Digital payments up 30.2% in FY21: According to RBI data

Digital payments up 30.2% in FY21: According to RBI data

According to RBI data, digital payments grew by 30.19 per cent in the year ended March 2021, demonstrating the country’s adoption and deepening of cashless transactions. The newly created Digital Payments Index (RBI-DPI) grew to 270.59 at the end of March 2021, up from 207.84 the previous year.

“In recent years, the RBI-DPI index has shown remarkable growth, indicating the fast adoption and deepening of digital payments across the country.”

The Reserve Bank of India had previously announced the creation of a composite Reserve Bank of India – Digital Payments Index (RBI-DPI) with March 2018 as the basis to measure the amount of payment digitisation in India.

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The RBI-DPI is made up of five major metrics that can be used to track the depth and penetration of digital payments in the country over time.

Payment Enablers (25 percent weight); Payment Infrastructure – Demand-side variables (10 percent); Payment Infrastructure – Supply-side factors (15 percent); Payment Performance (45 percent); and Consumer Centricity (45 percent) (5 per cent).

Govt’s net tax collection rises 86% to Rs 5.57 lakh crore in Quarter1

The RBI said in January that the index would be issued semi-annually starting in March 2021, with a four-month lag.

LLP Settlement Scheme 2020

LLP settlement scheme 2020 would allow for a one-time condonation of the delay in filing with the Registrar statutory records. LLP Settlement Scheme, 2020 will come into effect on March 16, 2020, and remain in force until June 13, 2020.

It was found that due to the applicability of additional late filing fee, which could in effect become a financial burden in case of inordinate delay, a large number of Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) have remained non-compliant, primarily because of their inability to pay late fees for the accumulated delay period.

As part of the ongoing efforts by the government to encourage ease of doing business, it was agreed to grant the default LLPs a one-time relaxation in addition to an additional fee by filing pending documents and serve as a compliant LLP in the future.

Accordingly, the Central Government has decided to implement a scheme called “LLP Settlement Scheme, 2020” by providing for a one-time condonation of delay in the filing with the Registrar of statutory documents.

LLPs, who wish to take advantage of the scheme, may file pending documents/forms and rectify defaults in order to gain immunity from prosecution for such defaults.

limited liability partnership

The scheme shall come into force on March 16, 2020, and will remain in effect until June 13, 2020. It would apply to the default LLP in respect of the filing of late documents due for filing until 31 October 2019 for payment of a nominal additional fee of Rs 10/-per day for the period of delay, in addition to any fee payable for the filing of such document or return, subject to a maximum amount of Rs. 5,000/-as an additional fee per document.

The Scheme shall apply to the filing of the following documents:

  1. Form-3-Information on the limited liability partnership agreement and changes, if any, made therein;
  2. Form-4- Notice of appointment, termination, change of name/address/appointment of a designated partner or partner and consent to become a partner / appointed partner;
  3. Form-8-Statement of Account & Solvency (Annual or Interim)
  4. Form-11- Annual Return of Limited Liability Partnership (LLP).

This scheme shall not apply to LLPs which have made an application to the Registrar in Form 24 for the deletion of their name from the Register as per provision to Rule 37(1) of the LLP Rules of 2009.

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CBDT sets March 31 deadline to complete Panama, Paradise Papers probe

CBDT is trying to complete this investigation early so that other investigative agencies can speed up their investigation. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) is currently investigating on these cases in the Foreign Exchange Management Act, as soon as the tax department begins filing criminal cases CBDT will have the basis to convert these cases into the Money Laundering Act.

CBDT after completing the investigation may file prosecution charges against these entities,  to help other agencies to take action against those entities.

About 426 Indian companies with offshore accounts were under income tax department scrutiny in 2016. Over Rs, 1,000 crores of hidden income had been discovered by the department in Panama Papers alone, listing many famous personalities including KP Singh from DLF, Amitabh Bachhan, Aishwarya Rai, Sameer Gehlaut.

  • Around  714 companies and individuals had been identified in the case of Paradise Papers that came to light in 2017
  • Former state minister of Jharkhand Jayant Sinha is also named in this case who is a  member of the Hazaribagh parliament in Jharkhand state.

Appleby, A Bermuda-based legal services provider and Asiaciti based in Singapore, disclosed much of the data on   Paradise Papers which facilitated the establishment of low or zero tax rates on offshore firms.

Currently, CBDT is investigating these cases within the context of the Foreign Exchange Management Act. Once the tax department begins filing prosecution cases we have the basis to transform our case under the Money Laundering Prevention Act.

These cases are currently being investigated by the income tax department under the 2015 Black Money Act. Under this Act, if any person who is unable to justify the source of the funds in question will be required to pay a penalty of nearly 300 percent of the applicable tax liability on it.

These cases are not subject to domestic inquiry; the department is entirely dependent on foreign agencies for information. For the investigator as well as for the agency, therefore, setting a deadline for completing the investigation is not desirable.

Panama and the Paradise Papers mentioned only company names. Finding data from foreign agencies requires proper information that is not available to the department, thus slowing the investigation. Sometimes the department’s own machinery strikes down the request because the department has set unfulfilled SOPs.

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