HERO MOTOCORP’S PAWAN MUNJAL TAKES HOME RS 59.66CR PAY IN FY17
New Delhi, Jun 16 () Hero MotoCorp Chairman, MD and CEO Pawan Munjal took home a salary of Rs 59.66 crore in 2016 -17, up 3.94 per cent from the previous fiscal.
According to the company’s annual report for 2016-17, the ratio of Munjal’s pay to the median remuneration of employees was 731. The median remuneration of the company’s employees during the financial year was Rs 8.16 lakh. Remuneration of Sunil Kant Munjal, who was the Joint MD of the company up to August 16, 2016, stood at Rs 20.99 crore, excluding gratuity, leave encashment and other retirement benefits. It was was 257 times the median salaries of the employees. Hero MotoCorp Executive Director Operations (Plants) Vikram S Kasbekar, who joined on August 8, 2016 drew salary of Rs 2.22 crore during the year. The company said average percentage increase made in the salary of employees other than the managerial personnel in 2016-17 was 10.80 per cent. In his address to the shareholders, Pawan Munjal said while the company continued to expand its product portfolio, it was simultaneously looking at mobility solutions for the future also.
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NOW, AADHAAR MUST FOR OPENING BANK ACCOUNTS; CENTRE SETS DEADLINE FOR EXISTING CUSTOMERS
NEW DELHI: The government on Friday announced its decision making the Aadhaar card mandatory for opening bank accounts and conducting financial transactions of Rs 50,000 and above. Moreover, existing bank account holders have been asked to submit their Aadhaar cards issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to banks by December 31 this year, failing which banks will invalidate their accounts. The move comes days after the Supreme Court upheld the validity of an I-T Act provision making Aadhaar a must for allotment of PAN cards and for filing Income Tax returns. The apex court had granted a “partial relief” to those who do not have an Aadhaar or an Aadhaar enrolment ID, ruling that the PAN of such individuals will not be cancelled for the time being.
The notification issued amending the Prevention of Money Laundering (Maintenance of Records) Rules, 2005, mandated quoting of Aadhaar along with PAN or Form 60 by individuals, companies and partnership firms for all financial transactions of Rs 50,000 or above with effect from June 1. Post June 1, if a person does not have an Aadhaar number at the time of opening of account, then he has to furnish proof of application of enrollment for Aadhaar and submit the Aadhaar number to the bank within six months of opening of the bank account. So far, it was mandatory to provide PAN number or Form 60 to banks while opening of accounts or for high value transactions.
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GST RETURN FILING: EXCEL SHEET FORMAT TO COME ON JUNE 25
New Delhi, Jun 16 () Just five days before the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is rolled out, GST Network will on June 25 launch an offline excel sheet format for use by traders and businesses to upload sales data on the GST portal. Navin Kumar, Chairman of GST-Network, said the GST return forms for all kinds of trade/sales, including composition, ecommerce, non-resident taxable person, would be put up on GSTN website by mid of July. The GSTN is the IT backbone provider for the new indirect tax regime. As per the GST law, a return of all sales or trade made in a month have to be filed online by the 10th of the following month. So if GST is rolled out from July 1, the sales data has to be uploaded on GSTN portal by August 10. “We will release on GSTN website the excel sheet, from where offline tool will take the data, by June 25. It will help taxpayers to know the kind of format in which information is to be given,” Kumar told . In the excel sheet, the businesses would have to give details of transaction, like invoice number, GSTIN of buyer, commodity sold or services given, value of the goods or services sold, the tax incidence and taxes paid. With regard to the returns, Kumar said the businesses will have to file it only in August.
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AADHAAR MANDATORY FOR OPENING BANK A/C, TRANSACTION OVER RS50K
New Delhi, Jun 16 () The government has made quoting of biometric identity number Aadhaar mandatory for opening of bank accounts as well as for any financial transaction of Rs 50,000 and above. Existing bank account holders have been asked to furnish the Aadhaar number issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) by December 31, 2017, failing which the account will cease to be operational, according to a revenue department notification. The government in Budget 2017 has already mandated seeding of Aadhaar number with Permanent Account Number to avoid individuals using multiple PANs to evade taxes. The notification issued amending the Prevention of Money- laundering (Maintenance of Records) Rules, 2005, mandated quoting of Aadhaar along with PAN or Form 60 by individuals, companies and partnership firms for all financial transactions of Rs 50,000 or above. Tightening the rules for small accounts, which can be opened without having officially valid KYC documents, the amendment said such accounts – which can have maximum deposit of Rs 50,000, can be opened only at bank branches which have core banking solution. It can also be opened at a branch where it is possible to manually monitor and ensure that foreign remittance are not credited to such account and stipulated limits on monthly and annual aggregate of transactions and balance are not breached, the amended PMLA rules said. Such small account shall remain operational initially for a period of 12 months and thereafter for a similar period if the account holder provides evidence that he or she has applied for officially valid identification documents.
“The small account shall be monitored and when there is a suspicion of money laundering or financing of terrorism or other high risk scenarios, the identity of claim shall be established through the production of official valid documents,” it said.
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CAD EXPECTED TO BE AROUND 1.4 PC OF GDP IN 2017: NOMURA
New Delhi, Jun 16 India’s current account deficit is expected to be around 1.4 per cent of GDP in 2017 compared to 0.6 per cent in 2016, owing to stronger domestic growth, says a report. The Japanese financial services major Nomura has revised India’s 2017 CAD forecast to 1.4 per cent of GDP from 1.6 per cent earlier, but still expects current account deficit to be higher than the 2016 figure. Nomura expects India’s CAD to widen in 2017 against last year as import growth should pick up in the second half 2017 due to a stronger domestic recovery, even as protectionist policies will likely hurt services exports. “We are revising our 2017 CAD forecast to 1.4 per cent of GDP (as against 1.6 per cent earlier) but we still expect it to be wider than in 2016 (0.6 per cent) owing to stronger domestic growth,” Nomura said in a research note. The key risks to this outlook are rise in protectionism, weaker global growth or a surge in oil prices. According to Reserve Bank of India, the current account deficit soared to USD 3.4 billion, or 0.6 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017, compared to USD 0.3 billion a year ago. For the full fiscal 2017, CAD narrowed to 0.7 per cent of GDP compared to 1.1 per cent in the previous fiscal on the back of a contraction in trade deficit. Commenting on the first quarter CAD data, Nomura said it was better than expected and the positive surprise was led by a narrower merchandise trade deficit and moderation in investment outflows.
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REAL ESTATE PLAYERS GAINED FROM IT REVOLUTION, NOT ENGINEERS”
Hyderabad, Jun 16 Fruits of India’s information technology (IT) revolution have not gone to engineers, whose entry-level salary hasn’t changed in the past nearly two decades, and it was real estate players who reaped them, says a senior figure in the industry. Former Karnataka IT Secretary Vivek Kulkarni said the starting salary of an engineer in the year 2000 when he was holding the position was Rs three lakh, a figure which has remained the same even today. “What about real estate ? Suppose you buy a real estate in JP Nagar in Bengaluru in 2000 and you want to buy now, what’s the difference?. It must have gone up eight to ten times. That means the fruits of our IT revolution has not gone to engineers, it has gone to real estate people,” he told . “We are investing much for building our (IT) centres, (but) we need to do a little bit more for employees, train them; they (IT companies) have cash and they need to do that,” said Kulkarni, founder of Brickwork India, which offers virtual assistance, market research and business plans to a large number of small customers. Kulkarni, who served as Karnataka IT secretary from 1999 to 2003, and also was Finance Secretary (Budger & Resources) before that, also said technology has changed drastically, and “now we don’t necessarily need too many people to go on (software) coding.” In new technologies, Indian IT companies have not invested enough, and it’s a challenge, he said. Lakhs of engineers with “no quality and no proper curriculam” pass out from colleges in India. “That’s also our big mistake. What we call demographic dividend…what we are producing is not fully acceptable.” There is a big need for retooling the skills of IT engineers. But he also said Indian IT companies are not doing high-end work. The US does not have IT talent, which has to come from India, and Indian IT companies need to expand their presence in their key markets, according to him. “You must be near to the market, you must have people in the market. The presence has to be expanded, you need those people, then only you will be successful in the market.” Cash-rich Indian companies need to acquire firms overseas though they have become expensive in recent times.
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CONNAUGHT PLACE 9TH COSTLIEST OFFICE MARKET; MUMBAI LAGS
Mumbai, Jun 15 () The nation’s financial capital continues to slip on office rentals as Connaught Place in the heart of the national capital continues to remain the most expensive markets in the country and the 9th costliest in the world, says a report. According to the bi-annual global prime office occupancy costs survey by realty consultant CBRE Group, New Delhi’s central business district of Connaught Place is the 9th most expensive office market in the world with an occupancy cost of USD 153.89 per sqft per annum.
This makes Connaught Place costlier than Dubai, downtown Boston and Shanghai. As against this Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) is ranked 20th while the CBD of Nariman Point is ranked 33 on the list of the top 50 most expensive office markets around the world, says the CBRE report. CBRE India & Southeast Asia chairman Anshuman Magazine said “despite Connaught Place having limited supply of prime office space, its location in the heart of the national Capital, coupled with great infrastructure and connectivity to other parts of the city, makes it to be an ideal location for any business to be in.”
With the commercial real estate segment continuing to do well in the country, prime locations across the country including Connaught Place and BKC and Nariman Point in Mumbai continue to witness demand for prime office space from occupiers, he noted. According to the report, Central in Hong Kong and West End in London remain the two most expensive markets in the world, while the top 10 list remains largely consistent. Central in Hong Kong is the world’s highest-priced office market with an overall occupancy cost of USD 302.51 per sqft per annum and with seven of the most expensive cities, Asia continues to dominate the list of the world’s most expensive office locations, according to the survey. Hong Kong (West Kowloon) (USD190.02 per sqft) and Beijing (CBD) (USD183.10 per sqft) also feature among the top five most expensive markets this year. Global prime office occupancy costs, which reflect rentals plus local taxes and service charges for the highest quality, prime office properties, rose 1.9 percent year-on- year which is lower than the growth rate in Q1 of 2016 (2.2 percent). On the other hand, occupancy costs in the Americas rose by 3.6 percent.
Of the top 50 most expensive markets, 18 were in Asia Pacific, 20 in Europe and the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and 12 in the Americas.