Close on the heels of revising the India-Mauritius DTAA [double taxation avoidance agreement] which will completely eliminate tax arbitrage opportunities from April, 2019 and hence, the incentive for routing of Indian money through that tax haven jurisdiction, Modi – government has taken the fight against black money and rounding tripping to the next higher level. The Securities and Exchange Board of India [SEBI] – national regulator for investment in shares and other securities issued by Indian companies – has drastically amended the norms for foreign investment via offshore derivative instruments [ODIs] or Participatory notes/P-notes [as these are known in common parlance] which have been used a major conduit for reverse flow of Indian black money as well as other forms...
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Revival of sick fertilizer PSUs – a mirage
The revival of sick plants of two central public sector undertakings [PSUs] viz., Fertilizer Corporation of India Limited [FCIL] and Hindustan Fertilizer Corporation Limited [HFCL] is once again in the news. Last year, the Union Cabinet had approved a plan to revive the Barauni [Bihar] of [HFCL], Gorakhpur [UP] and Sindri [Jharkhand] of FCIL through auctions. Having failed to get a good response through this route, the central government had asked cash-rich PSUs viz., Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited [ONGC], National Thermal Power Corporation limited [NTPC] and Coal India Limited [CIL] to adopt one closed urea plant each for revival. Accordingly, CIL and NTPC have signed an agreement to form a joint venture [JV] to revive Sindri and Gorakhpur...
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DTAA with Mauritius – overhauled to curb “round tripping”
Firing yet another salvo in its fight against back money stashed abroad in safe haven jurisdictions, Modi – government revised on May 10, 2016 India’s Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement [DTAA] with Mauritius that now provides for withdrawal of exemption from tax on capital gains made by investors from alienation/sale of shares of Indian companies. The investors from Mauritius have been enjoying this exemption on their equity investment in India for over 3 decades under the extant DTAA [it was signed in 1983]. Juxtaposed with the fact that they don’t pay tax on such income in that country also [courtesy, a highly liberal taxation and eco-system therein], they had a prolonged “honey moon” period almost eternally. The dispensation was so attractive...
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Hapless poor in kingdom of charity
One of the fundamental rights conferred by our constitution to all citizens is the “right to work” for earning a decent living and good quality of life. This can be ensured in a sustainable manner only when the state puts in place requisite policy framework conducive to promoting entrepreneurship, mechanisms for institutional funding of projects, builds infrastructure [roads, highways, ports, rails, irrigation etc] and sets up institutions for imparting education and skills etc all essential ingredients that help create opportunities for work. For six-and-a-half decade since 1950 [the year when the constitution was adopted], these aspects received scant attention resulting in a grim scenario whereby creation of job opportunities are miniscule when compared to the needs. At present, there are...
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Tackling urea shortage – neem coating won’t help
Addressing an election rally in Tamil Nadu, prime minister listed the major achievements of his government which, he exhorted, is exclusively for the poor and the oppressed and is sorting out issues faced by them one by one. One of these achievements is “helping the poor farmers surmount the urea shortage which has been haunting them for years”. Modi said immediately after swearing in as PM, he received letters from Chief Ministers of States and farmers about the severe shortage of urea. “Urea was being sold in the black market and farmers had to bribe officials to get their quota of urea. My government put an end to the practice of corruption in the sale of urea. We have started...
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Food subsidy reform – unlikely in Modi’s term
The National Food Security Act (NFSA) enacted by the then UPA – government in 2013 guarantees availability of 5 kg of cereals per person per month at Rs 3 per kg rice, Rs 2 per kg wheat & Rs 1 per kg coarse cereals to 67% of India’s population (75% rural & 50% urban). This is an astounding admission that six-and-a-half decade after independence, nearly 800 million of country’s population are so poor that food has to be supplied at close to ‘zero’ price. Subsidy is financial supports given by government to enable a person buy a commodity or service which he cannot afford with his limited income. As a matter of prudent policy, this should be given for a...
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Can India get out of low tax-to-GDP trap?
In the budget for 2013-14, P Chidambaram then finance minister [FM] under UPA dispensation had introduced surcharge @ 10% on individuals earning more than Rs 1 crore per annum [or the so called super-rich]. This was imposed on the firms as well. Arun Jaitely, FM under Modi – government increased this to 12% in 2015-16 and further to 15% in the budget for 2016-17. Both Chidambaram and Jaitely were convinced was that the super-rich who are enjoying the fruits of development much more than those in the lower income strata must also contribute a higher share of their income to the national exchequer. So, they took the ‘progressivity’ inherent in taxing personal income to the next higher level. However, income-tax...
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Vanishing food stocks and bleeding banks
For the first time ever in the history of food procurement, storage, movement and distribution by state agencies, India has faced an unprecedented situation of hibernating food stocks worth Rs 20,000 crores in Punjab. The stocks were mostly funded using cash credit taken from a consortium of public sector banks [PSBs]. In an equally unprecedented move, the Reserve Bank of India [RBI] – the regulator of banks – has directed concerned PSBs to declare the mentioned loan as non-performing assets [NPAs] and accordingly make a provision of 7.5% during the quarter ending March 31, 2016 and another 7.5% during Qr ending June 30, 2016 for now. That adds to Rs 3000 crores [15% of Rs 20,000 crores] and will correspondingly...
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FDI in retail – shun policy flip-flop
In Union Budget for 2016-17, finance minister, Arun Jaitley announced that “100% foreign direct investment [FDI] would be allowed through FIPB [foreign investment promotion board] route in marketing of food products produced and manufactured in India.” While, the detailed policy guidelines in this regard are yet to be notified [currently, inter-ministerial consultations are in progress and the entire exercise leading to approval by Union Cabinet may take a few months], Jaitely’s announcement in the budget speech is a clear pointer to Modi – dispensation permitting FDI in multi-brand food retail. In 2012, during a heated debate in Parliament, BJP members had vociferously opposed the proposal of then UPA government to allow FDI in multi-brand retail citing threat to millions of...
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Divestment of majority stake – key to PSB reforms
Last year, an RBI committee headed by P Nayak had made sweeping recommendations aimed at bringing about structural reforms of public sector banks [PSBs] to enable them meet expanding requirements of an economy on accelerated growth trajectory and improve its competitiveness among the comity of world nations. The committee had recommended (i) setting up of an autonomous Bank Boards Bureau [BBB] with a mandate to select the top management; (ii) setting up of a bank investment company [BIC] where all government shares in PSBs will be vested and (iii) divestment of its shareholding in all PSBs to below 50%. BBB was contemplated as an interim arrangement as a precursor to BIC. The most crucial of these is recommendation (iii) as...
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