Banking & Financial Awareness January 2019: Week IV

Cabinet Approves Setting Up of the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal

PM led Union Cabinet of India has approved the setting up of the National Bench of the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT) which will act as a forum for second appeal in GST laws and the first common forum of dispute resolution between Centre and States.
It will be located in New Delhi and presided over by the President and shall consist of one Technical Member (Centre) and one Technical Member (State).
Every State GST Tribunal will be headed by a State President.
Chapter XVIII of the CGST Act provides for the Appeal and Review Mechanism for dispute resolution under the GST Regime.
Section 109 of this Chapter under CGST Act empowers the Central Government to constitute, on the recommendation of Council, by notification, with effect from such date as may be specified therein, an Appellate Tribunal known as the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal for hearing appeals against the orders passed by the Appellate Authority or the Revisional Authority.

SBI Ecowrap Report has suggested the government to opt for the unconditional cash transfer to farmers to alleviate agrarian distress rather than Universal Basic Income (UBI) scheme.
Currently, it may not be feasible to initiate Rythu Bandhu Scheme on national level as land data in several states, including Jharkhand, Bihar, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu are yet to be digitized
The report estimates various subsidy benefits the farmers are availing and suggests if a farmer is availing one or all the three modes of subsidy/supports (Crop Insurance, Interest Subsidy and Fertilizer Subsidy) then he/she will receive a minimum of Rs 5,335 to maximum Rs 10,162 per annum as cash support.
The report predicts that government would be required to provide cash support in the range of Rs 10,000-12,000 per annum to make it completely cash neutral and the annual cost of such a scheme is Rs 1.2 lakh crore per annum.

The Reserve Bank of India initiated two quarterly surveys to examine the current situation including the job scenario in India's manufacturing, services and infrastructure sectors.
Findings of the two surveys -- Industrial Outlook Survey (IOS), and Services and Infrastructure Outlook Survey (SIOS) -- would be significant for the government and the opposition.
Industrial Outlook Survey would be based on qualitative responses on a set of indicators pertaining to demand conditions, financial conditions, employment conditions and the price situation.
SIOS seeks an assessment of the business situation for the current quarter (January-March 2019) from selected companies in the services and infrastructure sectors in India, and their outlook for the ensuing quarter (April-June 2019)
IOS will be conducted by Hansa Research Group Pvt Ltd
SIOS will be carried out by Spectrum Planning India Ltd.

The Union Cabinet has given its nod to the $75-billion bilateral currency swap arrangement between India and Japan.
Union Cabinet also gave its approval for the MoU between India and Japan on development of ‘advanced model single window’ to facilitate investments into India
This arrangement is expected to bring stability to foreign exchange and capital markets in India.