Economy

Four US law firms have started investigating against Information Technology (IT) company Infosys. They have started investigating these potential claims by Infosys investors that whether the company or its officials and directors have violated federal security rules?

This investigation started in a time when Infosys Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Vishal Sikka resigned from his post just days due to allegations of disturbances in the company's operations.

Law enforcement companies are Bronstine, Gavierz & Grossman, Rosen Law Firm, Pomerantz Law Firm and Goldberg Law PC.

Rosen said in a statement that he is investigating possible security claims from Infosys shareholders. It is alleged that Infosys gave incorrect business information to investors.

Explain that the global software company Infosys has announced a buyback of 11.3 crore shares on Saturday, on the face value of Rs 5, at the rate of Rs 1,150 per share.

Infosys said in a regulatory report filed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, "The Board of Directors has approved the buyback proposal of shareholders of 11.3 crore shares of face value of Rs. 1,150 per share, which will be Rs 13,000 crore."

This offer is 20.1% of total paid up capital and free reserve, which is 11.3 crore shares or 4.92% of total shares. Infosys has fixed a buyback price of Rs 1,150, which closed on Friday at 923.10 per share after the resignation of Sikka. After CEO's resignation, Infosys shares fell 9.6 percent.

The company had closed its shares on August 16 for trading, as the decision to buyback was to be decided in the board meeting. Infosys shares will open on August 22.

In the buyback offer, other expenses, including transfer of shares, GST, stamp duty, filing fee, advisory fees, brokerage, expenditure on public declaration, printing and sending expenses are not included. In this buyback price, the average market value of last three months has been given 19 percent premium.

In the regulatory report, the company said, "This buyback is under the approval of shareholders, which will be decided soon through voting."

The Board has constituted a buyback committee in which co-chairman Ravi Venkatesan, Vishal Sikka, interim CEO UB Praveen Rao, chief financial officer (CFO) MD Ranganath, Deputy CFO Jayesh Sangrakaja, consultant Inderpreet Sahni and company secretary A G S Manikantha is included.

Indian businessmen faced difficulties on Saturday, when the website that files the goods and services tax (GST) stopped working one day before the last day of filing a GST return.

ASSOCHAM's chairman (Special Task Force on GST) Pratik Jain told IANS: "Since 12 noon, the GST website was intermittent. This caused a lot of confusion among traders. Many of our clients said that they could not file returns because of this disturbance. If such a disturbance continues then the government should increase the date of filing of GST returns for the next few days."

The date of filing of GSTR-3B is from July to August 20, which includes filing of traffic and credit / payment figures for goods.

"The service is not available on August 19 from 2 a.m. to 2.45 hrs, please come later" the notice said on the GST website said.

The last date for filing returns for the month of August is September 20. By the late evening on Saturday, the government has given the last date of filing the GST return to five days, by 25 August, after the hassles.

Pune's Chartered Accountant Pritam Mahure told IANS: "The taxpayer is in tension with this situation. Just two weeks ago GSTR-3B was made available for form filing. According to the expected, this would be the first GST filed by taxpayers and this week the taxpayers started filing GSTR-3B."

Jigar Doshi, partner of SKP Business Consulting, told: "If the system is sitting in file for Summary Returns, then the situation seems quite scary in the next few months because we do not know what will happen at that time, whereas taxpayers Uploading Invoice, detailed GST return will be filed.

The last date for filing a summary return for the month of August is fixed on September 20, which the government has extended on Saturday for the next 5 days.

Apart from GSTR 3B, taxpayers are required to make three forms and files, including GSTR-1, GSTR-2 and GSTR-3. For July, these three phases are to be filed between September 1 to September 5, September 6 to September 19 and September 11 to September 15.

Economist Dr Arvind Panagariya resigned from the post of Vice-Chairman of the NITI Aayog on Tuesday (August 1). After this resignation, Arvind will take charge of the post of Vice-Chairman till August 31 and then the commission will have to appoint the second Vice-Chairman.

Arvind will go to America after being free from the works of the NITI Aayog, where he will teach economics to students at Columbia University. Arvind will join university on September 5 i.e. on teacher's day.

According to media reports, Arvind has given the information of his resignation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Right now, his resignation has not been accepted because Modi has gone on tour in flood prone areas and after coming back from there, he will be consulted to Arvind's resignation and appoint a new Vice-Chairman.

Let us know that Arvind Panagarhia is one of the world's most experienced economists. According to media reports, Arvind was also a professor of Columbia University, since no teacher is retired from this university, so he was sent a notice to hold the post again by the university. Arvind was asked in this notice whether he would come back and teach the students or not because his non-existence is affecting the students' education.

Sources say that Arvind's most interest is in teaching the children and the reason behind resigning is that they will go back to the university and teach economics to the students.

Prior to this, Arvind Panagariya was also the Chief Economist of Asian Development Bank and Professor and Co-Director of the University of Maryland.

Arvind had a PhD in Economics from Princeton University. They have worked on different positions in World Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization and UNCTAD. Arvind has written about 10 books and has cured. He wrote his last book, 'India: The Emerging Giant', which was published in 2008 at Oxford University.

India's Narendra Modi government has shocked the small investors in India. The government has reduced the interest paid on public provident fund (PPF) accounts, Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) and National Savings Certificate (NSC) under the Small Savings Scheme. On Friday (June 30th) the government has cut the 10 basis points interest rate on these small investments.

Now, PPF and NSC will get 7.8 percent interest, while KVP will get 7.5 percent interest. Apart from these, the interest rates of Senior Citizens Savings Schemes and Sukanya Samridhi Yojana have also been revised. According to the news of the Economic Times, it has been kept at 8.3 percent. The new rates will be applicable from July 1.

Earlier, 7.9 percent on NSC and PPF accounts and 7.6 percent interest on the Kisan Vikas Patra was being given. Earlier, the Modi government's ambitious Sukanya Samridhi Yojana was being given 8.4 percent interest. Earlier, on March 31, interest rates had also been cut. At that time, interest rates were cut by 0.1 percent.

Significantly, PPF is considered to be the safest way to save tax. The interest rate in this scheme determines the government, which changes every year. At present, PPF received interest at an annual rate of 7.9 percent. Any person can open a PPF account for 15 years in any national bank, private bank or post office. It can deposit minimum 500 to 1.5 million rupees annually. Loan may be taken on this amount from the third year. The interest on PPF also does not seem to be taxed. After six years of opening the account, you can withdraw a fixed amount.

In India, the Central Government has approved the recommendations related to allowances by the Seventh Pay Commission. This will benefit about 47 lakh central employees. New allowances and pension will be applicable from 1 July 2017.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced this in the press conference on Wednesday. New allowances and pension will have an additional expenditure of about 30 thousand crores on the government. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who returned from a trip to the three countries, took this decision in the Cabinet meeting.

The Government has approved the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission with 34 revisions. He said, "The recommendations of the pay commission were in favour of the employees, accepting them and reforming them."

The Centre has decided to give 24 percent, 16 percent and 8 percent of the new basic pay as HRA. Based on the city, the percentage of HRA will be fixed. Since the minimum wage is Rs 18,000, on the basis of the city, there will be no HRA less than 5400, 3600 and 1800 rupees. This will benefit about 7.5 lakh employees.

However, central employees were demanding that 30 percent, 24 percent and 16 percent HRA be given.

Apart from this, the allowances which the cabinet has decided on, are as follows:

Siachen Alliance
According to the finance ministry, the Siachen allowance
has been increased from 14 thousand rupees per month to 30 thousand rupees per month for the army personnel. Whereas the allowance for army officers has been increased from Rs 21 thousand to 42 thousand 500 rupees every month.

For nurses and staff of ministry's hospitals
The central government has increased nursing allowance, now the nursing allowance has increased from Rs 4800 to Rs 7200 per month. Operation Theater Allowance has been raised from Rs. 360 per month to Rs. 540. Apart from this, the Patient Care Allowance has been increased from Rs 2070-2100 per month to Rs 4100-5300 per month.

For pensioners
The permanent medical allowance for pensioners have been increased from Rs. 500 per month to Rs.1000. Apart from this, the Constant Attendance Allowance has been increased from Rs. 4500 per month to Rs. 6750 on full disability.

Due to fall in food prices, inflation has been declining in the month of May. Inflation based on the retail or Consumer Price Index (CPI) dropped to 2.18 percent in May from 5.76 percent in the same month last year.

According to the official data released on Monday, inflation was 2.99 percent in April. In the Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) deflation was observed in May and it was negative at 1.05%, while in the same period of 2016, it was 7.45%.

The main reason for the decline is the fall in prices of pulses, cereals and spoilage items. In May, prices of vegetables declined by 13.44 per cent compared to the same period last year, pulses declined sharply by 19.44 per cent. In the month under review, prices of food items and beverages fell 0.22 percent compared to the same period last year.

In the non-food category, the fuel and power sector has the highest inflation rate of 5.46 percent. Growth of rural CPI rose to 2.30 percent in May, while in urban areas retail inflation was 2.13 percent. This is the biggest drop in inflation rate since the year 2012.

In this regard, last week, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) did not make any major changes in its second bi-monthly monetary policy review of FY 2017-18 and maintained it at 6.25 per cent.

Now, after the new inflation data, the pressure on the RBI to reduce interest rates can be increased. If the Reserve Bank lowers the interest rate, than the banks will get more cash from the RBI and due to this, the customers can also get cheap loans.

Concerned over the debt waiver by the state governments, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Wednesday that such a move would increase the risk of financial losses and inflationary hikes.

RBI governor Urjit Patel told reporters, "It is said in the proposal of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) that if the loans of farmers were waived largely, it would increase the financial losses.

He said that till the state's budget does not have the capability to bear financial losses, then farmers should refrain from waiving the debt. He said that this could reduce the financial benefits of the last 2-3 years.

He also said that due to the increase in fiscal deficit, inflation will start rising soon. Patel said that earlier it has been seen that the inflation has increased due to forgiveness of the farmers.

He said, "Therefore, we should take very cautious steps before the situation gets out of control."

Following Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has also announced the largest agricultural debt waiver in the history of the state.

On the other hand, the monetary policy committee of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) rejected the request to discuss the finance ministry before the policy review. RBI Governor Urjit Patel disclosed this on Wednesday. While stating the expectation of the government, RBI has kept the chief interest rate at 6.25 per cent in the fourth monetary policy review continuously.

Patel, while announcing the second bimonthly monetary policy review of the current financial year, told reporters, "As far as the finance ministry issues to the MPC members the invitation given for the meeting. So all members of the MPC rejected the request of the Finance Ministry."

However, Patel did not tell when the invitation was received from the Finance Ministry. Patel was asked whether the Ministry had attacked the independence and autonomy of the RBI. He said, the committee did not accept this invitation. Six-member MPC has started deciding on rates from October last year. This is for the first time that unanimous decision has not been taken between the members. Five members voted in favor of keeping rates and one member voted against it. Three of the six MPC members have been nominated by the government, while three members belong to the RBI.

The people, who are facing the price of inflation in India, have again shocked the prices of petrol and diesel.

In India, on Wednesday (May 31), the decision to increase prices of petrol and diesel was taken.

Prices of petrol has been increased by Rs 1.23 per litre and diesel prices have been increased by Rs 0.89 per litre.

Increased prices have come into effect since midnight.

Prior to this, on May 16, prices of fuel were reviewed. At this time the prices of petrol and diesel were cut. Petrol price was reduced by Rs 2.16 per litre and diesel by Rs 2.10 per litre.

The condition of industrialist Anil Ambani-led Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Enterprises is worse than the credit rating agencies' estimates. More than 10 local banks have outstanding loan on Reliance Communications.

Many banks have registered Reliance Loan as a Special Mention Account (SMA) in their asset book. SMA loans are those in which the borrower has not paid interest. If these loans are not paid for 30 days from the due date, then it is put into SMA 1 and SMA 2 category after 60 days.

If the balance is not returned to the bank even after 90 days, then it is put in non-performing asset (NPA).

According to a bank official, Business News, Economic Times, said so far 10 banks of the country have put loans in SMA 1 and SMA 2. Another said that after one week some banks would have to put this loan in NPA.

After bad rating given by Care and ICRA, RCom's shares have fallen to 20 percent.

Although rating agencies are not aware of SMA loans because they share the bank with each other or with the Reserve Bank.

Care said in its report that Reliance Communication has fallen due to the influence of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio.

According to the report, the company's spokesperson of RCOM's loan default said, "After the agreement with Aircel and Brookfield, RCOM asked the banks to repay the debt of Rs 25,000 crore or before 30 September 2017. Only if all the scheduled payments will come in, the company will also make pre-payment of the loan.

RCom had suffered a loss of 966 crores in the January-March quarter, which was its second consecutive quarterly loss. Fiscal year 2017 also remained the first year of loss for RCom.

On March 31, RCom owed 42,000 crores which he wants to reduce after dealing with Aircel and Brookfield. RCom is selling 51% of its tower unit Reliance Infratel to these companies for 11 thousand crore rupees. Apart from the hard competition, the fourth quarter earning has also been affected due to cost escalation.

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council concluded its latest round of meetings on Friday with the decision to apply the same four tax rate slabs for services as for goods, exempting, however, healthcare and educational services from the purview of the GST.

Speaking to reporters in Srinagar following the meeting, Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac said that no consensus could be reached on the rate to apply on gold, and that the next meeting of the GST Council has been fixed for June 4.

"We could not come to a decision in this meeting on the rate to apply on gold," Issac said.

"Services will have the same four multi-slab structure of tax rates as for goods," he said.

The council on Thursday approved the tax rates for 1,211 items, of which 7 per cent will be exempted, 14 per cent will be in the 5 per cent slab, 17 per cent in the 12 per cent category, 43 per cent in the 18 per cent segment, while 19 per cent of goods will go into the top tax bracket of 28 per cent.

"Services, which are at currently taxed 15 per cent will be fitted into the 18 per cent bracket. However, services will get the benefit of input tax credit for the goods used, so real incidence of taxation will be lower than the headline rate," Isaac added.

He said that while "luxury services" would attract the highest rate of 28 per cent, health and education services would be exempt categories.

"Telecom services would continue to be taxed at the same rates of the past. Not in a single case has there been an increase in taxes from before," he added.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told the media in Srinagar on Thursday, after the first day of the council meeting, that "there is no increase in taxes of the items considered today. In fact, for many of them, taxes have come down."

An overwhelming 81 per cent of items will attract tax of 18 per cent or below. Only 19 per cent of items will be taxed at the highest rate of 28 per cent.

Jaitley said that while the overall basket of taxes will see a reduction, he hoped for greater tax buoyancy because of greater efficiency and less tax evasion.

"On many commodities there would be reduction because of the cascading effect, but we are banking on the hope that because of a better tax system and less evasion there would be tax buoyancy," he said.

In a major measure of support to industry, the rate for capital goods, as well as industrial and intermediate items have been set at 18 per cent.

Commenting on the GST Council's deliberations, a senior tax analyst said the rates announced were along expected lines.

"However, it seems a lot of work is yet to be done. Exemptions and issues related to reverse charge mechanism have not been finalised, and looks doubtful that it will be done in a day," said Taxmann.com Senior Consultant V.S Datey.

"Thus the chances of introducing GST by July 1 appears doubtful," he added.

"Companies would now quickly want to compute/re-compute the impact of rate change, if any, on their products and consequential change in their related margins," Partner in international accounting firm KPMG in India Harpreet Singh said in a statement here.