Bad debts at Indian lenders, especially state-run banks, have climbed to a 15-year high and may increase further, a central bank study showed.
Bad debts at Indian lenders, especially state-run banks, have climbed to a 15-year high and may increase further, a central bank study showed. Under the baseline scenario in a “macro stress test,” the industry’s gross bad-loan ratio may increase to 10.2 percent by March 2018 after climbing to 9.6 percent in March 2017, the highest since 2002, according to the Reserve Bank of India’s Financial Stability Report released Friday. Stressed assets, including soured debt and restructured loans, eased slightly to 12 percent in March 2017 from 12.3 percent in September 2016.
Weakness in the Indian banking system is a threat to growth in Asia’s third-largest economy and may stall Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan to revive credit growth from near a two-decade low. The soured loans have contributed to a $191 billion pile of zombie debt that’s cast the future of some lenders in doubt and curbed investment by businesses. “The RBI and the government are proactively taking steps to resolve NPA challenges in the banking sector,” Deputy Governor NS Vishwanathan said in a foreword to the report. “We have also activated prompt corrective action to stem the slide in the banking system.”
State-run lenders under performed their peers in the private sector, the report showed, which measures risks to the banking system by tracking factors such as profitability, asset quality and liquidity. Last month, the government gave new powers to the RBI in an effort to clean up the country’s bad-debt mess, which has left banks struggling with billions of rupees in nonperforming loans. The government amended the Banking Regulation Act to enable the RBI to order lenders to initiate insolvency proceedings against defaulters and to create committees to advise banks on recovering their loans.
The RBI in June ordered the banks to use the insolvency courts to find a solution for 12 of the debtors, though it didn’t name the institutions on its list. Earlier in the decade, many Indian steel and construction companies borrowed to fund expansion at a time when the economy was expanding at 9 percent to 10 percent a year. Loans turned sour as that growth slowed, weakening demand for steel used in construction projects.
The loan is aimed at making Indian youth more employable through reskilling
The World Bank has cleared a USD 250-million loan for making Indian youth more employable through reskilling, in a move that is seen to aid the Skill India Mission.
The multi-lateral lender is keen to support the Indian government in its efforts to better equip the young workforce with employable skills. It said the support will help the youth contribute to India’s economic growth and prosperity.
“The USD 250-million Skill India Mission Operation (SIMO), approved by the World Bank board of executive directors, will increase the market relevance of short-term skill development programmes (3-12 months or up to 600 hours) at the national and state level,” the Bank said in a statement.
Under the programme, adults in 15-59 years of age, underemployed or unemployed, will get the skill training.
It will also include the 1.2 crore youngsters in the age group of 15-29 years who are entering the labour market every year.
The programme has a mandate to provide placement and entrepreneurship opportunities to women and increase their exposure to skill training.
The Washington-headquartered World Bank’s SIMO is a six-year programme in support of the Indian government’s National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (2017-23).
SIMO will be implemented through the National Skill Development Mission and will specifically target labour market entrants.
According to an official skill gap analysis, India will require an additional 109 million skilled workers in 24 key sectors by 2022.
“This programme will support the government’s vision of investing in the human capital of India’s youth, enable greater off-farm employment and increase women’s participation in the labour market,” World Bank Country Director to India Junaid Ahmad said.
India continues to be on its path of structural reforms and a higher-skilled labour force can potentially serve as a catalyst in transforming it into a competitive middle income country, Ahmad said.
As per the Bank’s estimate, skill development capacity of the system would increase by the end of the programme so that at least 8.8 million youth with relevant training have an improved employment opportunity to raise their earnings.
The programme will benefit approximately 15,000 trainers and 3,000 assessors, it added.
Opened for first time for new assessees, tax practitioners
With barely five days left for the roll-out of the goods and services tax (GST), the GST Network (GSTN), a company that provides information technology systems for the GST, reopened registration for assessees on Sunday.
That was for new assessees not enrolled in the existing tax system — central excise duty, service tax and state-level value added tax — and for tax practitioners such as chartered accountants. Existing assessees which did not apply earlier can also enrol. The system also opened for those to be registered as tax deducted at source (TDS) or tax collected at source (TCS).
So far as smoothness of registration is concerned, Archit Gupta, chief executive officer (CEO) of Cleartax, that helps assessees register on GSTN, said, “We have an online service for fresh registrations and have received applications form small & medium businesses. So far, we haven’t faced any issues in the registration process for our customers.”
As many as 6.56 million registrations have already been made on the GSTN, which is 81 per cent of the existing 8.01 million registrations.
The new assessees, as well as existing ones, will be given a month’s time to register on the GSTN from Sunday.
Earlier, GSTN was opened in phases since November 16 for existing tax assessees. The GSTN had stopped registrations in between, as it was to transfer data to its own data centre from an earlier hired data centre. The GST portal has already opened two windows for enrolments — first between November 8 and April 30 and then from June 1 to June 15. This is the third window to allow all taxpayers enough time to migrate to the new regime.
Navin Kumar, chairman of GSTN, said, “We started the migration of existing taxpayers in November and wanted to close the process by March. The government however asked us not to close it, as many were still to register. At that time, the number of people coming to the portal fell to a few thousands compared to 200,000 a day (now). But we halted the process briefly, hoping it would trigger more people to come and register when we reopen the window.” Interestingly, there was no law that required them to register as GSTs then; the Bills were passed later.
“In fact, I am surprised why they came. We asked the tax department to persuade them to come and migrate, so the entire credit goes to CBEC. About six million came in the first instance and then 600,000 more came in the 15 days after that,” he said.
There were 8.01 million registrations in the existing system. Kumar said he wondered why the 1.4 million didn’t come. He believed one factor could be the exemption threshold under VAT for most states is Rs 5 lakh, and is Rs 20 lakh under the GST. Those with a turnover below the threshold have to register if they want to claim input tax credit.
It is expected not all assessees would migrate to the GSTN portal as, businesses with turnover of up to Rs 5 lakh are currently exempt from VAT. But, if they are supplying to other businesses or if want to pass on credit, then they need to register their business.
The existing assessees were given provisional IDs if they registered with their email ID and mobile numbers. But, for the second stage and final registration, the businesses have to give details of its business, such as the shareholding pattern of business, main place of business, additional place of business, directors and bank account details etc.
Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia had cautioned those with provisional IDs not to rush for registration on GSTN, as they had got one month more for registration.
The GST Council has given relaxation for filing of returns. The assessees can file detailed, invoice-based returns by September 5 for the month of July. Had this relaxation not been given, they would have to file these returns by August 10.
Similarly for August, these returns could be filed by September 20, a relaxation of 10 days.
Meanwhile, the GSTN released three sets of videos to reach out to assessees and help them register.
“To help the people register themselves to the new GST portal smoothly, we have released three videos just after the opening of the portal today (Sunday). The videos are an official guide for registration which will ensure a smooth roll out of the regime. The videos have been crafted to help all taxpayers including those who are not well versed with technology to complete their enrolments,” Kumar said.
This will bring down the incidence of taxation on business, which can be shared with consumers through lower prices.
Buying cleaning liquids for ‘Swachh Bharat’ as part of corporate social responsibility or taking a business associate out for lunch, companies will be able to set off all taxes paid on their consumption of goods and services when they clear their own GST liability.
The upcoming indirect tax reform seeks to revamp the entire credit process, allowing credit for any tax paid towards the furtherance of business barring a few items.
“Uninterrupted and seamless chain of input tax credit is one of the key features of GST, which will prevent cascading of taxes” .
This will bring down the incidence of taxation on business, which can be shared with consumers through lower prices.
Goods and services tax (GST), India’s most ambitious indirect tax reform, is set to roll out from July 1.
Tax charged by central and state governments would also be part of the same tax regime with credit available for tax paid at every stage for set off against GST liability.
“Any registered person can avail credit of tax paid on the inward supply of goods or services or both which is used or intended to be used in the course or furtherance of business,” the provision reads.
Under the current tax regime, if a retailer purchases a refrigerator to store perishable goods, he is not able to claim credit for tax paid on it. But under GST, he will be able to claim credit for tax paid on new refrigerator when he files his own taxes.
Similarly, credit could be claimed on tax paid on taking business associates out for lunch, or on goods or service used for corporate social responsibility. There are some exceptions, such as contribution towards employee provident fund and car lease, which are not covered under input tax credit.
“Under GST, input credit is available on all business expense except few that are specifically denied, such as employee benefits and construction,” said Pratik Jain, leader, indirect tax, at PwC.
“This is much more liberal than the current laws and would significantly increase the credit pool for the businesses,” he said.
“One would hope that authorities will interpret the law also liberally as this would need in change in mindset both for the industry as well as the government,” Jain said.
There is a pass through available for tax paid on a good or service consumed to ensure that tax is not levied on tax.
Foreign exchange reserves touched a record high of $381.96 billion as on June 16, compared $381.16 billion in the previous week, the Reserve Bank of India said in its weekly statistical supplement on Friday. Foreign currency assets (FCAs), the largest component of the foreign exchange reserves, increased to $358.08 billion from $357.28 billion in the previous week, central bank data showed. Expressed in US dollar terms, FCAs include the effects of appreciation/depreciation of non-US currencies, such as the euro, pound and the yen, held in the reserves. So far in 2017, foreign exchange reserves have grown 6% and have touched record levels five times since April, as the RBI has aggressively been buying dollars to prevent a sudden jump in the rupee.
The central bank has been buying dollars on a daily basis, both in the spot market as well as in the forward market, to limit the appreciation of the local currency, which has been gaining steadily, traders said. The rupee has gained about 5% since the beginning of the year. Among other factors, strong demand for the local currency from foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) looking to invest in Indian assets has caused the rupee to appreciate. FPIs have bought Indian shares and bonds worth around $22 billion so far in 2017. Given India’s low current account and fiscal deficits, and the advantage it offers in terms of interest rate differential, traders expect the inflows to continue in the near-term.
The central bank has always maintained that it does not want to influence the exchange rate for the rupee, but would take steps, including intervention in the spot market, to curb extreme volatility. According to the latest available data, the RBI’s outstanding net forward purchases in April stood at $13.55 billion, up from $10.84 billion in the previous month. On the other hand, net purchase in the spot market dropped to $0.57 billion in April from $3.54 billion in March. The RBI publishes data on the sale and purchase of dollar with a lag of two months.
The Reserve Bank of India has widened the scope of its banking ombudsman platform by including issues regarding mis-selling of third-party products, and customer grievances related to mobile banking and electronic banking issues.
The new rule will be effective from July 1, and the banking ombudsmen will enjoy more power in their pecuniary jurisdiction.
Banks sell third-party insurance or MF products to earn a fee, but they were so far not liable to address customer grievances.
Now, the deficiencies arising out of sale of insurance, mutual fund and other third-party products will be looked into.
Banks would now have to take the onus of providing after-sales service on third-party products.
RBI has also simplified the process of making complaints.
Under the amended scheme, a customer would also be able to lodge a complaint against the bank for its non-adherence to RBI instructions with regard to mobile banking and electronic banking services.
The pecuniary jurisdiction of the banking ombudsman to pass an award has been increased from existing, Rs.10 lakh to Rs. 20 lakh.
Ombudsman can direct banks to pay compensation up to Rs. 1 lakh to the complainant for loss of time, expenses incurred as also, harassment and mental anguish suffered.
The GST Council on Sunday made the dreaded anti-profiteering clause more palatable specifying a sunset clause of two years even as it relaxed the deadline for filing returns under the goods and services tax (GST) till September
The GST Council on Sunday made the dreaded anti-profiteering clause more palatable specifying a sunset clause of two years even as it relaxed the deadline for filing returns under the goods and services tax (GST) till September. The Council also approved five sets of rules but deferred a decision on the E-Way Bill rule. The GST — a uniform levy across the country — will be rolled out at midnight on June 30, ahead of which the council will meet again. Jammu and Kashmir and Kerala are yet to approve the State GST law.
The GST Council tweaked rates for luxury hotels giving relief to states relying on tourism. State-run lottery tickets will attract a levy of 12% while those run by private players will attract a higher GST of 28%. Rates for hybrid vehicles were not discussed at the meeting, the 17th Council meeting.
The anti-profiteering clause seeks to penalise businesses that do not pass on the benefit of a reduced incidence to customers. Any firm found to be profiteering, will pay a penalty equivalent to the amount of benefits gained under GST but not passed on to customers.
At a press conference, finance minister Arun Jaitley said he hoped the anti-profiteering rule would not be used.
Explaining how the anti-profiteering clause would work, revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia said the GST implementation committee, a body comprising officers from states and central government, would pass on any complaints that it receives to the Director General of Safegaurd. “The DG of Safeguard will then take about three months to investigate the complaint and send its findings to the anti-profiteering authority,” Adhia explained.
“We may be able to refund the penalty to consumers in the case of commodities that can be tracked. However, for other commodities, the penalty amount will be deposited in the consumer welfare fund as provided under the GST Act,” Adhia added.
The simplified rules for filing returns require a taxpayer to file only a simple, self-certified return —by August 20 for July and September 20 for August. This would summarise inward and outward supplies rather than specify invoice-wise detailed returns as per GST rules. However, assesses must file the return with invoice details in September for both months. These will be matched with the simpler returns filed earlier, and any discrepancy would be liable to a fine, Adhia said.
The FM observed the IT platform—GSTN– was ready. “So far, 65.6 lakh of the 80.91 lakh existing assessees have migrated to the GSTN. This is a reasonably good number given many current taxpayers would be out of GST ambit due to the annual turnover ceiling of Rs 20 lakh,” Jaitley said. The FM added that there was a window of more than 30 days for new businesses to register.
The GST council approved five sets of rules including those relating to advance ruling, appeal and revision, assessment, anti-profiteering and fund settlement.
The anti-profiteering authority will be a five-member body; the chairman will be a secretary- level officer with four joint secretary level officers as members.
With the GST Council divided on the E-way rule—the manner in which consignments moving across states will be tracked–Jaitley said the transient rule would prevail pending a final decision.
Meanwhile, the Council raised the ceiling for hotel rooms attracting the highest tax rate of 28%– rooms costing more than Rs 7,500 per night will now be taxed at 28% compared to Rs 5,000 and above earlier. Similarly, services provided by restaurants in five-star hotels will now also charge 18%, down from 28% earlier. This has brought these restaurants at par with other air-conditioned restaurants.
The Council lowered the annual turnover limit for the composition scheme to Rs 50 lakh for the north-eastern and some other hilly states, at their request. Earlier, the composition limit for all states was increased from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 75 lakh. The composition scheme is applicable only to traders, manufacturers and restaurants.
