Wednesday, May 3, 2017

GST not to increase compliance burden, says Hasmukh Adhia

Hasmukh Adhia
GST Not to Increase Compliance Load

Hasmukj Adhia, Revenue Secretary has informed that the GST would not increase compliance load on assessees, regarding the same are misdirected. He had stated while addressing netizens on Facebook that several people are of the opinion that the implementation of GST would end in increase in compliance cost which is totally misplaced.

 While explaining the basis he had said that people need tto keep various law books for the purpose of filing return for different taxes such as VAT, Excise etc in the prevailing taxation system. He went on to added that with the roll out of GST, there would be individual tax as well as accounting for which it would be quite easy.

It could be done via an offline excel form provided by the GST Network and if one intends to utilise this form for the purpose of maintaining record on the purchase and sales, he could utilise this for filing return and hence compliance would be reduced. Adhia leading the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax – GST had mentioned that the finance ministry has been gearing up for its roll out and a training comprising of five days has been already given to the officers.

GST to Be Implemented in July

He has also informed that an IT training is in the process for them. The intention of the government is to implement the GST from July 1 and the GST Council controlled by Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley had settled four rate classifications of 5%, 12%, 18% and 28% on merging levies such as central excise, service tax and VAT.

 Addition would be done by calculating the overall incidence of present taxation - central plus state levies and thereafter placing the good or service in the tax bracket nearest to it. Adhia also informed that the indirect tax load would come down in the new GST system. He said that there would be several goods and service that would be out of GST and would therefore offer advantage to common man with regards to taxes and the roll out GST would be tax neutral or there could be decrease of tax burden.

Regarding traders, he also informed that the tax filing would begin from the starting point level of Rs 20 lakh where the registration below the inception limit would not be essential.

No Harmonized System of Nomenclature 

He also informed that under PAN within one state only one registration would be permitted. For one business, no other registration would be permitted though there would be a need of single registration with regards to supply of production for more than one state.

For the purpose of coding, he mentioned that no Harmonized System of Nomenclature – HSN code would be needed in case of business turnover of Rs 1.5 crore. The Revenue Secretary also mentioned that on petroleum as well as alcohol products under GST, would not be under the new tax system till the time the GST Council tends to impose a rate. He added that in the near future, if the state agrees then petrol, alcohol together with natural gas would be coming under GST.

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

The Benefits of a 360 Degree Employee Survey

Let's face it, you don't always like getting feedback about your job performance. Even when you know it's coming, it can be hard to face the truth from your fellow employees. Add the process of taking a survey and it becomes even less appealing. You would think that great leaders are the best people at getting feedback, but this is definitely not the case.

Think about who gets told the most what they are doing wrong at your company. If it's anything like most other businesses, the higher you go up the totem pole, the less feedback you are going to get. Thanks to all of this, a 360 degree employee survey can be a huge benefit to your company. Here are just a few of the reasons why.

  1.  Puts how over what - Just because an employee is getting all of their work on time doesn't necessarily make them a great employee. They need to be doing it in a way that benefits both them and the company without cutting corners or taking the easy way out. One thing this type of survey does is ensure that each employee is following protocol correctly in their daily tasks because an organized company is a healthy company. 


  2.  Accountability - Everyone at a company should be held accountable for their job in the same way. Just because you have been promoted and advanced to a higher level in the company doesn't mean that you aren't held to the same high standard that you were when you were new.
     


  3.   Performance Enhancing - One great thing that a survey does is remind people of what the job requires, especially helpful for long-time employees at the business that may have grown stagnant and bored with their job. The survey can act as a refresher course that inspires them and makes them perform better in the future.

     
  4.  Improves Intra-office Relationships - Employees that are open and honest with each other build trust and the best way to do this is through an open dialogue.
     

These are just some the reasons that a 360 employee survey can be beneficial to both a company's leadership and lower-level personnel. Those looking into having a survey done at their place of business should contact a professional consulting group like Key Group Consulting. They have the knowledge and facilities to complete a survey for a company of any size.

Monday, March 6, 2017

How Fintech Is Increasing Financial Inclusion after Demonetisation

Fintech
Prospect of Personal Finance – Cashless/Paperless/Presence-less

Prospect of personal finance and money is being fashioned into three consequences namely cashless, paperless and presence-less. Due to demonetisation together with succeeding steps involved ever since attempts have been done by the Indian government in making the economy more digitized and less cash-dependent and the banking system is made more accessible.

 Being digital seems to be the quickest means of speeding up financial presence, ensuring that more individuals are brought under the domain of formal banking scheme, Moreover they can also take advantage from the linked benefits of insurance as well as investment. India has been a home to almost 50 crore million people who do not seem to involve themselves in formal banking either through saving account or a cell phone based payment scheme.
Digital execution means having a bank account and hence the challenge here is how you could get more individuals in opening bank accounts to provide them with digital benefits together with subsidies. When the government had been directing the country towards a reduction in the use of hard cash, people would need to have an account with the bank, together with internet connection as well as cell phone to operate the digital transaction. It is here that the roles of Aadhaar as well as the cell phone tend to get crucial.

Pilot Project through RBI

From the population of about 125 crore, around 109 crore have enrolled for Aadhar with at least 100 crore having cell phone number which is quite a large number than those having bank accounts which according to estimates would be around 70 crore.

With the combination of Aadhar together with cell phone it is advantageous of bridging the gap by around 30 crore unbanked individuals.The government has aided a pilot project, through the RBI which would quicken the opening of fresh bank accounts with the support of cell phones and Aadhaar.

Limited- functionality bank accounts can be opened by the customers utilising this system without the need of the usual stress of visiting a branch and submission of documents in completing the KYC process. With the aid of the Aadhaar linked cell number, their KYC can be completed by authenticating themselves via an OTP and one can open an account digitally, instantly, cashless, paperless, without the need of being physically present.

Process – Convenient & Easy 

This tends to be convenient and easy for the individual to complete the process in the comfort of his home and it is also great for financial service providers since the cost of customer acquisition tends to get condensed by relying on digital platform which have the capabilities of processing millions of account opening application simultaneously.

This will progressively be the type of account opening developments in insurance as well as investment sectors. Insurance providers have already been depending on the OTP system in authenticating new accounts through Aadhaar.

This development would be enhancing with the increase in internet penetration together with the availability of cheap smart phones. India has about 35 crore people, presently who are linked to the internet which tends to double every two to three years on an average and it is expected that by 2020, there would be around 70 crore Indians utilising the internet.

Monday, February 6, 2017

That Chip on Your Credit Card May Not Be Stopping Fraud After All

Credit Card
It's a different world, where the science and technology have registered some of the most magnificent developments and innovations, which are potentially, help the society in having a massive growth in almost all sectors. The advent of the computer and the internet are one of the major inventions of the scientific development, which have changed the world to a great extent and today we can find some sort of touches in almost all products and issues in our existing society.

While the primary sectors are getting huge supports from the computer technology; the financial sector also has seen some of the major breakthroughs in the operation and management of the financial instruments and data. The Credit card is considered as one of the important issues in the financial market, which is now being used by millions of users, throughout the globe, for ease and comfort.

Today the credit card or debit card are using as the avenue of the cashless transaction, which safeguards the malpractices and helps in efficient accounting purpose. It can be noted that the safety of using the credit card is getting the highest priority and several measures are being taken to get the utmost safety of the cards, which are often found quite inadequate and vulnerable.

Credit Card and Relevant Issues

It is now known to everybody that the transaction through these cards are quite popular among the people, especially in the younger generation, and there are lots of chips and other devices are being used in order to check potential frauds. But at the same time; the fact is that there are some problems inherent in these chips, which are essentially meant for the safety of the credit cards. In the present scenario, the security chips are widely used in the financial world and it becomes a bit difficult for the criminals to counterfeit any debit or credit card.

But in recent days, the fraudulent activities are on a rise and various criminals are now pilfering cash from the plastic card by using some different mode of operation, which is considered as a great threat to the general people, who are using the credit card for convenience and safety. The new study, done by the renowned research organization, Javelin Strategy and Research, has made some unique revelations in the frauds of the credit card, which are as follows:

  • The most common identity fraud has been rose about 16% in the year 2016, which cost individual an all-time high of USD 16 billion; 
  • About 15.4 million people are affected by this kind of fraud, which is about 6.15% of the total consumers and a 2 million more from the earlier year i.e. 2015;
  • While the study was not been done exclusively for the credit cards, but the researchers made it a point that the majority of these identity thefts are predominantly linked with to the credit cards; 
  • This escalation in fraudulent activities, which is about USD 700 million more than the previous year, seems to be unspecified.

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Use These 12 Steps For Success With Your Regulation A+ Capital Raise

Capital Raise
In any business, the resource mobilization is a crucial and most important issue and people try their best to have some positive solution of this problem. The most natural form of resource mobilization is being done by the help of IPO, Venture capital or bank syndication, the Regulation A+ is helpful in getting the right kind of support in mobilizing the fund.

There are some steps to be followed for achieving Regulation A+, which are as follows:

  1.  It is always a tough issue in front of any business or project; as the seasoned investors are usually quite skeptical about investing in new ventures. Therefore, using the Regulation A+ could be the best option to get the required fund; 
  2.  The provision of dividend or royalty to the investor, broaden up the scope of getting fund from the targeted organization. Interest payments have been considered as a major issue in the Real Estate sector; 
  3.  These days, the crowdfunding is considered as one of the most encouraging and effective forms of resource mobilization and to get it done, one has to appoint a 360-degree marketing agency for this specialized job; 
  4.  It would be a great deal if a partnership can be cemented with a syndicate of broker-dealer, which could be helpful in getting an inroad into the world of potential investors at a single move; 
  5.  The required "Testing of water" has to be done for a short period of time, otherwise; the very essence of testing the market can be jeopardized, which will eventually not been helpful in getting the financial support from the investors; 
  6.  It is often found that some auditors delay the process by taking abnormal time to get things ready, therefore, the selection of the auditor has to be done with special care, which might be of great help for the funding; 
  7.  This can be noted that the SEC use to allow the company to go for "no-minimum" offerings, which is a great advantage for the company to get at least some forms of capital investment, which might not be possible if there is any minimum level being set;
  8.  It is always been suggested that the intended company should go for the offerings; once they have sufficient fund in hand to go forward, otherwise, the move can be disastrous and harmful; 
  9.  One should not be confined their approach in the domestic market, on the contrary, an international exposure is always a very good option for mobilizing the fund and may at a lower financial cost; 
  10.  The complex terms and conditions are usually being avoided by any potential investors, therefore a simplistic and transparent approach in this regard, is always helpful in getting the support from the investors; 
  11.  The important part of the Reg A+ is the minimum level of opportunity that is being offered to the potential investors, which any investor from any part of the globe to invest, as per the capability, to the project or business; 
  12.  Try the tier 2 of Reg A+, which provides the opportunity to raise from Zero to $50 million per year for the company.