Page 14 - Banking Finance September 2022

ROUNDUP

GST will not be imposed SEBI defers deadline for In terms of inward shipments, mer-
chandise imports in July 2021 stood at
on funeral, burial, mortu- KYC record validation
USD 46.15 billion.
ary services: Govt Capital markets regulator Sebi ex- Merchandise exports for the period
tended the deadline by three months
The government said there is no Goods April-July 2022 were USD 157.44 billion
to November 1, for commencing the
and Services Tax (GST) on funeral, burial, as against USD 131.06 billion during
validation of all KYC records by KYC
crematorium or mortuary services. the period April-July 2021, registering
Registration Agencies (KRAs). a positive growth of 20.13 per cent, the
The press Information Bureau (PIB)
This is the second time, when the Se- data showed.
said in a social media post that claims
to the effect there is GST on these ser- curities and Exchange Board of India Imports for the period of April-July
(Sebi) has extended the deadline. 2022 were USD 256.43 billion as
vices were misleading.
against USD 173.12 billion during the
However, in the case of a works con- Initially, such agencies were required to
same period of 2021, showing a growth
tract or a contract issued to carry out independently validate the Know your
of 48.12 per cent. Trade deficit for
work such as construction, installation Client or KYC records of all clients by July
April-July 2022 was estimated at USD
or maintenance, there is an 18% GST. 1, which was extended till August 1.
98.99 billion as against USD 42.07 bil-
Now once again the regulator has re- lion in the corresponding four months
525,800 failed companies ceived requests from the KRAs to ex- a year ago, which is an increase of
tend the timelines. 135.31 per cent.
wound up since 2016
"Considering the KRAs' request for exten-
Over 525,800 companies have been Corporate tax mop-up
sion of the timeline... it has been decided
wound up since April 2016 as part of a
that the validation of all KYC records rises 34% in first 4 months
drive to clean up the system of inac-
(new and existing) shall commence from
tive companies which have not filed of FY23
November 1, 2022," Sebi said.
statutory documents for two consecu- Corporate tax collections grew 34 per
tive years, minister of state for corpo- Further, it said that KYC records of all cent during the current financial year
rate affairs Rao Inderjit Singh said. existing clients, who have used till July 31, the Finance Ministry said,
Aadhaar as an Officially Valid Document without detailing the absolute figures
The minister said in a written reply to
(OVD), will be validated within a period of the revenue collections.
a question in Rajya Sabha that these
of 180 days from November 1.
companies have been struck off from "The corporate tax collections during
records as per section 248 of the Com- FY 2022-23 (till 31st July, 2022) regis-
panies Act where the Registrar of Com- Trade deficit hits record ter a robust growth of 34% over the
panies has cause to believe that they corporate tax collections in the corre-
$30bn sponding period of FY 2021-22
were not carrying on any business or
India's exports grew marginally by 2.14 @FinMinIndia," the Income Tax De-
operation for a period of two financial
per cent to USD 36.27 billion in July, partment said in a series of tweets.
years and have not made any applica-
while the trade deficit almost surged
tion for dormant status. During 2021-22, corporate tax collec-
three-folds to USD 30 billion during the tions stood at Rs 7.23 lakh crore, a
As per official data, the latest round of
month, official data released showed. growth of over 58 per cent from 2020-
clean up which started in FY17 saw a
21, it said. "Even when compared to
high number of inactive companies get- Imports too jumped by 43.61 per cent
collections of FY 2018-19 (pre-COVID
ting removed from the records in FY18 to USD 66.27 billion in the month com-
period), the collections of FY 2021-22
pared to July 2021, the data showed.
and in FY19. In FY18, over 236,000 com-
are higher by over 9 percent. The posi-
The trade deficit was USD 10.63 billion
panies were removed from records, fol-
tive trend of growth continues, but for
lowed by over 143,000 in FY19. in July 2021.
the overall impact of the COVID-19
India's exports (merchandise) in July
The minister said that due process of pandemic during FY2020-21, when the
2021 were worth USD 35.51 billion,
law is followed in striking off inactive corporate tax collections took a tem-
the commerce ministry data showed.
businesses from records. porary hit," it said.
14 | 2022 | SEPTEMBER | BANKING FINANCE