Viacom18, the television media house that owns and runs channels Colors and MTV, has signed an agreement with the Union government’s department of industrial policy and promotion’s Start-Up India project.
It will launch a year-long ‘outreach programme’ for entrepreneurs, called MTV Kickstart. The initiative will include activities on-ground, digital communication and a TV reality show.
While the Viacom18 brand attached to the programme is MTV, the network’s youth brand, all entities under the former’s umbrella will be mobilised.
The multi-platform initiative is to reach out to young and aspiring entrepreneurs through multiple touch-points across 300 colleges. Around 10 Start-Up Festivals, two-day events in tier-1 & 2 cities, will be organised, allowing youth to interact with top entrepreneurs and investors.
Amitabh Kant, secretary of the government’s department, said: “This will help us engage with dynamic youth and inspire a new generation to follow their dreams and become successful entrepreneurs.”
“The programme will look at a variety of start-ups — in tech and engineering, in the social space, in art and culture and, could be, in the media, too. We are working on the amount of seed money. It will come from a combination of entities across sponsors and VC (venture capital entities). One of the things we want to do is provide mentorship. It becomes critical in making the ideas commercially viable,” says Sudhanshu Vats, group chief executive of Viacom18.
The reality show will go on air in the third quarter of this calendar year. The format would mostly be developed in-house by the network and include a competition, where shortlisted start-ups or entrepreneurs from various on-ground activities under the programme are to compete before a jury for home seed funding.
“Through a process of auditions, we will shortlist the contestants, who will then be participants in the televised reality show. We’ll end the process with an awards show, also televised. The idea is not to make it too formal and intimidating. The MTV brand will help with this. While it’s not frivolous, it will help ease the contestants. It can be quite intimidating for anyone with an idea who does not know much about setting up a business (to present the idea). So, we are looking at people who don’t yet have a start-up but have ideas that can be turned into businesses,” says Ferzad Palia, head of youth and English entertainment at Viacom18.
The network is in talks with brands which want to market to youth and will soon announce the commercial partners. These brands will get visibility on all platforms the outreach programme is present on and across the Viacom18 network.
In December 2015, Zee Bangla, in association with the West Bengal government, launched Egiye Bangla, a start-up reality show. The format was similar to Shark Tank, a reality show for start-ups on the ABC television network in America. Each round had five contestants and each pitched his idea to investors. The latter included Anjan Chatterjee of Speciality Restaurants; Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, managing director of Bandhan Bank, and Ashok Banerjee, a professor at IIM-Calcutta. The show was aired in the 6–7 pm slot on Sundays and launched with 744,000 impressions on television viewers on December 6, 2015, and clocked 441,000 average impressions or TV viewership through the season, according to data from the Broadcast Audience Research Council of India.
The Reserve Bank appealed to income tax assessees to pay dues in advance of the due date as well use alternate channels of authorized banks to avoid the rush during end of March.
“Pay I-T dues in advance at RBI or at authorized bank branches. Appeal to income tax assessees to remit their income tax dues sufficiently in advance of the due date,” RBI said in a release.
“It is observed that the rush for remitting Income-Tax dues through the RBI has been far too heavy towards the end of March every year and it becomes difficult for the RBI to cope with the pressure of issuing receipts although additional counters to the maximum extent possible are provided for the purpose”, it said.
RBI said assessees can use alternate channels like select branches of agency banks or the facility of online payment of taxes offered by these banks.
A total of 29 agency banks have been authorized to accept payments of Income-Tax dues. The authorised banks include SBI and its five associates, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis, Bank, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank.
Among others are Corporation Bank, Dena Bank, Canara Bank, Central Bank of India, Syndicate Bank and others.
RBI said by remitting dues at the designated banks will obviate the I-T assessess’ inconvenience in standing in long queues at the RBI offices.
The move is aimed at reducing taxpayer grievances and promoting tax-friendly environment
The Income Tax department has issued refunds worth Rs 1 lakh crore till January in the current fiscal, the Finance Ministry said today.
“Income Tax department has so far issued refunds of Rs 1 lakh crore to 1.75 crore assessees in 10 months of 2015-16 fiscal,” Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia tweeted.
Aimed at reducing taxpayer grievances and promoting tax-friendly environment, Central Board of Direct Taxes had in December asked officers to issue refunds of amounts less than Rs 50,000 expeditiously.
CBDT had also directed field officers make refunds of up to Rs 5,000. In addition, it directed that refunds, which also have cases of dues of up to Rs 5,000, may be issued without any adjustment of outstanding arrears.
“This (Refund) has created major relief to tax payers. This demonstrates Government’s intention to create a tax-friendly environment,” Adhia said.
The Income-Tax Department today cautioned taxpayers not to share their PIN or password of mails saying it never ask for such details.
In a statement, the department said it is to ensure that taxpayers are aware the department does not seek confidential or financial information of the taxpayer over email.
“The Income Tax Department never asks for your PIN numbers, passwords or similar access information for credit cards, banks or other financial accounts through e-mail,” it said.
“The Income Tax Department appeals to taxpayers not to respond to such emails and NOT to share information relating to their credit card, bank and other financial accounts,” it added.
The Income-Tax Department has been at the forefront of using technology in implementing its e-governance initiatives, it said, adding, most of its routine communication to taxpayers is through email and SMS.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has laid down operational guidelines for e-assessments of select non-corporate taxpayers to be undertaken as a pilot in five metros.
It has now specified the format and standards for ensuring secured transmission of electronic communication between the taxpayer and the Income-Tax Department.
The move comes three months after the CBDT announced its intent use ‘electronic mail’-based communication for assessment.
It had then announced that a pilot project would be launched in five “non-corporate charges” at Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Chennai.
Non-corporate charges
Non-corporate charges are those dealing with assessments of individuals, Hindu Undivided Families and partnerships.
Initially, 100 cases would be identified for e-hearing in each of these five regions and a major part of the assessment would be done electronically, the CBDT had then decided. Only cases taken up for scrutiny were to be covered under the pilot.
Commenting on the move, Aseem Chawla, Partner, MPC Legal, a law firm, said: “If this IT-enabled exercise does succeed, it would usher in a new era in taxpayers’ interaction with tax department in making the process, simpler, economical and hassle-free.”
Amit Maheshwari, Partner, Ashok Maheshwary & Associates, a CA firm, said, “The guidelines allay various concerns of the taxpayers on the scheme and once it’s successful would enable quick percolation across the entire tax department and make it a standard practice. One good move is that the communication status would be displayed to the taxpayer in their online account.
“This would prevent missed dates, miscommunications and effective follow-ups.”
Vikas Vasal, Partner –Tax, KPMG in India, said the Centre has clarified the procedural aspects of usage of electronic communication regarding paperless assessment proceedings.
Saving time
“Gradually, the aim is to move most of the communication to the electronic format.
“Once done, it would save time and effort both for the tax payers and the tax department.
“Also, it would bring in more transparency and consistency in tax positions” .
A number of tax simplification measures have been announced by the government recently and more are expected in the forthcoming Union Budget, he added.
“If this IT-enabled exercise does succeed, it would usher in a new era in taxpayers’ interaction with the department in making the process, simpler, economical and hassle free”.
Indian tax authorities have resolved more than 100 cases of transfer prices with their US counterpart, involving companies from IT and ITeS sectors, in a move expected to give a boost to investment flows into the country.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has said resolution of such issues follows the framework agreement signed with the US revenue authorities in January last year as part of the Mutual Agreement Procedure (MAP).
The framework will cover about 200 transfer pricing disputes involving US companies.
“More than 100 cases have already been resolved and some more are expected to be resolved before the end of this fiscal,” the CBDT said in a statement on Thursday.
The agreement with the US was finalised under the MAP provision in the India-USA Double Taxation Avoidance Convention.
It further said MAP programmes with other countries such as Japan and the UK are progressing well with regular meetings and resolution of past issues.
The CBDT said a combination of a robust advance pricing agreement (APA) programme and a streamlined MAP would be helpful in creating “an environment of tax certainty and encourage MNCs to do business in India”.
Earlier, the US bilateral APA programme was not applicable to India. “The success of the framework agreement in a short period of one year has led to US revenue authorities opening up their bilateral APA programme to India. The US is expected to begin accepting bilateral APA applications shortly,” the CBDT said.
APA, which was introduced in the Income Tax Act in 2012, provides for signing of an agreement between a taxpayer and the Income Tax department on an appropriate transfer pricing methodology for determining the value of assets and ensuing taxes on intra-group overseas transactions.
The possibility of their investing, either directly in projects or through the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) that we have created, were both discussed,” he told reporters at the Indian High Commission in London.
Amid fears of the global economy edging close to recession, India and UK have agreed to open up trade and markets to support growth, carry out structural reforms and address issues related to cross-border tax evasion.
After talks between India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, the two nation’s agreed to boost economic ties particularly in areas of infrastructure and financial services and renewed pledge for autonomical exchange of tax information from 2017.
“From the Indian point of view, we were extremely interested in having the British investors look at infrastructure investments in India for which various possibilities were discussed,” Jaitley said after the talks.
India, he said, is “extremely keen that large British companies, particularly involved in infrastructure financing, start investing in Indian infrastructure”.
The two nations will work together for developing an India-UK partnership fund under the umbrella of National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) recently created in India.
“This fund will seek to increase flows of private sector capital and expertise alongside multilateral support into Indian infrastructure,” a joint statement issued after talks said.
The world’s fifth largest economy will work on development of smart cities in India. New Delhi is also looking at London for issuance of rupee-denominated bonds to get UK investors to fund its infrastructure projects.
“The possibility of their investing, either directly in projects or through the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) that we have created, were both discussed,” Jaitely told reporters at the Indian High Commission here.
With the IMF warning of global economy being close to recession with 3.4 per cent growth this year, the two sides said they “remain concerned that global growth is falling short of expectations and that the risks to the global outlook have increased”.
“In this regard we stand ready to take the necessary steps to open up trade and markets to support growth and jobs, and agree on the importance of structural reforms and pursuing credible fiscal policies,” the joint statement said.
The joint statement talked about advancement of cooperation in a range of sectors including infrastructure financing, addressing issues of cross-border tax evasion/ avoidance besides opening up of the Indian legal sector to foreign lawyers.
“The UK and India share a common commitment to address cross-border tax evasion and avoidance. Both sides have committed to the Common Reporting Standards (CRS) on Automatic Exchange of Tax Information and will begin exchange in 2017,” the statement said.
“We call on other countries to meet the commitments they have made and to implement the new standard on time,” it said.
During the talks, which included senior representatives from Finance Ministries, Central Banks and key regulators of both countries, the two leaders discussed ways to strengthen the Indo-UK existing economic partnership in order to further boost trade and investment, and to build on the success of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s recent summit with his British counterpart David Cameron in the UK.
“Given the fact that even in a somewhat difficult global scenario, India is managing a reasonable growth rate, this is one of the better options that investors have and that kind of a sentiment gets really echoed in the meetings with the investors that we had. Of course, the investors are also keenly watching which way our reform process in India goes,” Jaitley said.
The two nations agreed to work together on building commercial and regualtor-to-regulator links that can underpin further fintech growth in both countries.
“The UK and India agreed to renew the existing mandate of the India-UK Financial Partnership, and building on the re-establishment of the CEO Forum,” the statement said, adding that potential areas of interest for the India-UK Financial Partnership could be reinsurance, international use of the rupee, role of financial technology, financial inclusion, investor protection and green finance.
“The global economy is facing serious challenges and therefore the estimates of global growth also have been repeatedly lowered. Compared to how various countries across the world have been doing, India’s growth rate despite these challenges is probably the highest in the world among major economies,” Jaitley said, in reference to his meetings with investors at Goldman Sachs and London Stock Exchange.
As a follow up on Prime Minister Modi’s announcement during his UK visit last November on the listing of Rupee bonds in London, the minister said, “the UK is very keen for these to be listed in London and broadly the economic and financial dialogue was carried further”.
During the dialogue, the two sides recognised that as the leading financial centre in the world and in the view of successful issuance of Masala bonds issued by the International Finance Cooperation last year, London will be an attractive location for issuance of rupee-denominated bonds.
“The bonds, which were first announced during the visit of Prime Minister Modi to the UK in November, illustrate the crucial role that the UK’s capital markets can play in an enhanced economic relations relationship with India, with UK investors providing financing for the transformation of India’s infrastructure and continued rapid economic growth,” the statement said.
India and the UK also agreed that the development of deeper markets in rupee-linked products, and the increasingly sophisticated relationship between the Indian and UK financial sectors, are important underlying factors in fostering an enduring economic and financial partnership.
Both sides agreed to continue working closely on the development of smart cities in India.
“We will continue to build on and further embed the existing Technical Assistance Partnerships that were announced during Prime Minister Modi’s recent visit to the UK, and to continue working together on research collaboration and other measures to support India’s 100 Smart Cities programme,” the statement said.
While noting the strength of the economic outlook for both countries, the two sides expressed concern that global growth is falling short of expectations and that the risks to the global outlook have increased.
“In this regard we stand ready to take the necessary steps to open up trade and markets to support growth and jobs, and agree on the importance of structural reforms and pursuing credible fiscal policies in order to raise living standards,” it said.
India and the UK also agreed to work together with the aim of developing an Indo-UK partnership fund under the umbrella of the NIIF. The fund will seek to increase flows of private sector capital and expertise alongside multilateral support into Indian infrastructure.
The working group to be established will report back within the course of 2016 on a proposed fund strategy and delivery approach, the statement said.
“As part of this, India and the UK also both recognise the importance of identifying the sector or sectors where there is greatest potential for developing sustainable project pipelines, and of developing a supportive institutional environment for investment and delivery,” it said.
Viacom18, the television media house that owns and runs channels Colors and MTV, has signed an agreement with the Union government’s department of industrial policy and promotion’s Start-Up India project.
