Page 17 - Banking Finance August 2021

ROUNDUP

Following board discussion, IMF Man- "The Appointments Committee of the are to be restricted to priority sector
aging Director Kristalina Georgieva will Cabinet (ACC) has approved the exten- lending only," according to an official
now prepare a report on the reserve sion in tenure of Amitabh Kant, CEO, release.
expansion for the IMF's board of gov- NITI Aayog for a further period of one This means that apart from getting the
ernors, which is expected to be consid- year beyond June 30, 2021 i.e. up to
priority sector lending tag, these trad-
ered by the executive board around June 30, 2022 or until further orders,
ers will not get any other benefit that
mid-July. whichever is earlier, on the same terms
small businesses otherwise get from
and conditions as approved earlier...,"
If the board approves, it would go to the government.
a Department of Personnel and Train-
the board of governors for a vote, with The Udyam portal provides a single-
an eye to having the allocation of new ing (DoPT) order mentions. page registration, consumes less time,
SDRs take effect in late August. Kant, a 1980-batch Kerala-cadre Indian and simplifies the process of register-
The Group of 20 major economies en- Administrative Service (IAS) officer, has ing any enterprise under the MSME
played a key role in central
dorsed the reserve expansion in April, category.
government's various initiatives such as
amid signs that advanced economies In the past, wholesale and retail trad-
are recovering much faster from the Make in India, Start-up India and In- ing activities were classified as MSMEs,
credible India. He is also piloting the
pandemic, while developing countries but were excluded in 2017 as they did
are lagging far behind. union government's ease of doing busi- not cater to manufacturing activity.
ness initiative.
Because the IMF's cash gets split Currently, central schemes such as the
The ACC approved Kant's appointment
among all its members, based on their capital subsidy scheme and SFURTI
for a fixed two-year term as the CEO
shareholdings in the lender, rich ones (Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of
will benefit most, with only 7% or $42 of the NITI Aayog. His tenure was later Traditional Industries) are aimed at
extended until June 30, 2019. This was
billion of the total going to the 44 supporting traditional industries.
followed by another two-year exten-
poorer nations. Traders' associations welcomed the
sion until June 30 this year.
To help poorer countries, the United move. "The pandemic-affected traders
States and other Group of Seven na- Retail, wholesale included will now be able to restore their busi-
tions have called for richer countries to nesses by obtaining necessary finances
raise $100 billion by channeling some under MSMEs from banks, which had earlier denied
of their newly created reserves or The Union government announced the same," said Praveen Khandelwal,
through straight budget loans. fresh guidelines to include wholesale secretary general, Confederation of All
and retail trades as micro, small and India Traders.
Amitabh Kant CEO of Niti medium enterprises (MSMEs) in a
move that is expected to benefit as No TDS deduction on
Aayog gets extension many as 25 million traders battered by

The central government has extended the Covid-19 pandemic. shares, commodities
for another one year the tenure of MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari said the bought via exchanges
Amitabh Kant, the Chief Executive Of- decision would make such traders eli- Businesses buying shares or commodi-
ficer (CEO) of National Institution for gible for finance under priority sectors ties traded through recognised stock or
Transforming India (NITI Aayog) till classified by the Reserve Bank of India commodity exchanges for any value
June 2022 -- third extension since he (RBI). even above Rs. 50 lakh will not be re-
took charge of the public policy think quired to deduct TDS on the transac-
"The government has received various
tank in 2016. tion, the income tax department has
representations and it has been de-
The Appointments Committee of the cided to include retail and wholesale said.
Cabinet (ACC), chaired by Prime Minis- trades as MSMEs, and they are al- With effect from July 1, 2021, the in-
ter Narendra Modi, took the decision lowed to be registered on the Udyam come tax department has introduced
and issued an order as Kant's current Registration portal. However, benefits a provision relating to Tax Deducted at
tenure was ending. to retail and wholesale trade MSMEs Source (TDS) which would be appli-

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