Page 14 - Banking Finance March 2023

ROUNDUP

with the challenges that have emerged The total funding in this segment has Crore People Yet To Link
from the digital economy. increased by 117 per cent, from
PAN & Aadhaar
It will also study the international best $766mn in 2021 to $1.66bn in 2022.
CBDT Chairperson Nitin Gupta said 48
practices on regulation in the field of
crore PAN cards have been linked with
the digital markets as well as other Government says 1.28
Aadhaar so far, and those who do not
regulatory regimes/ institutional
lakh companies struck off link it will not get benefits while under-
mechanisms/ government policies re-
taking business and tax-related activi-
garding competition in the digital mar- from records for non-com-
ties
kets. It will further overlook the prac-
pliance
tices of leading players/Systemically As the PAN-Aadhaar linking deadline is
The government has struck off approaching, Central Board of Direct
Important Digital Intermediaries
1,27,952 companies from the records Taxes (CBDT) chairperson Nitin Gupta
(SIDIs) which limit or have the poten-
for failing to submit their financial said out of the total 61 crore Perma-
tial to cause harm in the digital mar-
statements for two continuous finan- nent Account Numbers (PANs) issued to
kets.
cial years, Union minister Rao Inderjit individuals till now, almost 48 crores
have been linked with Aadhaar to
Singh said. In a written reply to the Lok
Funding for electric vehicle
Sabha, he also said the term 'shell date. Those who do not link it by the
sector up 117% in 2022, at company' is not defined under the declared deadline of March 31 will not
get benefits while undertaking various
$1.6 billion Companies Act, 2013.
business and tax-related activities,
The Budget exemption for Customs The government undertook a special
The linking of the two databases has
duty on capital goods and machinery drive for identification and striking off
been made mandatory by the govern-
for manufacture of EV batteries, and companies u/s 248(1) of the Act read
ment and individual PANs not attached
the duty cut on lithium batteries from with the Companies (Removal of Names
to the Aadhaar by the end of this finan-
21 per cent to 13 per cent will lower of Companies from the Register of Com-
cial year (March 31, 2023) will be ren-
prices panies) Rules that had not filed their
dered inoperative. In fact, one has to pay
financial statements and/or annual re-
India's electric vehicles (EV) market is Rs 1,000 in order to link their PAN and
turns for a continuous period of two
the third-largest in terms of number of Aadhaar between now and March 31.
immediately preceding financial years.
companies, next only to the US and
China, and the fourth-highest funded "A number of 1,27,952 companies Employees with advanced
market in this space. "Favourable gov- have been struck off in last 3 years",
digital skills contribute
ernment initiatives like FAME II, a the Minister of State for Corporate
programme to speed up the electrifi- Affairs said. $508 b to India's GDP
cation of public transportation, as well A report by Amazon Web Services
He was responding to a query on
as other elements like growing environ- (AWS), the cloud arm of the e-com-
whether the government has imple-
mental awareness and rising oil prices, merce giant, has revealed that em-
mented any safeguard measures for
have all contributed to the sector's ployees in India who use advanced digi-
firms that unknowingly conduct busi-
expansion," said Neha Singh, co- tal skills, including cloud architecture
ness with the shell companies.
founder of Tracxn, a start-up data plat- or software development, contribute
form. To put in place safeguard measures an estimated $507.9 billion to India's
with respect to transactions with such annual gross domestic product (GDP).
The Budget exemption for Customs
struck off companies, Singh said the
duty on capital goods and machinery According to the research titled 'Asia
ministry had amended a schedule of
for manufacture of EV batteries, and Pacific Digital Skills Study: The Eco-
the Act in Mar. 2021. With the amend-
the duty cut on lithium batteries from nomic Benefits of a Tech-Savvy
ment, companies having relationship
21 per cent to 13 per cent will lower Workforce', stated that workers' digi-
with struck off companies will have to
prices and boost investment in the in- tal calibre reported 92% higher salaries
make certain disclosures.
dustry. compared to those with a similar edu-
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