The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday proposed to make interoperability mandatory for digital payments firms. It also allowed users to withdraw cash from e-wallets and fintech companies to process RTGS and NEFT transactions. The RBI expressed dissatisfaction over prepaid payment instruments' (PPIs') failure to migrate towards full-KYC (know your customer) PPIs, and therefore interoperability, even two years after guidelines were issued.
The analyst community tracking the Indian IT services industry took special note of Accenture's first quarter (Q1) performance, which showcased the rapid growth of its consulting business that outperformed its outsourcing business. Bookings indicate that the trend will continue. Consulting bookings increased 41.6 per cent year-on-year (yoy) to $9.4 billion, higher than the 17.6 per cent growth in outsourcing to $7.4 billion. The management commentary was also more bullish on the consulting business.
Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections at Rs 95,480 crore in September touched the highest level so far this fiscal, the finance ministry said on Thursday.
While the most obvious beneficiary of this roll-out will be manufacturers of FASTags, or the Radio Frequency Identification chips, a PwC report says implementation of a pan-India electronic toll collection system on national highways may help save approximately Rs 87,000 crore annually.
The total tax burden on Indian companies is one of the highest in the world and in fact more than that of businesses in major economies like the US, UK, China and Japan.
Special audit report conducted by the PricewaterhouseCoopers on Multi Commodity Exchange has met with another opposition. Earlier FTIL, the promoter of MCX had opposed its contents and now Venkat Chary who is FTIL's non-executive chairman has sent a notice to PwC. PwC report submitted to the FMC in last April mentioned the names of Key Management Personnel of MCX and the name of Venkat Chary was mentioned in that list. Chary was Chairman, MCX, during that period. Chary who had in past also served as Chairman of FMC objected to the PwC mentioning his name as the key management personal of MCX. He wrote to the audit firm saying that he was FMC-nominated Non-executive Independent Director and Chairman on the Board of Directors of MCX till July 13 when he resigned following revised FMC guidelines which laid down 70 years as the maximum age for Chairman/Director. Chary sighted provisions of Companies act and Section 2(51) of the Companies Act, which defines " key managerial personnel" in relation to a company include CEO or MD, whole time director, CFO, company secretary and other officer as prescribed. "As non-executive independent director and Chairman nominated/approved by the FMC, I did not fall within any of the above categories," said Chary and hence blamed PWC for not showing due diligence in your special Report to the FMC. Chary has sent a notice to PWC asking it to take immediate steps to rectify this error. Since PwC Report was placed in the public domain, "it has caused serious damages to my reputation as a practising Advocate of the Bombay High Court." Chary has asked PWC if remedial action are not taken he will report the case to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India for professional misconduct under the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949, by showing gross negligence in the in professional duties. Chary has said, "I also intend to resort to the civil and criminal courts for damages/action against PWC." When contacted PwC spokesperson said that, "Our work has been executed to the expected professional standards and we stand by the content of our report submitted to the Forward Markets Commission". Chary is not the first to oppose PWC, FTIL it self had said the report was prepared without giving them chance to respond and have not accepted contents. Recently, Riddhi Soddhi Bullion, had sent a legal notice for mentioning its name as 'indulging in wash trades on MCX.' The leading bullion trader had claimed damages in their defamation suit.
India Inc's investment in all aspects of social networks, mobile computing, analytics and cloud computing (SMAC) is consistently surpassing its global counterparts.
Of the 1,145 offers made this year, consulting firms made up 34 per cent, followed by banking, financial services and insurance, pharma/healthcare, IT/ITeS and FMCG/retail.
A bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam said the issues raised in the plea need 'examination' and issued notice to the Centre, RBI, Central Board of Direct Taxes, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, PwC and the audit firms sharing its brand name.
The FMC had warned MCX that it would not renew contracts, allow new contracts and eventually take away the licence to run the bourse if the commodity exchange does not comply with regulatory norms.
In terms of expansion, a little more than half of the family businesses are open to internationalisation, while 40 per cent are looking at diversification, a PWC survey said. Even Indian family businesses are increasingly looking at diversification and exploring newer markets, it added.
Surge in UPI transactions is because of an increased consumer interest in making bill payments and recharging mobile phones online, and purchase of non-essential goods on e-commerce platforms.
The management institute also clocked 100% placement, says Virendra Singh Rawat.
On the other hand, wages in the UK and US are projected to rise by a third by 2030
However, Icra Rating Principal Economist Aditi Nayar feels that the numbers are a bit too optimistic and need real heavy-lifting by the Centre and the states. "The survey forecasts on real and nominal GDP will require a substantial push from Central and state spending as private sector capacity expansion is anticipated to be intermittent, and sector-specific in the next couple of quarters," she said. Nayar added that private consumption is likely to chart a differentiated recovery across income and age groups. Based on the comments made in the Survey, she expects the Union Budget to incorporate a growth in gross tax revenue of 15-16 per cent.
The last date to apply for the medical entrance exam is December 31.
Xi Jinping is winning the war without firing a shot in Sri Lanka, observes Colonel R Hariharan (retd).
Equities in India saw record FPI inflows of $16.8 billion in November and December, taking the benchmark indices to new highs.
The initiative is being undertaken by the government of Karnataka, considered one of the leaders in the technology space. Currently, India doesn't have such a platform and, globally, there are very few privately-run platforms.
Analysts on Monday gave a mixed reaction to the railway budget, with some terming it as a "non-event" saying there were no radical measures to bridge the revenue deficit in the document, and a few calling it "pragmatic" given the limitations.
A quarterly study of PE investment activity based on data provided by Venture Intelligence, such funds in the third quarter of this year totalled $3.01 billion through 103 deals, according to the PwC MoneyTree India report.
'Increasing spends will lower project deferrals and protect project budgets'
'It is surprising and unfortunate that unfounded allegations are now being made without any reference to me whatsoever,' Vijay Mallya said.
In a tectonic shift in the global economic centre of gravity, the size of India's economy would grow to 90 per cent of the United States by 2050, with China becoming even bigger than the US, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report. The global advisory firm projected that Brazil seems likely to overtake Japan by 2050 to move to the fourth place, while Russia, Mexico and Indonesia all have the potential to have economies larger than those of Germany or the UK by 2050.
Dealmakers and advisors feel investors are shifting their focus to Asia Pacific, especially India, owing to geopolitical instability driven by events such as Brexit and protectionist trade wars.
With $120 billion worth of deals, 2018 was the best year on record. Many also blame frequent policy flip-flops and increasing tax scrutiny as big dampners for business.
To begin with, there would be the immediate integration of various technology stacks. This would create more business for global consulting and IT services entities such as KPMG, PwC, EY, Accenture and IBM, among others. Indian service providers - Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), and Wipro, for instance - would also cash in.
From watches and sunglasses to trekking/fitness bicycles, online shoppers seem ready to loosen purse strings.
Last year's Budget had created uncertainty about the quantum of tax to be withheld on dividends paid to non-residents, as the exact tax rate was not specified under section 195.
The investments exceeded the $2 billion mark for the first time in 6 years.
Individuals flew the flag for philanthropy in FY20, escalating their contribution significantly in comparison with company and foreign fund donations, according to the Dasra/Bain & Co India Philanthropy Report of 2021. Funding by individual philanthropists went up by 42 per cent from Rs 21,000 crore in FY19 to Rs 30,000 crore in FY20.
The growth in M&As is likely to gather steam as firms within the region and and outside are looking to Asia as the home for growth, it said.
The global entertainment and media industry is expected to grow at a moderate rate over the next five years as economic uncertainty offsets the impetus of digital technologies, according to a new study.
Less than 50 per cent respondents admit that their company has sufficient security controls, says PricewaterhouseCoopers.
India conceding ground to bring only top 100 digital companies like Google, Facebook, and Netflix into the global taxation pact may have revenue implications. This will mean that New Delhi will have to withdraw the contentious 2 per cent equalisation levy on e-commerce operators by 2023. This may have revenue implications for India, experts pointed out, as the equalisation levy has a much lower annual revenue threshold of Rs 2 crore (euro 0.2 million) as against euro 20 billion agreed by 130 countries at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). India, along with other developing countries, was pitching for at least euro 1 billion threshold to cover at least 5,000 global entities. India collected Rs 2,057 crore from the equalisation levy in 2020-21, an 85 per cent growth over Rs 1,136 crore in the previous fiscal.
Mutual funds aspirants have the option of snapping up smaller AMCs or applying for a new licence.
Record equity divestment by the Reliance Group in its telecom and retail businesses garnering around $23 billion revved up the deal street in 2020, which otherwise would have gone down as one of the dullest on record, and dealmakers are seeing sunnier days in 2021 given the large scope for consolidation in a slew of sectors ravaged by the pandemic. With Jio Platforms alone garnering over $16 billion (Rs 1,18,318 crore) by selling 25.24 per cent stake and Reliance Retail notching up $6.4 billion (Rs 47,265 crore) by divesting around 9 per cent shareholding, the deal street signed off with $85 billion in the deal kitty across 1,270 transactions. This is higher by about 10 per cent over 2019. What is significant is that over a third of the total deal value came from Reliance transactions, say investment bankers.
The bill to nullify retrospective taxation offers a fair solution within the framework of Indian law and Parliamentary sovereignty to companies which have been subjected to such demands, Finance Secretary T V Somanathan said on Thursday. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced 'The Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021' in the Lok Sabha that seeks to withdraw tax demands made using a 2012 retrospective legislation to tax the indirect transfer of Indian assets. The Bill provides for the withdrawal of tax demand made on "indirect transfer of Indian assets if the transaction was undertaken before May 28, 2012 (i.e. the day the retrospective tax legislation came into being)."