India defers higher duties on 29 key imports from US for 6th time

Economy & Policy:

India has decided to again defer the imposition of higher duties on 29 key imports from the US, for the unprecedented sixth time.

Originally set to go live from June 28, 2018, the tariffs have been repeatedly postponed by the government and are now expected to take hold from April 1 as opposed to March 2.
Despite them being notified by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, the tariffs have been postponed repeatedly. In the meantime, four delegation level talks with Washington DC have been unable to solve the issue.

In response to an unilateral increase in steel and aluminium duties from India and other countries by the Trump administration, New Delhi had announced higher tax by up to 50 per cent on import of mostly agri goods like apples, almonds, walnuts and some industrial products.

The new taxes are proposed to rake in an estimated $240 million worth of additional taxes. Spread across sectors from which imports stood at $1.5 billion in 2017-18, New Delhi claimed the amount was equal to the estimated loss faced by India after the Trump Administration imposed a 25 percent extra levy on steel and 10 percent on aluminium products from many countries, including India in May, 2018.

Since then, other nations have been given an exemption by the US from the steel, aluminium duties. Now, we are working on a trade package to resolve this and other issues; a senior commerce ministry official said.


  This will include changes in import duties on the US information and communication technology products, and preferential tariffs for Indian exports, apart from data localisation norms, he added...Read More

Explainer: How GST cut on under-construction houses will help home buyers

Economy & Policy:

The Modi government announced a cut in the goods and services tax charged on sales of residential properties under construction as it looks to stimulate the economy by driving up consumption.
The Goods and Services Tax Council, comprising central and state finance ministers, announced that the new rate will be 5 percent, down from 12 percent, on all new housing projects except those that are classified as af fordable housing. The council also decided to slash the tax rate on affordable housing projects to 1 percent from 8 percent.However, builders will not be able to claim input tax credit (ITC) under the new GST rates. The new rates will be applicable from April 1.

The Council also made changes in the definition of affordable housing carpet area and cost. Properties costing up to Rs 45 lakh will now be considered as affordable. Houses with a carpet area of 90 square metre in metro cities and 60 square metre in non-metro cities will be considered affordable, the Council said.

Properties, where the construction has been completed, attract stamp duty, not GST. Hence, ready properties that have received the occupancy certificate (OC) do not attract GST.

What does this mean for home buyers?


 The GST Council’s decision will benefit buyers who are currently on construction-linked payment schemes. Data from property consulting form shows there are 5.88 lakh under-construction homes lying unsold in India's top 7 cities. Of these, 34% are priced below Rs 40 lakh alone. With affordable housing now being defined within Rs 45 lakh budget, more properties qualify for this ‘sweet spot category. The GST cut, coupled with this critical change in definition, will induce more sales in homes falling in this budget range...Read More

Over 7,000 cash-starved start-ups may benefit from angel tax relief

Companies News:

A series of changes made to the so-called angel tax by the government could give wing to 7,000 cash-starved start-ups, sources in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) said.

According to industry observers, an investment of around $12 billion might come from 2,000 angel investors and hundreds of smaller backers of start-ups by the end of the year. Of this, about $7 billion will come in the form of corporate investment.

After facing sustained pressure over the past three years from start-ups and venture capital funds over the tax, the government introduced changes in tax norms, giving in to most of the demands raised by the sector.

Providing a wider set of exemptions from the angel tax, the Centre allowed start-ups which have raised capital up to Rs 25 crore to claim tax benefits, as distinct from the earlier Rs 10 crore. It also gave a slew of waivers and a tweak in definition industry demanded.

Expecting big gains: DPIIT

According to officials at the DPIIT, around 6,700 firms of the 16,000 start-ups registered with the nodal agency will benefit from the changes in the angel tax over the next six months.

 “Around 7,000 firms will get immediate benefit. It would be many more over time. Many companies on our list have grown beyond just being start-ups and fall in the tax bracket,” an official from the DPIIT said...Read More

No tax liability if your income is up to Rs 9.5 lakh, but conditions apply

Personal Finance News:

Stressing that tax concessions have been provided with a view to help poor and middle-class people living on a tight budget, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said that now individuals earning up to Rs 9.5 lakh can escape liability by taking advantage of saving schemes.

Replying to the debate on the Finance Bill in Lok Sabha, the Minister said he did not propose any change in the tax rate but only provided few rebates which will boost spending and help the economy.
The Finance Bill, which contains tax proposals, was passed by the Lok Sabha with a voice vote, completing the budgetary process in the lower house.

In a swipe at the Congress, the Minister said that unlike the previous UPA dispensation, the present Modi government in the interim budget did not reduce levies of SUVs which are used by rich persons.

In the Finance Bill 2019, the Minister proposed to raise tax rebate for people having annual income up to Rs 5 lakh from Rs 2,500 to Rs 12,500, which will effectively ensure that they don't have to pay any tax.

In the Bill, standard deduction has also been raised from Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000, besides a host of tax benefits to home buyers.

The concessions proposed in the Finance Bill, Goyal said, are aimed at helping "poor and middle-class people living on a tight budget...This is interim budget. We have not brought any tax proposal...we will bring them in July," he said.


 The next government, which will be formed after the upcoming general elections, will come out with a full budget in July. The next government will also come up with a Finance Bill containing the tax proposals for 2019-20.

No support for govt employees, taxpayers under PM-KISAN scheme for farmers

Interim Budget 2019:

Families of farmers who have one or more members paying taxes or are a government employee will be ineligible for benefit under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme.


Families with at least one member drawing a monthly pension of Rs 10,000 will be ineligible, according to the guidelines issued to the states by the Centre on Wednesday. Families who have professionals such as doctors, engineers, lawyers, chartered accountants or architects will be left out too.

Announced in the Interim Budget, the scheme is supposed to provide an additional Rs 6,000 per annum income support to small and marginal farmers.A small or marginal farmer family is defined as "a family comprising husband, wife, and minor children, who collectively own cultivable land up to 2 hectare according to the land records of the state or Union Territory".


Families of former members of Parliament or Legislative Assemblies or even chairpersons of district panchayats would also be ineligible for benefit.


Some government employees, however, have been exempted from exclusion, such as those among the multitasking staff or classified in Class IV or Group "D" categories.

 The guidelines also said state governments can allow self-declaration of the beneficiary for exclusion, but the entire income-support transferred to him could be recovered and penal action initiated if the declaration is incorrect...Read More

What 2019 Budget can do to help India clean its air, reduce coal addiction

Interim Budget 2019:

India has one of the world’s largest programmes to expand renewables--a doubling of capacity over the next four years--but India’s ambitious 2022 target of generating enough non-coal energy to replace the equivalent of 175 coal-powered plants is veering off track.

On February 1, 2019, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has a chance to get things back on track, help India reduce its addiction to coal, help clean the country’s air and meet the global climate-change commitments of the world’s fourth-fastest growing carbon polluter

After record growth in the installed capacity of renewables over the four years to 2017, capacity addition slowed down in 2018. The main reasons: an anti-dumping duty imposed by the government on imported solar modules to aid domestic manufacturing, higher rates of taxation under the goods and service tax (GST) and unclear policy.So, the last budget before 2019 general elections is of particular significance to the renewables sector, which comprises electricity from solar, wind, hydro and bio power.

These are the issues the budget must contend with:

• Due to a 2018 slowdown, the government will have to install 3.5 times more capacity every month than its average speed for the last four years.
• A new duty on imported solar modules--which meet more than 80% of the country’s need--increased production costs and threaten the competitiveness of solar tariffs against those of coal.
• Higher GST rates on solar modules and services are driving away investors and manufacturers. Delays in a long-term policy to remove uncertainty from the sector is holding back new investment.

Demonetisation, GST affecting Mudra loan recovery, says Shiv Sena

CURRENT AFFAIRS:

Demonetisation and haphazard implementation of Goods and Services Tax have impacted the recovery of Rs 11,000 crore of loans disbursed under the Centre’s Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency (MUDRA) scheme, the Shiv Sena said Tuesday.

In an editorial in party mouthpiece Samana, it said, “Loans worth Rs 2.46 lakh crore have been disbursed so far to 4.81 crore small scale industrialists. The outstanding amount of these loans has piled up to Rs 11,000 crore, which is a serious issue.”

Also Read : 59-minute loans: Leapfrogging MSME lending through technology

“In the early stage, these entrepreneurs suffered from decisions such as Demonetisation and haphazard implementation of Goods and Services Tax. It has affected loan recovery,” the Sena editorial claimed.

“This sector is also affected due to the slowing of country’s economic growth in last two years. It can easily be deduced that some policies of the government are responsible for Rs 11,000 crore outstanding loans under the Mudra Scheme,” the BJP’s ally in the Maharashtra and Union governments alleged… Read More.