Page 13 - Banking Finance April 2022

ROUNDUP

B2B online co covers 1,000 with an objective to increase the num- teria for determining the economically
ber of individual MFDs and stimulate weaker sections to provide them res-
towns in India financial inclusion. ervation.
Business-to-business (B2B) eCommerce
The programme is targeted at fresh Other members of the panel were
platform udaan has shipped over 20
graduates, educated but unemployed member secretary of the Indian Coun-
lakh tonnes under the essentials (fresh,
individuals, especially those who may cil of Social Science Research (ICSSR) V
FMCG, staples, pharma) and 260 mil- have lost their jobs and earnings due K Malhotra and principal economic
lion products of nonessentials (elec-
tronics, general merchandise and to the Covid pandemic, retirees, advisor to the government Sanjeev
lifestyle) categories catering to around women and housewives and for those Sanyal.
50 million orders across 1,000 towns desirous of starting their own venture
and cities across India. as self-employed entrepreneurs. GST Council may consider
Under this scheme will have an exclu- proposal to raise lowest
The platform also on-boarded over five
sive empanelment and tie-up with a
lakh new retailers / kirana shop owners slab to 8%
in 2021. "During this period, over 625 specific 'sponsor' AMC for a period of The GST Council in its next meeting
sellers on our platform achieved sales 12 months. During this period, the may look at raising the lowest tax slab
worth Rs 1 crore each," said Vaibhav apprentice MFD will be supported by
Gupta, co-founder and CEO, udaan. the sponsoring AMC towards getting to 8 %, from 5 %, and prune the ex-
the requisite NISM certification, ac- emption list in the Goods and Services
quiring AMFI Registration Number, Tax regime as it looks to increase rev-
Forex reserves shrink $ 1.4
operational set-up, training on opera- enues and do away with states' depen-
bn to $ 632 bn tional aspects and client acquisition dence on Centre for compensation,
India's forex reserves declined by $1.4 along with a stipulated monthly sti- sources said.
billion to $631.5 billion for the week pend of up to Rs. 15,000 for one year. A panel of state finance ministers is
ended in February 25 due to a dip in likely to submit its report by this month
currency assets, according to RBI data AB Pandey is NFRA chief end to the Council suggesting various
released. The overall reserves had in- The government has appointed former steps to raise revenue, including hiking
creased by $2.8 billion to USD 633 bil- finance secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey the lowest slab and rationalising the
lion in the previous reporting week. as chairman of the National Financial slab.
Foreign currency assets (FCA) declined Reporting Authority (NFRA) for a pe- Currently, GST is a four-tier structure
by $2.3 billion to $564.8 billion during riod of three years. Pandey, a 1984- attracting a tax rate of 5, 12, 18 and
the reporting week. Expressed in dol- batch Maharashtra cadre IAS officer, 28 %. Essential items are either ex-
lar terms, the foreign currency assets retired as revenue secretary in Febru- empted or taxed at the lowest slab,
include the effect of appreciation or ary last year. while luxury and demerit items attract
depreciation of non-US units like the The Appointments Committee of the the highest slab. Luxury and sin goods
euro, pound and yen held in the foreign
Cabinet (ACC) has approved the ap- attract cess on top of the highest 28
exchange reserves. The value of the
pointment of former revenue secre- % slab. This cess collection is used to
gold reserves continued its northward
tary ABP Pandey as the chairperson of compensate states for the revenue loss
journey and increased by $958 million NFRA for a period of three years from due to GST rollout.
to $42.5 billion.
the date of assumption of charge or till According to sources, the GoM is likely
the incumbent attains the age of 65 to propose raising the 5 % slab to 8 %,
AMFI rolls out internship years, sources said. which may yield an additional Rs 1.50
for distributors Prior to becoming revenue secretary, lakh crore annual revenues. As per

Association of Mutual Funds(AMFI) in he was chief executive of the Unique calculations, 1 % increase in the low-
India has launched an 'Internship Plan' Identification Authority of India est slab, which mainly include pack-
under a Regulatory Sandbox initiative (UIDAI). Post retirement, Pandey aged food items, results in a revenue
for grooming mutual fund distributors headed a committee to revisit the cri- gain of Rs 50,000 crore annually.

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