be monitored.
E-way or electronic way bill is for the movement of goods and can be generated on the GSTN (common portal). Movement of goods of more than Rs 50,000 in value cannot be made by a registered person without an e-way bill.
The department said it was the final call for filing of belated or revised ITRs for assessment years 2016-17 and 2017-18
The Income Tax Department on Friday urged those who deposited “large amounts of cash” post demonetisation and all companies to file their returns by March 31, failing which they may face penalty and prosecution.
It also cautioned eligible trusts, political parties and associations to file their income tax returns by this final deadline and “come clean”.
The department, in public advertisements issued in leading dailies, said it was the final call for filing of belated or revised ITRs for assessment years 2016-17 and 2017 -18.
It underlined that there was still time for these categories of taxpayers and that they should avoid last minute rush and file the ITRs well before the deadline.
“If you have deposited large amounts of cash in your bank account/made high value transactions, please consider the same while filling your ITRs.
“Non-filing or incorrect filing of return of income may result in penalty and prosecution,” the public advisory said. It said all companies, firms and limited liability partnership concerns were also required to do so.
The deadline is also applicable, it said,to trusts, associations and political parties whose income prior to claim of exemptions exceeds the minimum chargeable to tax. Individuals and Hindu Undivided Families having income more than Rs 2.5 lakh and senior citizens with income of over Rs 3 lakh (60-80 years of age) and Rs five lakh (over 80 years of age) too need to file their returns for the mentioned assessment years, it said.
India’s foreign exchange reserves swelled by USD 4.12 billion to a new high of USD 421.914 billion on a healthy increase in the core currency assets and uptick in the gold stock, the Reserve Bank said today.
The total reserves had risen by USD 3 billion to USD 417.89 billion in the previous reporting week.
The reserves had crossed the USD 400-billion mark for the first time in the week to September 8, 2017 but have been fluctuating since then.
However, there has been a continuous surge since the start of this year for the fifth straight week. In reporting week to February 2, foreign currency assets, a major component of the overall reserves, rose by USD 3.025 billion to USD 396.769 billion, the RBI said.
Expressed in US dollar terms, the foreign currency assets include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of the non-US currencies such as the euro, the pound and the yen held in the reserves.
The value of gold reserves rose USD 1.092 billion to USD 21.514 billion during the week, the central bank said.
The country’s special drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund rose by USD 3.2 million to USD 1.547 billion, while the country’s reserve position with the Fund jumped by USD 4.3 million to USD 2.084 billion during the reporting week, the central bank said.
Budget 2018 has been presented by the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and here are the key takeaways:
Personal tax
While the personal income tax structure remains the same-that is no new tax slab and no higher exemption limits-as a as a small concession, Jaitley has announced a standard deduction of Rs 40,000 for salaried taxpayers. This will be in lieu of the existing transport allowance and medical expense reimbursement. However, other medical reimbursements in case of hospitalisation will continue.
According to him, the existing allowances amount to Rs 30,000 so the actual tax benefit here on would be Rs 10,000 more for each taxpayer. This move is expected to benefit 2.5 crore people-25-30% of the total taxpayer base–and reduce paperwork along the way. The revenue cost of this concession is pegged at Rs 8,000 crore.
But if he is putting money in your wallets, his other hand is also taking cash away. The education cess levied on the tax you pay (also applicable on corporation tax) has gone up by 1%. The new 4% Health and Education Cess is expected to help the government collect an additional amount of Rs 11,000 crore.
Senior citizens
Apart from farmers and the gareeb nagrik, it is the older demographic that stands to gain the most from the latest Budget. To begin with, tax exemption of interest income from bank deposits has been raised to Rs 50,000 from the current Rs 10,000. He has also proposed to raise the deduction under health insurance premium under Section 80D of the Income Tax Act to Rs 50,000 (from Rs 30,000 currently). In case of senior citizens with critical illnesses the deduction will be Rs 1 lakh. Moreover, Fixed Deposit/Post office interest to be exempt till Rs 50,000. These concessions are expected to give senior citizens extra tax benefit of Rs 4,000 crore.
In addition to tax concessions, the government has proposed to extend the Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana up to March 2020 under which an assured return of 8% is given by Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). The existing limit on investment of Rs 7.5 lakh per senior citizen under this scheme is also being enhanced to Rs 15 lakh.
Corporate tax
Jaitley has announced that companies with a turnover of up to Rs 250 crore will now be taxed at 25% (from 30%). According to him, this move will benefit 99% of companies and the revenue foregone is pegged at Rs 7,000 crore in 2018-19. After this, out of about 7 lakh companies filing returns, only about 7,000 companies will remain in 30% tax slab.
The other bit of bad news is that the FM proposed to tax long term capital gains exceeding Rs 1 lakh on sale of equity shares/units of Equity oriented Fund at 10%, without allowing any indexation benefit. To justify his move, he pointed out that the total amount of exempted capital gains had surged to nearly Rs 360,000 crore, as per returns filed for assessment year 2017-18, and that the return on equity was attractive even without exemptions. A major part of this gain has reportedly accrued to corporates and LLPs. So while retail investors will also be hurt by this move, the impact will be most felt by corporates.
However, existing investors will be exempted from capital gains tax up to January 31, 2018. All gains made thereafter this cut-off date will be taxed. This move could earn the government Rs 20,000 crore in revenue in the first year. The revenues in subsequent years may be more.
Petrol/diesel prices
In a rejig of excise duty on petroleum products, the union government has cut basic excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 2. The Modi government has also abolished additional excise duty on fuel by Rs 6. Despite that petrol prices are likely to remain the same as a new road cess of Rs 8 per litre has been introduced.
Farmers
The Union Budget 2018 seems to have been the shot in arm it was predicted to be for the slowing agricultural sector of India. Staying true to government’s electoral promise of doubling farmers’ income by 2022, Jaitley kept the minimum support price (MSP) of kharif crops and all rabi crops at one and a half times the production cost of the crops. Currently, most of the rabi crops get that benefit.
In addition, an Agri-Market Infrastructure Fund of Rs 2000 crore will be set up for developing agricultural markets. Jaitley further allotted Rs 500 crore under Operation Greens-to be launched on the lines of ‘Operation Flood’-to address price volatility of perishable commodities and to promote Farmer Producers Organizations (FPOs), agri-logistics, processing facilities and more.
As per provisions of Budget 2018, government will encourage organic farming by FPOs and Village Producers Organizations (VPOs) in large clusters, preferably of 1000 hectares each. Women Self Help Groups will also be encouraged to take up organic agriculture in clusters under National Rural Livelihood Programme. Also, a sum of Rs 200 crore have been allocated to support organized cultivation of highly specialized medicinal and aromatic plants and aid small and cottage industries that manufacture perfumes, essential oils and other associated products.
Significantly, calling bamboo “green gold”, the finance minister announced the launch of a restructured National Bamboo Mission with an allocation of Rs 1,290 crore. The government will also set up two new funds for the fisheries sector and animal husbandry sector with a total corpus of Rs 10,000 crore.
Explaining that India’s agri-exports potential is as high as $100 billion against current exports of $30 billion, Jaitley wants export of agri-commodities to be liberalized. “I also propose to set up state-of-the-art testing facilities in all the forty two Mega Food Parks,” he added.
Lastly, the Budget not only proposed to raise institutional credit for agriculture to Rs 11 lakh crore for 2018-19 (up from Rs 10 lakh in the current fiscal) but also addressed the issue of air pollution due to burning crop residue. The Finance Ministry said that a special scheme will be implemented to support the efforts of the governments of Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and the NCT of Delhi to address air pollution and to subsidize machinery required for disposal of crop residue.
The icing on the cake is the announcement of 100% tax deduction for first five years to companies registered as farmer producer companies with a turnover of Rs 100 crore and above.
Poor families
“From ease of doing business, our government has moved to ease of living for the poor and middle class,” Jaitley said in his speech. But he actually meant only poor families, who have been extended a plethora of schemes and allocations. Take the new National Health Protection Scheme under which annual health coverage of up to Rs 5 lakh per family will be offered for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization. This is expected to benefit over 10 crore vulnerable and under-privileged families. “This will be the world’s largest government funded health care programme,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his address soon after the Budget speech.
The government will also establish 1.5 lakh Health and Wellness Centres under the Ayushman Bharat programme to provide comprehensive health care-including for non-communicable diseases and maternal and child health services-free essential drugs and diagnostic services. The Budget has earmarked Rs 1200 crore for this flagship programme.
In line with the government’s “Housing for All by 2022” promise, Jaitley announced that a dedicated Affordable Housing Fund will be set up, funded from priority sector lending shortfall and fully serviced bonds authorized by the government.
Also on the cards are free LPG connections to 8 crore poor women-up from the initial target of 5 crore beneficiaries-under the Ujjwala Scheme; two crore more toilets under Swachh Bharat mission, and a whopping Rs 16,000 crore allocation for the Saubhagya Yojana, under which four crore poor households are being provided with electricity connection free of charge.
Railways
Jaitley has proposed an ambitious plan for Indian Railways with a focus on modifications and safety rather than new train lines. He announced a capital expenditure allocation of Rs 1.48 lakh crore-the highest ever-for capacity expansion, maintenance of tracks, transforming almost the entire network into broad gauge, redevelopment of railway stations, producing upend coaches, the bullet train project, safety policies and more.
The FM announced that Wi-Fi, CCTVs will be provided in every station and escalators will be provided in stations with more than 25,000 footfalls. In the coming year, there will be a focus on upgradation of signalling and use of fog safety devices. He added that 600 railway stations across the country have been picked for modernisation and 4,000 km of railway network is set to be commissioned for electrification.
According to him, the coming year will be dedicated to building world-class trains and a railway institute will be set up in Vadodara, where the workforce behind high speed railway projects would be trained. There will also be a special focus on the upliftment of suburban trains in Mumbai and Bengaluru.
Education
“In order to further enhance accessibility of quality medical education and health care, we will be setting up 24 new Government Medical Colleges and Hospitals by upgrading existing district hospitals in the country. This would ensure that there is at least one medical college for every three parliamentary constituencies and at least one government medical college in each state,” said Jaitley.
Significantly, by 2022, every block with more than 50% scheduled tribe population and at least 20,000 tribal people will have ‘Ekalavya’ school at par with Navodaya Vidyalas. Jaitley also announced a new scheme for revitalizing school infrastructure, with an allocation of Rs 1 lakh crore over four years. He added that an integrated BEd programme will be initiated for teachers, to improve the quality of teachers.
Custom duties
Custom duty on mobile phones increased from 15% to 20%. The duty applicable on some mobile phone parts and accessories has been hiked to 15% and that on certain parts of TVs to 15%. “To help the cashew processing industry, I propose to reduce customs duty on raw cashew from 5% to 2.5%,” added Jaitley.
Significantly, Budget 2018 has levied a “social welfare surcharge” at 3-10% on imports in place of the Education Cess and Secondary and Higher Education Cess currently in place.
