QBiz: GST Council Extends Return Filing Deadline to 30 Aug & More

Here are the top business stories.

35th GST Council Meeting held on Friday, 21 June.

(Photo: PTI)

1. GST Council Extends Return Filing Deadline to August 30; Other Highlights from GST Council Meeting

The GST Council has extended the deadline for GST return filing by one month to Aug 30 as against the earlier date of 30 June. The council has also approved penalty for not paying profiteering charges, in its 35th meeting held today in the national capital under the chairmanship of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

If the profiteered amount is not paid up to 30 days of order then there will be a penalty of 10 per cent on the erring company. The new GST return filing system will be applicable from 1 Jan 2020. Only one GST return per year from 2020, said Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan.

(Source: Financial Express)

2. Sugar Mills Owe Rs 18,958 CR to Cane Farmers; UP Units Top with Dues of over Rs 11,000 CR

Sugarcane arrears to farmers touched nearly ₹19,000 crore as on June 18 of the ongoing marketing year ending September with maximum amount owed by mills in Uttar Pradesh, according to government data.

Mills in Uttar Pradesh owe the maximum amount at ₹11,082 crore, followed by Karnataka (₹1,704 crore) and Maharashtra (₹1,338 crore).

(Source: Business Line)

3. Enforcement Directorate Rejects Mehul Choksi's Offer to Join Probe in Antigua

The Enforcement Directorate has rejected jeweller Mehul Choksi’s offer to join investigation into the alleged fraud he and his nephew Nirav Modi caused to Punjab National Bank in Antigua, and requested the Bombay High Court to direct Choksi to return to India “at the earliest”.

In a counter affidavit submitted before the High Court earlier this week, ED has termed as “erroneous, misleading and wrong” an affidavit submitted by Choksi claiming he is unable to return to India due to persistent health problems.

(Source: The Economic Times)

4. IL&FS Scam: Auditors Defend Themselves, Question Justification for Ban

Auditors Deloitte Haskins & Sells and the KPMG affiliate BSR Associates, who are under fire for their alleged lapse in the IL&FS scam, Friday questioned the justification for the corporate affairs ministry's demand to seek a five-year ban on them.

The counsel for the auditors argued that they are neither related to the management of any IL&FS company nor are involved with the day-to-day management of the crippled group that owes close to Rs 1 lakh to the system.

(Source: The Economic Times)

5. Walmart-Bharti JV Obtained Licences by Making Improper Payments: US SEC

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission has observed that Walmart’s earlier joint venture retail operations in India, with Bharti Enterprises, routed improper payments to government officials through third-party intermediaries to obtain store operating permits and licences between 2009 and 2011.

These improper payments were then recorded in the India joint venture’s books as “misc fees”, “miscellaneous”, “professional fees”, “incidental”, and “government fee”.

(Source: Business Line)

6. Visa Curbs Hit Business of US It Staffing Cos Run by Indians

IT services, staffing and consulting firms in the United States — largely owned by Indians — are also finding business models under threat due to the increased denial rates for H-1B visas.

“Our growth has been hampered because of the uncertainty around the H-1B visas,” said Kishore Khandavalli, CEO of Seven-Tablets, a custom software development firm. “In some instances, companies have spent $6,000 to apply for a visa, and instead of three years, they’ve been granted a visa for one day.”

(Source: The Economic Times)

7.Budget 2019: States Set to Lose Rs 45,000 Crore Share in Corporate Tax as Centre Leans on Surcharges, Cess

State governments are set to lose Rs 45,000 crore in their share in the corporate tax to be collected by the Union government in 2019-20. Successive central governments have leaned on surcharges and cesses to shore up their revenues.

However, this practice is unfair to state governments as surcharges and cesses are not considered part of the divisible pool and consequently not shared with the state governments as per the formula devised by the finance commission.

(Source: Financial Times)

8. NCLT Okays Common Resolution Plan for 3 Reliance Group Firms

The NCLT on Friday approved the appointment of a common resolution professional as part of the corporate insolvency resolution proceedings against Reliance Communications, Reliance Infratel and Reliance Telecom.

According to the proceedings, the majority of the committee of creditors across the three companies independently voted to appoint Anish Niranjan Nanavati as RP to replace the existing interim resolution professionals.

(Source: Financial Express)

9. Transition to BS-Vi Poses Challenges for Auto Industry: TVS

The transition to BS-VI emission norms from BS-IV will pose challenges for the automobile industry with uncertainty of demand expected to be high in the second half of 2019-20, according to TVS Motor Co.

The Chennai-based company also said the growth in two-wheeler industry during 2019-20 is expected to be around 6-8 per cent over 2018-19 while stressing that any negative deviation from normal monsoon is a cause for concern.

(Source: Business Line)