GST snippets

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman urged tax officials to ensure transparency and remove any scope for discretion and said introduction of the Goods and Services Tax  has ushered in compliance and helped remove the cascading and overlap of various taxes.

Addressing a gathering on GST Day, the FM also complimented the officers for their hard work, which had ensured compliance and helped raise much-needed revenue, while plugging gaps. July 1 has been set as the GST Day because the most ambitious tax reform measure was rolled out on this day five years ago.

“Not even last year I would have had the motivational aura in the audience if we were to meet. Thanks to the hard work that each of you have done over the last five years,” said Sitharaman, adding that the tax reform measure had faced several challenges in the past five years. She cited the technology and adaptability challenges of 2019 and recalled the Centre’s efforts to get the tax paying committee to sit with officers handling GST to ensure that the challenges were resolved.

The FM said the two arms — the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Custom (CBIC) and the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) — should be nimble in their efforts to ensure confidence for the taxpayers so that they feel that their inputs are being respected. The FM said the CBIC had responded to suggestions from the industry and the tax arbitrage, that existed between states before the GST rollout, was removed.

She said concerted action against evaders and a strong economic recovery had ensured that GST receipts remained robust. “Coupled with economic recovery, anti-evasion activities, especially action against fake billers have been contributing to the enhanced GST. ”

AP, Guj, TN Among Top 7 in Business Reforms Rankings

Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Telangana have scored more than 90% in the central government’s ranking of states on ease of doing business.

The Business Reforms Action Plan 2020 report has changed the system of a simple ranking to a band of states in the same range of reform completion, and assesses them on 301 reform action points that improve investor confidence and access to government services for citizens. The last edition of the BRAP in 2019 showed Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana lead the rankings.

“This shows that states are not averse to being rated in some way. Best practices are being adapted and industry feels that things are moving fast after the pandemic. Many of the steps that were taken up even before the pandemic stood the test of time even during the pandemic,” finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said while launching the report.

The second band of states with 80-90% score comprises Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Uttarakhand and UP. The national capital territory of Delhi, along with Bihar and all union territories scored less than 50%.

In all, 108 new reforms and first-time reforms were assessed in telecom, movie shooting, tourism and healthcare sectors among others.

“Unlike the reforms of 1991, which were given to us for implementation, there is no compulsion now. The objective is to see what will bring out improvement in systems and ensure better lives for us. An element of nudge has been brought into every layer of the government,” Sitharaman said

Interest Rates Unchanged on Small Savings

The government has kept interest rates unchanged on small savings schemes, including National Savings Certificate and Public Provident Fund, for the second quarter of 2022-23 amid high inflation and rising interest rate.

The interest rate on small savings schemes has not been revised since the first quarter of 2020-21.

PPF and NSC will continue to draw an annual interest rate of 7.1% and 6.8 %, respectively, in the second quarter of this fiscal.

Interest rates for small savings schemes are notified on a quarterly basis.

The one-year term deposit scheme will continue to earn an interest rate of 5.5% in Q2. 

Maharashtra: Shinde Takes Oath as CM, Fadnavis is Dy CM

Eknath Shinde of the Shiv Sena was unexpectedly sworn in as chief minister of Maharashtra, with BJP support, after leading a rebellion against party leader and former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray. The frontrunner for the post, BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, was sworn in as deputy chief minister after he initially announced that he would stay out of the government. It had been assumed that Fadnavis would return to the role, given that the BJP has more than 106 MLAs in the 288-member house, along with the support of 14 smaller parties.

Shinde rebelled with 39 Shiv Sena MLAs and independents, and had been in Guwahati for the past 10 days as his faction wanted Thackeray to quit the ousted Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition government. Thackeray resigned as chief minister on Wednesday after the Supreme Court refused to delay a confidence vote against his government.

Shinde and Fadnavis were the only two sworn in at a small ceremony at the Raj Bhavan on Thursday.

Fadnavis was not keen to be a part of the Shinde government but relented after the BJP leadership, including party chief JP Nadda, intervened. 

PSLV successfully places 3 Singapore satellites in orbit

The Indian Space Research Organisation successfully launched PSLV-C53 which placed three Singapore satellites in orbits. The fourth stage of the rocket then turned into an orbital platform for scientific experiments as it began to circle the earth.

At 6.02pm, PSLV, in its 55th mission and 15th mission using PSLV-Core Alone variant, lifted off from the second launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. Around 18 minutes after the lift-off, the rocket injected three Singapore satellites into their respective orbits.

Isro chairman S Somanath said, “PSLV-C53 has placed the satellites in precise orbits. I thank NSIL for yet another mission. Many more missions are on the way for our customers all over the globe. ”

The satellites include DSEO, a 365kg electro-optic, multi spectral payload that will provide full colour images for land classification and serve humanitarian assistance and disaster relief needs. The second satellite is 155kg NueSAR, Singapore’s first small commercial satellite carrying a SAR payload and can provide images in day and night and under all weather conditions. The third satellite is 2.8kg Scoob-1, the first in the student satellite series (S3-I), a hands-on student training programme from the Satellite Research Centre at Singapore’s NTU School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

After the satellites were injected, the PS4 or the fourth stage of PSLV turned into an orbital platform — PSLV Orbital Experimental Module — to perform in-orbit scientific experiments. It is for the first time that the PS4 stage is orbiting the earth as a stabilised platform.

POEM is carrying six payloads, including those from two Indian space start-ups — Digantara and Dhruva Space — enabled through INSPACe and NSIL.

The Isro chairman said, “After the primary mission, the PSLV fourth stage is going to write some poems in orbit. The POEM is going to be functional after this, taking over the control of the primary mission computer to another computer. The fourth stage will be powered, generating power on board and will be stabilised with altitude control. It will host some experiments by some of the young startups enabled by INSPACe. ”

Somanath said normally the fourth stage ends up as debris. But, Isro has introduced solar panels, computers, a control system to fire its thrusters and sensors to look at the stars and find its own position, and receive commands. He said the fourth stage can be used like this when the load is light like on the PSLV-C53.

“On missions with higher payloads, such as an upcoming launch with a 1.5 tonne satellite, there will be too little propulsion left to operate the POEM,” he added. This is the second time the fourth stage is used. It was reignited on an earlier mission.

Mission director S R Biju said PSLV was in a different configuration this time. “It is the Core Alone version. We are coming back with this variant after a pretty long time. We had to introduce some changes to improve the production of PSLV, so that we can meet the growing demand of customers, which we have implemented and it has yielded results. ”

Biju said, “It is continuing its mission. We will take over PSLV, give some energy to PS4 and try to do some very cost effective experiments which can satisfy the growing demand of startups, our student community and our scientific community. Left to itself, it would have taken its own course, tumbled, wobbled or it would have somersaulted.

He added: “But given some more energy, probably we will be able to continue the active PS-4 for some more time, so that the platform is available. You keep some scientific payloads there so that it can serve a secondary purpose also. ” He said, “The idea for this mission was conceptualised in a record three months. It is effectively two missions rolled into one. Huge effort has gone into this from all centres of Isro. ”

It is Isro’s second mission this year. It was the second dedicated commercial mission of NewSpace India Limited.

Reliance to bring UK’s Pret a Manger to India

Reliance Brands is set to take on Tata Starbucks by bringing to India British sandwich and coffee chain Pret a Manger.

RBL, a Reliance Retail arm, plans to launch and build the Pret a Manger restaurant chain in India with a long-term master franchise agreement. The contours of the deal were not disclosed.

With the consolidation of Cafe Coffee Day, once India’s largest cafe chain, Tata Starbucks, an equal JV between Mumbai-based conglomerate Tata Group and Seattle headquartered Starbucks, has emerged as the strongest contender in the space with 272 outlets across 28 cities.

While Pret a Manger is perceived as predominantly a food-led brand globally, Darshan Mehta, MD at Reliance Brands, said that the chain boasts an exhaustive beverage play, including coffee.

“Unlike other cafe chains, where the food items have to be microwaved, this brand will have a hot section where fresh food will be served fresh,” said Mehta.

A major area of focus for the Reliance-led brand will be airports, where Tata Starbucks currently dominates.

May 2022: Core sector growth surges to 18.1%

Growth in the country’s crucial core sector surged in May on the back of strong performance by coal, cement, electricity and fertiliser sectors and helped by a low base during the second Covid wave.

The sector spanning coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity rose an annual 18.1% in May compared with 9.3% in the previous month and 16.4% in May 2021.

The eight core industries comprise nearly 41% of the weight of items included in the index of industrial production and augurs well for the numbers, which will be released later in the month. The industrial sector had been hit hard by the impact of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine but has held up against several risks. The broader economy has also scripted a robust recovery against the backdrop of several risks, such as inflationary pressures and supply chain disruptions.

The core sector data showed the cement sector grew 26.3% in May compared to a growth of 7.4% in the previous month and 11.7% expansion in May 2021. The robust growth could be attributed to the pickup in construction activity and infrastructure projects.

Economists said they expect industrial growth to be robust for May 2022 helped by the high growth in the core sector and robust expansion in other indicators.