Reserve Bank of India Governor steps down citing ‘personal reasons’ after fight over autonomy of the central bank.

 Showing an increase of 15.7 per cent over the last year, the gross direct tax collections till November stood at Rs 6.75 lakh crore, according to provisional figures released on Monday.

This was despite a 50 per cent rise in filing of income-tax returns over the last year.

The government said the collections in the corresponding period of the last fiscal included collections under the Income Declaration Scheme amounting to Rs 10,833 crore, which do not form part of the current year’s collections.

Of the total tax collected, refunds amounting to Rs 1.23 lakh crore have been issued during April-November, which is 20.8 per cent higher than refunds issued during the same period in the preceding year, the Finance Ministry said in an official statement.

“Net collections (after adjusting for refunds) have increased by 14.7 per cent to Rs 5.51 lakh crore during April-November. The net direct tax collections represent 48 per cent of the total Budget Estimates (Rs 11.5 lakh crore) of direct taxes for FY19,” the statement said.

It said while the Corporate Income Tax was growing at 17.7 per cent, Personal Income Tax collections were growing at 16 per cent.

Last week, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairman Sushil Chandra had said that over six crore income-tax returns had already been filed this year for the assessment year 2018-19, showing an increase of 50 per cent over the last year.

He also expressed confidence that the government would meet the Rs 11.5 lakh crore direct tax collection target.

 Negative global markets, along with caution ahead of the results of assembly elections in five states and a rise in crude oil prices, suppressed the key Indian equities indices during Monday morning’s trade session.

The key indices — the S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty50 – had a gap-down opening and subsequently shed over 600 points and 190 points or more than 1.60 per cent each.

According to market observers, heavy selling pressure in banking, consumer goods, oil and gas, capital goods and automobile stocks, along with continuous outflow of foreign funds accelerated the downward trajectory of the equity indices.

On the currency front, the Indian rupee weakened to 71.39 against the US dollar from its previous close of 70.81.

At around 10.50 a.m., the wider Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) traded lower by 186.15 points or 1.74 per cent to 10,507.55 points.

The barometer 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex), which opened at 35,204.66 points, traded at 35,066.82 points — lower by 606.43 points or 1.70 per cent — from its previous session’s close of 35,673.25 points.

The BSE market breadth was bearish with 1,638 declines and only 384 advances.

“Indian markets have expectedly opened lower and are currently trading about 1.7 per cent lower,” HDFC Securities’ Retail Research Head Deepak Jasani told media.

“Despite the negative of exit polls (that impacts only India), our markets have fallen in line with the other global markets which were down due to resurgence of US-China friction and rise in crude prices.

“Actual election results will be known on Tuesday and if BJP does well compared to the expectations in exit polls then we could witness a minor relief rally. However the overhang of negativity may still persist.”

On Tuesday, the results of the state Assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chattishgarh, Telangana and Mizoram will be declared. These elections are considered as a crucial indicator of public mood before the Lok Sabha elections which are due in April-May 2019.

Besides the outcome of the state elections, a rise in crude oil prices after the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia decided to go in for a production cut of 1.2 million barrels per day from 2019 might hinder the markets’ attempts to arrest the fall.

Last Friday – the previous trade session – bargain hunting and lower crude oil prices lifted the key Indian equity market indices by around 1 per cent.

Consequently, the NSE Nifty50 had ended higher by 93 points or 0.87 per cent at 10,693.70 points, whereas the Sensex closed at 35,673.25 points, up 361.12 points or 1.02 per cent.

IANS

 The government on Friday appointed Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business (ISB) Associate Professor Krishnamurthy Subramanian as the Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) in the Finance Ministry for a period of three years.

Subramanian fills the position lying vacant for about six months since Arvind Subramanian left in June.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved the appointment of Krishnamurthy Subramanian, Executive Director (Centre For Analytical Finance), ISB, to the post of CEA, the Department of Personnel and Training said.

A PhD (Financial Economics) from the Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, and an alumnus of IIM Calcutta and IIT Kanpur, Subramanian is an expert in banking, corporate governance and economic policy.

His services on the expert committees on corporate governance for Securities and Exchange Board of India and on governance of banks for the Reserve Bank of India have established him as one of the chief architects of corporate governance and banking reforms in India, the ISB website says.

IANS

Though many Indian companies believe corporate fraud will rise in the future, there is growing optimism that recent regulatory actions and technology interventions will be able to tackle fraud, a survey said on Thursday.

“Almost 58 per cent of respondents polled in the survey believe that corporate fraud will increase in future but appeared optimistic about their organisations’ abilities to manage fraud,” Deloitte India said in its India Corporate Fraud Perception Survey.

This is the third edition of the survey carried out by Deloitte India. Findings are based on the responses from 439 leading CXOs and working professionals across all major sectors and organisations in the area of fraud risk management.

Interestingly, this is a sharp decline from its previous editions of the survey conducted in 2014 and 2016 where around 70 per cent of respondents felt corporate fraud was likely to prevail over the coming years.

“There is greater sensitivity to the reputational damage that corporate fraud, misconduct and non-compliance can cause, thanks to actions taken by regulatory bodies in the recent past,” Deloitte India Partner and Leader – Forensic, Financial Advisory Services Nikhil Bedi said.

Organisations are recognising that fraud is a result of internal systemic loopholes that can be plugged by stronger controls and limited overrides, he said.

The top three reasons for fraud were identified as lack of an efficient internal control or compliance system, diminishing ethical values and senior management override of controls.

Among the respondents who indicated having experienced fraud previously, said that the most common fraud and misconduct schemes included vendor, customer, business partner favouritism, inventory pilferage and diversion or theft of funds.

However, only 17 per cent of respondents indicated their organisation had experienced bribery and corruption in recent past and about 49 per cent of respondents indicated losing more than Rs 10 lakh in fraud losses in the recent past.

“Surprisingly, junior and middle management employees were identified as being most likely to commit fraud,” the survey said and added that fraud was detected primarily through whistleblower hotlines.

About 64 per cent of respondents, however, believe that suspicious behaviours in employees could be identified early on and dealt with to prevent fraud, it said.

Technology is increasingly being employed as a fraud control tool in organisations.

The most commonly used techniques and tools to prevent fraud were identified as reliance on control based reports generated by the ERP system (54 per cent), a risk based approach for analytics (44 per cent) and traditional statistical analysis and data mining tools (41 per cent), it said.

IANS

Facing intense scrutiny over the misuse of its platform globally during elections, Facebook has announced fresh steps to increase ad transparency and defend against foreign interference ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in India.

Now anyone who wants to run an ad in India related to politics will need to first confirm their identity and location, and give more details about who placed the ad, the social networking giant said in a statement late Thursday.

“We’re making big changes to the way we manage these ads on Facebook and Instagram. We’ve rolled out these changes in the US, Brazil and the UK, and next, we’re taking our first steps towards bringing transparency to ads related to politics in India,” said Sarah Clark Schiff, Product Manager at Facebook.

“This is key as we work hard to prevent abuse on Facebook ahead of India’s general elections next year.”

Facebook said the advertisers in India will have to comply to new rules starting from Friday.

“The identity and location confirmation will take a few weeks so advertisers can start that process by using their mobile phones or computer to submit proof of identity and location. This will help avoid delays when they run political ads next year,” informed Schiff.

Advertisers in India can download the latest Facebook app and visit Settings to get started.

Early 2019, Facebook would also start to show a disclaimer on all political ads that provides more information about who’s placing the ad, and an online searchable Ad Library for anyone to access.

“This is a library of all ads related to politics from a particular advertiser as well as information like the budget associated with an individual ad, a range of impressions, as well as the demographics of who saw the ad,” said Facebook.

At that time, the company would also begin to enforce the policy that requires all ads related to politics be run by an advertiser who’s completed the authorisations process and be labelled with the disclaimer.

“We will not require eligible news publishers to get authorised, and we won’t include their ads in the Ad Library,” Facebook added.

IANS

 The current level of trade between Pakistan and India is valued at a little over $2 billion, but it could be as high as $37 billion if both neighbours agree to tear down artificial barriers, the World Bank said in a report.

The report, “Glass Half Full: Promise of Regional Trade in South Asia”, was released here on Wednesday.

The bank also estimated Pakistan’s potential trade with South Asia at $39.7 billion against the actual current trade of $5.1 billion, Dawn online reported.

In order to achieve the real potential of regional trade, the bank suggested the removal of unnecessary non-tariff barriers within the region, increase people to people contacts, improve road and air connectivity and liberalize trade within South Asia.

Sanjay Kathuria, lead economist and author of the document, talking to the media at the World Bank office here said trust promotes trade, and trade fosters trust, interdependency and constituencies for peace.

In this context, he added, the opening of the Kartarpur Corridor by governments of Pakistan and India would help minimise trust deficit, the daily reported.

For realising the trade potential between Pakistan and India, Kathuria said the two countries should start with specific products facilitation in the first phase.

Calling connectivity a key enabler for robust regional cooperation in South Asia, Kathuria said Pakistan had least air connectivity with South Asian countries, especially India.

Pakistan has only six weekly flights each with India and Afghanistan, 10 each with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and only one with Nepal, but no flight with the Maldives and Bhutan.

Compared to this, India has 147 weekly flights with Sri Lanka, followed by 67 with Bangladesh, 32 with the Maldives, 71 with Nepal, 22 with Afghanistan and 23 with Bhutan.

Kathuria said reducing policy barriers, such as eliminating the restrictions on trade at the Wagah-Attari border, or aiming for seamless, electronic data interchange at border crossings, will be major steps towards reducing the high costs of trade between Pakistan and India.

He added that the costs of trade were much higher within South Asia compared to other regions.

World Bank Country Director for Pakistan Illango Patchamuthu said the country was sitting on a huge trade potential that remained largely untapped. “A favourable trading regime that reduces the high costs and removes barriers can boost investment opportunities that are critically required for accelerating growth in the country,” he said.

IANS

 Global software major Infosys on Thursday said it has opened its technology-cum-innovation hub at Hartford in Connecticut in the US to work for its clients in the region.

“The Hartford hub will help us to work closely with our clients in the region and serve as the global hub for our InsurTech and HealthTech efforts,” said the city-based IT firm in a statement here on Thursday.

As part of its May 2, 2017 strategic decision to hire 10,000 Americans by 2023 to bridge the IT skills gap in the US, the $11-billion firm has recruited about 7,000 Americans during the last 18 months.

The hub will have Living Labs for the future of insurance, healthcare and manufacturing. It will also help organisations learn through making, bring expertise in technologies like blockchain, extended reality and cognitive capabilities with design thinking, agile and DevOps.

As a methodology combining software development with IT operations, DevOps shortens the development life cycle while delivering features, fixes, and updates frequently in alignment with business objectives.

“The Hartford technology and innovation hub is an important milestone in our efforts to help American enterprises revitalise their core businesses,” said Infosys Chief Operating Officer U.B. Pravin Rao on the occasion.

IANS

Ottawa The Chinese embassy here has asked Canada to release Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei, who has been arrested in Vancouver at the request of US authorities.

Huawei on Thursday denied any wrongdoing by its corporate, Xinhua news agency reported.

Meng was provisionally detained by the Canadian authorities on behalf of the US, when she was transferring flight in Canada, according to a statement.

“The Chinese side firmly opposes and strongly protests over such kind of actions which seriously harms the human rights of the victim,” said a Chinese embassy statement.

“The Chinese side has lodged stern representations with the US and Canadian side, and urged them to immediately correct the wrongdoing and restore the personal freedom of Meng Wanzhou.

“We will closely follow the development of the issue and take all measures to resolutely protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens,” it added.

Huawei said the company has been provided very little information regarding the charges and is not aware of any wrongdoing by Meng.

Its statement said it complies with all applicable laws and regulations where it operates, including applicable export control and sanction laws and regulations of the UN, US and EU.

(IANS)