In the backdrop of banking sector reforms in India, merger of few banks were announced. After this massive amalgamation, the total number of Public Sector Banks (PSBs) in India has come down from 27 banks in 2017 to 12 in 2021. But its still 10 too many to remember!. Also, for a layman. its a lot of confusion on which bank merged with which. Here is a snap shot of the Major PSU Banks as on date.
CA Harikrishna Puranik
Recently the GoI has extended various cut off dates for claiming incentives such as SEIS/MEIS. This may be your chance to encash such benefit, adding to your arsenal in fighting the CoVid Crisis.
Govt Of India, in order to facilitate and encourage the industry towards achieving positive Current Account Deficit, and level the playing field for Indian Exporters to compete in the global Market, announces various schemes for exporters of good and services.
Major Schemes are:
1 Duty Exemption Schemes (such as AA and DFIA)
2 Duty Remission Schemes (Currently Duty Drawback scheme)
3 Incentive schemes such as MEIS/SEIS.
Though there are lot many articles about incentive schemes, they mainly concentrate at conventional schemes such as Drawbacks (DBK) and Advance Authorisation (AA). In the current article, we will try to explain in simple terms, the concept and procedure of benefitting from SEIS Schemes.
Background:
Central government notified a scheme called Service Exports from India Scheme (“SEIS”) under Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20 (“FTP”). This scheme replaced its predecessor ‘Served From India Scheme (“SFIS”) under which the benefit was not available for foreign brand of the Indian companies. Exporters of the notified services will be awarded an incentive ranging from 3-7% of your Net Foreign Exchange Earning. These incentives are in the form of Duty Credit Scrips, which can be used for payment of import duties such as BCD. Don’t throw down the hat yet, saying we don’t have any imports, to use these duty scrips. The scrips are transferable and are usually purchased in the market at a marginal discount. So you can still pocket the remaining cash.
Pre-requisites:
| Sl. No. | Name of the Service | Percent of incentive |
| Professional services | ||
| a. | Legal Services | 7 |
| b. | Accounting, auditing and book-keeping services | 7 |
| c. | Taxation services | 7 |
| d. | Architectural services | 7 |
| e. | Engineering services | 7 |
| f. | Integrated engineering services | 7 |
| g | Urban planning and landscape architectural services | 7 |
| h | Medical and dental services | 7 |
| I. | Veterinary services | 7 |
| j | Services provided by midwives, nurses, physiotherapists, and paramedical personnel | 7 |
| Research development services | ||
| a. | R&D services on natural sciences | 7 |
| b. | R&D services on social sciences and humanities | 7 |
| c. | Interdisciplinary R&D services | 7 |
| Rental/Leasing services without operators | ||
| a. | Relating to ships | 7 |
| b. | Relating to aircraft | 7 |
| C | Relating to other transport equipment | 7 |
| d. | Relating to other machinery and equipment | 7 |
| Other business services | ||
| a. | Advertising services | 5 |
| b. | Market research and public opinion polling services | 5 |
| c. | Management consulting service | 5 |
| d. | Services related to management consulting | 5 |
| e. | Technical testing and analysis services | 5 |
| f. | Services incidental to agricultural, hunting and Forestry | 5 |
| g. | Services incidental to fishing | 5 |
| h. | Services incidental | 5 |
| I. | Services incidental to manufacturing | 5 |
| J. | Services incidental to energy distribution | 5 |
| k. | Placement and supply services of personnel | 5 |
| l | Investigation and security | 5 |
| m. | Related scientific and technical consulting Services | 5 |
| n | Maintenance and repair of equipment (not 8861-8866 including maritime vessels, aircraft or other transport equipment) | 5 |
| o. | Building cleaning services | 5 |
| P | Photographic services | 5 |
| q | Packaging services | 5 |
| r. | Printing, publishing | 5 |
| s. | Convention services | 5 |
| Audio-visual services | ||
| a. | Motion picture and video tape production and distribution service | 7 |
| b. | Motion picture projection service | 7 |
| c. | Radio and television services | 7 |
| d. | Radio and television transmission services | 7 |
| e | Sound recording. | 7 |
| General construction work for building | 7 | |
| General construction work for civil engineering | 7 | |
| Installation and assembly work | 7 | |
| Building completion and finishing work | 7 | |
| Primary education services | 7 | |
| Secondary education services | 7 | |
| Higher education services | 7 | |
| Adult education | 7 | |
| Sewage services | 7 | |
| Refuse disposal services | 7 | |
| Sanitation and similar services | 7 | |
| Hospital services | 7 | |
| 7 | TOURISM AND TRAVEL-RELATED SERVICES | |
| A. Hotels and Restaurants (including catering) | ||
| a. | Hotel | 5 |
| b. | Restaurants (including catering) | 5 |
| B. Travel agencies and tour operators services | 7 | |
| C. Tourist guides services | 7 | |
| 8 | RECREATIONAL, CULTURAL AND SPORTING SERVICES (other than audio-visual services) | |
| A | Entertainment services (including theatre, live bands and circus services) | 7 |
| B | News agency services | 7 |
| C | Libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural services | 7 |
| D | Sporting and other recreational services | 7 |
| 9 | TRANSPORT SERVICES | |
| A | Maritime Transport Services | |
| a. Passenger transportation | 7 | |
| b. Freight transportation | 7 | |
| c. Rental of vessels with crew | 7 | |
| d. Maintenance and repair of vessels | 7 | |
| e. Pushing and towing services | 7 | |
| f. Supporting services for maritime transport | 7 | |
| B | B. Air transport services | |
| a. Rental of aircraft with crew | 7 | |
| b. Maintenance and repair of aircraft c. Airport operations and ground handling | 7 | |
| C | C. Road Transport Services | |
| a. Passenger transportation | ||
| b. Freight transportation | 7 | |
| c. Rental of commercial vehicles with operator | 7 | |
| d. Maintenance and repair of road transport equipment | 7 | |
| e. Supporting services for road transport services | 7 | |
| D | D. Services auxiliary to all modes of transport | |
| a. Cargo handling services | 7 | |
| b. Storage and warehouse services | 7 | |
| c. Freight transport agency services | 7 |
i) Foreign exchange remittances other than those earned for rendering of notified services would not be counted for entitlement. Thus, other sources of foreign exchange earnings such as equity or debt participation, donations, receipts of repayment of loans etc. and any other inflow of foreign exchange, unrelated to rendering of service, would be ineligible.
ii) Following Foreign Exchange remittances shall not be considered for calculation of entitlement under this scheme:
I) Related to Financial Services Sector include
a) Raising of all types of foreign currency Loans,
b) Export proceeds realization of clients,
c) Issuance of Foreign Equity through ADRs/GDRs or other similar instruments,
d) Issuance of foreign currency Bonds,
e) Sale of securities and other financial instruments,
f) Other receivables not connected with services rendered by financial institutions
II) Earned through contract/regular employment abroad (e.g. labour remittances) would include
a) Payments for services received from EEFC Account,
b) Foreign exchange turnover by Healthcare Institutions like equity participation, donations etc.,
c) Foreign exchange turnover by Educational Institutions like equity participation, donations etc.,
d) Export turnover relating to services of units operating under EOU / EHTP / STPI / BTP Schemes or supplies of services made to such units,
e) Clubbing of turnover of services rendered by SEZ / EOU /EHTP / STPI / BTP units with turnover of DTA Service Providers
f) Exports of Goods
g) Foreign Exchange earnings for services provided by Airlines, Shipping lines service providers plying from any foreign country X to any foreign country Y routes not touching India at all
h) Service providers in Telecom Sector
As we were all eagerly waiting on how the FM will spend off Mr. Modi`s 20 Lakh Crores kitty, here is the summary of announcements.
Although todays package mostly revolved around MSMEs, It can broadly divided into 6 categories as below;
Micro: Limit revised upward Investment upto 1 cr. or Turnover upto 5 cr.
Small: Limit revised upward Investment upto 10 cr. or Turnover upto 50 cr.
Medium: Limit revised upward Investment upto 20 cr. or Turnover upto 100 cr.
Note: There is no Differentiation between Manufacturing and service enterprises.
However, this still looks lesser compared to the current economic growth India had witnessed prior to Covid setback.
Mr. Modi has pledged almost 10% of the nation`s GDP towards this package, matching that of the developed countries like Germany. However, two questions looms on the horizon, how will the govt raise funds to nurture this ambitious package, and will it be enough?? What do you think?
The financial technology (fintech) industry is thriving globally and received $17.4 billion in investment last year alone.
According to EY’s Fintech Adoption Index, a third of consumers worldwide are using two or more fintech services, with 84 percent of customers saying they are aware of fintech (up 22 percent from the previous year).
But users are often unaware that the financial services applications they use count as “fintech”, or may not know what exactly fintech and its accompanying jargon means.
Financial technology is broadly defined as any technological innovation in financial services. Those engaged in the industry develop new technologies to disrupt traditional financial markets. Various start-ups have been involved in the process of creating these new technologies, but many of the world’s top banks including HSBC and Credit Suisse have been developing their own fintech ideas as well. Fintech companies utilize technology as widely available as payment apps to more complex software applications such as artificial intelligence and big data.
In this Post, let’s try to understand what impact Fintech has on our Lives. I will try to keep out the Jargons and simplify as much as possible, so that it serves as a guide rather than a white paper.
I have listed below some of the hot topics in Fintech buzzing currently. I will hopefully try to cover these topics in the future posts:
Cryptocurrency
Bitcoins
Block Chain
Ethereum.
Disruptive Innovation
Initial Coin Offering
Open Banking
Financial Inclusion
It’s also now easier than ever for small businesses to accept payments. Even Small farms in the middle of nowhere can accept credit and debit cards with tools like Square and PayPal. And while there are fees, the entrepreneur doesn’t have to do a particular volume of business to qualify for an account. Anyone, anywhere can safely and easily accept credit card payments, making it easier to do business.
As per a report by pwc, 77% of the respondents expect to adapt blockchain as a part of the production system/process by 2020.
So, are you ready to adapt it?
Payments and lending remain priorities in India. Fintech interest grew in
India during Q1’17, with Paytm attracting Asia’s largest funding round of
$200 million. Payments and lending drove investment during the quarter,
although interest in AI also increased. On the blockchain front, a number of banks formed consortia with fintechs to develop blockchain proof of
concepts. Interest in blockchain seems to have also increased in the
insurance space. Over the next quarter, insurtech is likely to come into its
own in India and the government is expected to release regulations for
fintech, particularly related to peer-to-peer lending, which could lead to
additional activity.
As bitcoin prices skyrocket, it seems like everyone around wants to join the bandwagon, irrespective of the lack of understanding of the instrument and the risks involved. While the sharp rise in bitcoin prices may look attractive, you need to be careful while deciding to invest in them. To start with, do a thorough check while choosing the company from where you want to buy. No one wants to put money in something where they may get cheated. In the last couple of years, there have been multiple incidences of fake cryptocurrencies. Bitcoins or any other cryptocurrency in the form of
payment, check if the company has a history of making payments in this
manner and if your banker has an outlet to convert this into currency if required.
There are more than 600 crowdfunding platforms around the world, with fundraising reaching billions of dollars annually, according to the research firm Massolution.
How it works: The most common type of crowdfunding fundraising is using sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo variety, where donations are sought in return for special rewards. That could mean free product or even a chance to be involved in designing the product or service.
It is also possible to use crowdfunding to assemble loans and royalty financing. The site LendingClub, for example, allows members to directly invest in and borrow from each other, with the claim that eliminating the banking middleman means “both sides can win” in the transactions. Royalty financing sites appear to be rarer, but the idea is to link business owners with investors who lend money for a guaranteed percentage of
revenues for whatever the business is selling. The Holy Grail is to sell company shares or ownership stakes in the company on crowdfunding sites, because it could be like a mini-IPO without the traditional hurdles.
Upside: Crowdfunding provides another strategy for startups or early stage companies ready to take it to the next level — such as rolling out a product or service. Before, a business owner was subject to the caprices of individual angel investors or bank loan officers. Now it is possible to pitch a business plan to the masses. A successful crowdfunding round not only provides your business with needed cash, but creates a base of customers
who feel as though they have a stake in the business’ success.
Downside: If you don’t have an engaging story to tell, then your crowdfunding bid could be a flop. Sites such as Kickstarter don’t collect money until a fundraising goal is reached, so that’s still a lot of wasted time that could have been spent doing other things to grow the business. It could be even worse if you meet your goal but then realize you underestimated how much money you needed. A business risks getting sued if it promises customers products or perks in return for donations, and then fails to deliver. There is also an argument to be made that angel investors and even bank officers provide more than just money. They provide entrepreneurs with needed advice. Business owners miss out on
such mentorship when they ignore traditional investors and turn to the
crowd.
Crowd Funding Models:
The well-known models of Crowd Funding
are Donation, Reward, Equity (similar to IPO
of any company) and Peer to Peer Lending
(Borrowing from other than banks and
NBFCs)
Staying Unique 