Equalisation levy on e-commerce firms: Govt says tax in line with WTO rules

It emphasised that the levy was applicable prospectively, and could not be said to have 'extra-territorial' application.

India has jumped to defend the imposition of Google Tax — a 2 per cent equalisation levy on e-commerce operators — calling it non-discriminatory in nature.

In its comment on the Section 301 probe launched by the US last month, the government said it was fully consistent with World Trade Organization norms and international taxation agreements.

It emphasised that the levy was applicable prospectively, and could not be said to have ‘extra-territorial’ application.

“The equalisation levy does not discriminate against non-resident e-commerce operators. The underlying policy objective and application of India’s equalisation levy is to ensure a neutral and equitable taxation is applicable to e-commerce operators that are resident in India, or have physical presence in India, and those not resident in India,” New Delhi said in its public comment.

Further, it said that far from targeting any US entity, the purpose was to ensure fairness, healthy competition, and to exercise the ability of governments to tax businesses having a nexus with the Indian market through digital operations.

“It does not discriminate against firms based in the US, as it applies equally to all non-resident e-commerce operators not having a permanent establishment in India, irrespective of the origin,” it added.

New Delhi highlighted that the threshold application for the levy — which is annual revenues in excess of Rs 20 million (which the USTR has noted to be approximately $267,000) — is low, aimed at exempting very small e-commerce operators globally.

The deadline for filing the equalisation levy, for the first quarter, was July 7.

India going cashless story could have a happier ending in Modi's 2nd term

India going cashless will be as much a story of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's second term as it was of his first.

Business Standard : India aims to curb cash – but this time it wants to do it properly.

A cashless society wasn’t the original goal of the country’s draconian currency ban in November 2016. But when an acute shortage of banknotes gave a fillip to digital wallets, that purpose was added as an afterthought to justify an act of farcical state overreach.

The real innovation in mobile payments in India began a few months prior to the cash ban. It’s called a unified payment interface, or UPI. The name is clunky, but the idea is simple. One smartphone owner who’s a customer of Bank A can request a payment from, or initiate a payment to, another owner who has an account with Bank B. Neither party needs to know anything more than each other’s mobile number or a virtual ID. They don’t even need to use the same mobile app to transact.

In this, India was ahead of even Asian money centers like Singapore and Hong Kong.

With more than 140 Indian banks sharing the interface, and Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Facebook Inc.’s WhatsApp offering instantaneous payment services on it, UPI has become a keenly watched experiment. By the looks of it, things are going well: From nothing to 800 million monthly transactions in less than three years, India’s UPI has taken off. Growing smartphone use and crashing data costs have helped immensely.

Now a committee set up by the central bank under Nandan Nilekani, the technology entrepreneur best known for creating the world’s largest repository of citizens’ biometric data, wants to expand the platform to foreign-currency remittances by the non-resident Indian diaspora as well as to settle residents’ payments when they travel overseas. “This is like Chinese users being able to use WeChat in many jurisdictions,” Nilekani’s panel said in its report released this week.

Assuming the suggestion gets implemented, India will have its own WeChat Pay. But since it’s an open-source technology, there won’t be one Tencent Holdings Ltd. owning it. Google and WhatsApp will fight for market share. So will PhonePe, now owned by Walmart Inc. as well as new entrant Amazon Pay, which hasn’t made much of a dent globally into PayPal’s dominance of e-commerce. Indian banks that run their own UPI services, as well as Indian tycoon Mukesh Ambani’s JioMoney, will be in the race, together with Paytm, a popular digital wallet.

Who will succeed in this crowded field? News reports give a lead to Google, though that could change as people-to-merchant payments start to dominate people-to-people transactions.

Narendra Modi's maiden Maldives trip signals support for Solih govt

The Saturday visit - the first by an Indian head of state since 2011 - is expected to reset strained ties with Maldives.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will make his first-ever visit to the tropical island nation of Maldives for the swearing-in of its new president amid ongoing rivalry between New Delhi and Beijing for influence in the Indian Ocean.

The Saturday visit — the first by an Indian head of state since 2011 — is expected to reset strained ties with Maldives as Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, a veteran opposition politician, takes over after successfully ousting former pro-China president Abdulla Yameen.

Solih’s new government is expected to end political uncertainty in the South Asian archipelago nation that preceded a tense election this September. Former president Yameen had locked away opposition figures and judges amid international condemnation, including unusually strident comments from India.

Yameen had also taken numerous loans from China that pushed the country into debt, like other countries in the region including Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Solih’s Maldivian Democratic Party had taken an anti-China stance.

“India is in a position to gain some lost ground in Maldives,” said K Yhome, who specialises in India’s neighborhood at the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation. “The fact that Prime Minister Modi has agreed to attend the swearing-in sends a message that India supports the new government. Though it remains to be seen how Solih continues his posturing” after elections.

Solih’s triumph in the Maldives contrasts with political turmoil in Sri Lanka, where the president has tried to unilaterally sack his prime minister and appoint the country’s former pro-China strongman leader Mahinda Rajapaksa in his place. That move, which appears uncertain amid a parliamentary vote and political upheaval earlier this week, was similarly condemned by nations including the US.

Modi’s trip comes amid a broader push by the US, India, Japan and Australia — which have struck a new partnership known as the Quad — to counter China’s cash infrastructure lending in the region.

Business Standard

On Independence Day, PM announces roll-out of Ayushman Bharat on 25 Sept

While six to seven states started the pilot for Ayushman on Wednesday itself soon after the PM's announcement, a total of 14 are ready to test out the software over the next one month or so.

Independence Day 2018 : Ayushman Bharat, or Modicare, the Centre’s mega health insurance scheme for the underprivileged, will be formally launched across the country on September 25 — the birth anniversary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya. Making the announcement in his Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced Ayushman Bharat as Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Abhiyan (Prajaa).

The Ayushman team will need to ensure foolproof technology network over the next 40 days to connect the many pieces in the health care universe, including hospitals, beneficiaries and common service centres. It’s a challenge to meet the deadline, an official said.

But the directions from the highest authority are clear. As the PM said in his speech, testing of the technology backbone will begin now and go on till the countrywide launch. The focus on technology is extremely high in this case so that GST-like software glitches don’t repeat, according to a source. The software testing and the pilots will also have to take into account the model that a state chooses — insurance or trust or mix format. Most states are opting for the trust model, but there are some favouring the other two as well.

While six to seven states started the pilot for Ayushman on Wednesday itself soon after the PM’s announcement, a total of 14 are ready to test out the software over the next one month or so ahead of the countrywide launch on September 25, an official said. More states are expected to join the pilot in the run up to the mega launch.

‘’We will like all states to launch by September 25 and all of them to test the software in real time,’’ an official said. Therefore, all states will have a pilot or a trial run in some form at some stage before September 25, he added.

To begin with, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Chattisgarh, Gujarat and a few others have started the pilot. ‘’The beneficiary base is ready in these states. The socio-economic caste census (SECC) has been used to identify the beneficiaries,’’ the official quoted above said.

It is learnt that 47 per cent of the hospitals that have empanelled are from the private sector. Around 7,000 hospitals are already on board. While rates for procedures have been fixed, a committee has been set up to revise the rates of certain procedures like C-section deliveries. Many hospitals have been unhappy about some of the package rates. The Ayushman Bharat team is working with reputed doctors to fine-tune the scheme.

Ayushman Bharat National Health Protection Scheme will provide cashless insurance to poor families up to Rs 500,000. The scheme covers 1,354 medical and surgical packages under 25 specialties. Benefits include hospitalisation expenses in general ward, consultation fees, equipment and procedure charges and cost of consumables as well as tests, food for patients, pre-and post-hospitalisation. For multiple surgeries, the highest package rate will be waived for the first treatment, while there will be a 50 per cent and 25 per cent subsidy for second and third treatment.

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Amit Shah bets on UP for Modi govt's return in 2019 Lok Sabha polls

In the 2014 elections, the BJP won 71 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP on its way to secure a comfortable majority in Parliament. Its ally, Apna Dal, won two seats in the politically crucial state.

With the 2019 Lok Sabha election less than a year away, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah bet on Uttar Pradesh (UP) for the party repeating its 2014 performance and returning to power at the Centre.

Addressing a public meeting at Chandauli district in eastern UP, on Sunday, Shah recalled that in run up to the 2014 poll, he had said the path to victory in Lok Sabha poll would traverse through UP.

“I am repeating the same today for the 2019 Lok Sabha poll that UP would play a key role in forming the next government at the Centre and re-electing the Narendra Modi government,” he added.

In 2014, the BJP had won 71 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP, ally Apna Dal won two. Shah said he was confident the tally would rise to 74.

On the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) combine, Shah said even if the Rahul Gandhi-led Congress joined hands with them, the BJP would emerge victorious.

He said the Modi government had given over Rs 8 trillion to UP, compared to Rs 3.3 trillion by the Manmohan Singh government during 2004-2014, even though the state had friendly regimes of the SP or BSP.

“The BJP government has given projects like the Bundelkhand Defence Corridor and Purvanchal Expressway to the state for faster socio-economic development,” he said. The Expressway would transform the state's economic landscape in future, he said.

Shah was in Chandauli district to attend a programme to rename Mughalsarai railway junction after Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyay. The function was attended by Railways Minister Piyush Goyal, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and other seniors.

Amit Shah mounted attack on Gandhi over National Register of Citizens (NRC) controversy in Assam, saying he had repeatedly asked the Congress president to clarify his stand but there was no response. 

He flayed opposition parties for allegedly siding with illegal Bangladeshi migrants, who, according to the BJP chief, would be identified and evicted. In his address, Goyal said under the Modi regime, the railways had been allocating development projects worth Rs 55 billion every year to UP against Rs 10-11 billion during the previous Congress-led government. “The Dedicated Freight Corridor which is being developed would touch most of the regions in UP and contribute to economic development,” he said.

“UP is the first state in the country to facilitate Direct Benefit Transfer of about Rs 1 trillion, against the earlier regime that was marked with anarchy, crime, riots, caste-based politics and nepotism,” he said.

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