Page 15 - Banking Finance AUGUST 2015
P. 15
ROUNDUP
Small traders with an- NTPC set for the first remodeling since inception
nual sales below 10 lakh
exempted from GST NTPC India's largest state-owned power generator, is restructuring many of its
divisions, the first such remodeling since its inception.
Small Traders with a turnover of less The company, which has several divisions across power
than Rs.10 lakh a year won't have to generation - conventional and non-conventional
register for or pay the goods and sources, power and fly ash trading, equipment sourc-
service tax (GST), while those with ing and consultancy - is merging existing units and cre-
annual sales between Rs.10 lakh and ating new ones.
Rs.50 lakh will need to pay the tax
only at a rate lower rate than the It is believed that the several MoUs that the company has signed with states
standard GST rate as per the recent to facilitate power development and purchase will be nullified. MoUs signed for
notifications. technological improvement are also likely to be reviewed by either an internal
committee or a power ministry.
The concessional tax rate would,
however, not be available for trad- In order to improve efficiency, most state divisions were being merged into a
ers, the quantum of concession will single organization. For example the corporate units for all thermal plants in
be decided by the proposed GST Uttar Pradesh, one of the largest playfield for NTPC will be represented by a
Council which will also determine the single office, likely to be located at Dadri. Dadri houses a 1,820 Mw coal-based
standard GST rate. The threshold power plant of the company, which caters to the power demand of the Delhi
levels were finalized by the empow- National Capital Region.
ered committee of state finance min-
isters. For northeastern state the Interest on gold deposits gets exemption from tax
threshold could be Rs.5 lakh.
The government has proposed to exempt interest earned on gold deposits from
Experts said, keeping the turnover income tax, wealth tax or capital gains tax. Hence-
threshold for GST payment as low as forth, the banks will be allowed to use gold depos-
Rs.10 lakh would pose hardship to ited under the monetization scheme announced in
small businesses considering the the Budget as a part of their cash reserve and statu-
compliance requirement and use of tory liquidity.
sophisticated IT network in tax pay-
ment and claiming of credits, the Not only this, the draft gold monetization scheme
skills for which may not be available announced recently is sought to rope in small investors by lowering the mini-
with small traders. mum gold that can be deposited to 30g from 500g in the existing gold deposit
scheme. While the schemes has left the decision of interest rates to banks,
"In any tax regime, 80-90 per cent experts said it could be around 1 per cent. Both the principal and interest to be
of revenue would come from the lim- paid in depositors will be valued in gold. If a customer deposits 100g of gold and
ited number of leading assesses, receive 1 per cent interest, he has a credit of 101g after a year.
while the administrative cost would
far outweigh the revenue from small Depositors will also have the option to receive gold on maturity, but they have
tax payers," said R. Muralidharan to decide at the time of depositing. Banks have been given various options for
senior director, Deloitte in India. using the gold collected, including selling to generate foreign currency, selling
coins to customers and lending to jewelers.
A new name for Solar Energy Corporation of India
The centre has decided to change the name and nature of Solar Energy Corpo-
ration of India (SECI) to Renewable Energy Corporation of India (REC) SECI, a
four-year-old central public sector undertaking was set up as a non-profit com-
pany to promote solar energy in India.
In the current year, the company, in the new avatar as RECI, its activities will
embrace all branches of renewable energy, not just solar and is expected to
make a profit of Rs.100 crore, as per the report.
BANKING FINANCE | AUGUST | 2015 | 15
