Page 15 - Banking Finance September 2018

ROUNDUP

Sebi proposes re-classifi- Govt to unveil New Industrial Policy Soon
cation of promoters The government will shortly unveil a new industrial policy that aims to speed up
regulatory reforms and lower power tariffs to make
The Sebi proposed a three-phase businesses more competitive and create more jobs,
process for senior officials said. The policy, being given final
re-classifi-
touches by the Department of Industrial Policy and
cation of
Promotion (DIPP), will be presented to Cabinet for
promoters approval in the next two weeks, they said.
as public
sharehold- The proposals include establishing an overarching body with representation by
ers. In the first stage, the concerned the Centre and the states similar to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council to
promoter shareholder or the com- enable swift decisions on key changes such as the revamp of labour laws, taxa-
pany will have to file an application tion provisions and land leasing.
to the stock exchange requesting re- Crucially, India's industrial sector has a 29% share in GDP at current prices, well
classification. In the next stage, the below 44% for China. The reform is being pitched as potentially the biggest over-
request will go to the board of direc- haul of industrial policy in about 30 years and will come just ahead of national elec-
tors. tions next year. The policy proposes a direct benefit transfer (DBT) for electricity for
households and agriculture, which will result in lower tariffs for industry.
The board will then provide its rec-
ommendation, which will be placed
before the shareholders. In the third I-T Dept to Scrutinise only High Tax Evasion Cases
and final stage, the proposal will be The Income Tax department said it has picked up only high tax evasion cases for
put before the shareholders in a gen- scrutiny, which account for around 0.35 per
eral meeting and approved through cent of the 6.86 crore returns filed for Assess-
an ordinary resolution. The con- ment Year 2017-18. Central Board of Direct
cerned promoter will not be permit- Taxes (CBDT) chairman Sushil Chandra said that
ted to vote on such resolution. Also, the department has faith on the income tax
there has to be a cooling off period payers, but will not allow evaders to scot free.
between the date of board meeting "We have increased the tax base and have full faith on taxpayers. Last year, we
and shareholder meeting. got 6.86 crore returns and I have picked up only 0.35 per cent cases for scru-
"Such stages will also ensure that tiny. This means that 99.65 per cent of the returns filed can be at peace,"
there are enough checks and bal- Chandra said.
ances in place to ensure that inter- He said out of this 0.35 per cent cases picked up for scrutiny, 0.15 per cent are
ests of all stakeholders are safe- for 'limited scrutiny' and 0.20 per cent are for 'full scrutiny'. "This shows that in
guarded," Sebi said in a consultation only high tax evasion cases, we will go for scrutiny," Chandra said.
paper, based on the recommenda- A scrutiny procedure in the income tax system pertains to a case where a tax-
tions made by the Kotak Committee
payer is required to provide a number of documents to the assessing officer (AO)
and the primary market advisory
after his or her case is picked up for a threadbare examination after study of
committee (PMAC) on the matter.
their tax returns.
The issue of re-classification had as-
sumed significance at the time of India's fuel demand jumps 7.3% in July
implementation of minimum public India's fuel demand rose 7.3 per cent in July, driven by sharp rise in petrol and
shareholding (MPS) norms. In order diesel consumption. Fuel consumption in July totalled 17.05
to comply with the 25 per cent MPS million tonnes as compared to 15.88 million tonnes in the
rule, some entities were seen re-clas- same month last year, data from the Petroleum Planning
sifying themselves as ordinary share- and Analysis Cell (PPAC) of the oil ministry showed. The rise
holders just to comply with the regu- comes on back of a 8.6 per cent growth in June when
lations. demand totalled 17.99 million tonnes.

BANKING FINANCE | SEPTEMBER | 2018 | 15