Page 13 - Banking Finance September 2022

ROUNDUP

The currency in circulation had jumped ings and related gains is voluntary. If pealed to startups to get incorporated
by over four trillion rupees in 2020-21, tax authorities go ahead with the PAN and listed in India and not leave the
while the increase tapered to 2.80 tril- mandate, crypto exchanges will have country "just for few dollars more".
lion rupees in the last financial year, to furnish a statement of financial
The Ministry of Commerce and Indus-
and market participants expect an- transactions (SFT) before the income-
try stated that the latest 10,000 start-
other drop in the current year. tax department.
ups were recognised in 156 days, com-
"The department wants the income pared to the initial 10,000 start-ups
Number of airports nearly from cryptocurrency trading to reflect that were recognised in 808 days. It
doubles since 2014 in taxpayers' annual information state- added that 49 per cent of the start-ups
ment (AIS) for tax-filing purposes," said are from tier-2 and tier-3 cities.
There are 141 operational airports in
a government official.
the country, which include eight heli- Of the recognised start-ups, 12 per
ports, and two waterdromes, while air Therefore, the tax department may cent cater to IT services, 9 per cent to
operators certificate have been issued ask crypto exchanges to report all health care and life sciences, 7 per
to three carriers - Jet Airways, Akasa transactions done by their users, the cent to education, 5 per cent to pro-
Air and IndiaOne Air, the Union Civil official was quoted in the report as fessional and commercial services and
Aviation Minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia, saying. 5 per cent to agriculture.
said in a response to the Rajya Sabha.
The official was of the view that mak-
CESL to set up 810 new EV
Accordint to him, there were 74 air- ing PAN mandatory would help
ports with schedule operations in the cryptocurrency investors meet the charging stations
country till 2014. Know Your Customers (KYC) require- A subsidiary of Energy Efficiency Ser-
"The Government plans to develop/ ments and hence allow better moni- vices Ltd (EESL), CESL has discovered
operationalize 220 airports, heliports, toring of such transactions and detec- prices for setting up 810 electric ve-
water aerodromes in the next five tion of any attempt of tax evasion or hicle charging stations along 16 ex-
years," he said during his response. laundering of funds. pressways and National Highways cov-
ering 10,275 km across India.
Scindia added that the aircraft fleet
India is now home to
across domestic carriers, which stood The corridors include busy routes, such
at 686 till July 25 of this year, is ex- 75,000 startups, says as the Mumbai-Pune highway,
pected to grow in the range of 10-12 Ahmedabad-Vadodara Highway, East-
Piyush Goyal
per cent in the coming years. The ern Peripheral Expressway, Delhi-Agra
India in its 75th year of Independence
fleet, pre-2014 was 410. "Expansion of Yamuna Expressway, Hyderabad ORR
is now home to as many as 75,000
fleet is a continuous process and air- Expressway, and the Agra-Nagpur
startups, Union minister Piyush Goyal
lines take appropriate decision to meet Highway, the company said.
said.
the growing demands in the aviation
As an industry first, CESL, which is un-
sector," he added. In a tweet, the Commerce and Indus-
der the ministry of power, is using a
try Minister said "These numbers tell
service procurement model to set up
Tax dept may make PAN the power of a vision. A vision to see
the charging stations along with pri-
innovation & enterprise drive growth."
must for crypto investors vate sector participation to build
"India is now home to 75,000 startups
The income-tax department could India's electric mobility ecosystem.
in the 75th year of Independence and
make a permanent account number The charging stations are expected to
this is only the beginning," Goyal said
(PAN) mandatory for cryptocurrency be built within the next 6-8 months.
in the tweet.
investors. This would be in line with the Under the public-private-partnership
demat account rules for equity trans- The minister had recently said the model, CESL will partner companies to
actions, according to two people privy country aspires to become the largest
invest in and operate the charging sta-
to the discussion. start-up ecosystem in the world.
tions along the expressways and high-
At present, disclosure of crypto hold- On another occasion, Goyal had ap- ways.
BANKING FINANCE | SEPTEMBER | 2022 | 13