The two-day GST Council meet in Srinagar negotiated the tricky business of fitment of tax rates. To ensure that participants at the meeting had sufficient R&R to deal with the rigours of the agenda, there was a shikara ride, a cultural programme as well as a trip to Gulmarg. Pleasure’s good for business!

Still spooked

Share market volatility has always spooked fund managers around the world. But when the BSE S&P Sensex clocked over 30,000 points this April, fears of a slump from the all-time high grew stronger.

To allay these woes, an ‘interesting read’ purportedly from Kotak Mutual Fund has been circulating among finance professionals. It cites the cricketing achievements of the likes of Kapil Dev, Saurav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar,highlighting how records believed to be once unattainable were broken subsequently. The message closes with the moral that for the future, a high of 30,000 points “is not the end of life”. However, this is accompanied by the usual “Mutual Fund investments are subject to market risk”, making everyone want to read the offer document before being swayed by the campaign.

Tiptoeing around Aadhaar

Issues around the privacy of Aadhaar card-holders keeps haunting the Narendra Modi government. At a particular event, an officer made some points regarding the rural electrification scheme, and said that there is power consumption data for 7.5 households on the app with the consumer number, Aadhaar number, mobile numbers and meter numbers. Worried the media would fire up the privacy debate, Minister Piyush Goyal quickly interjected to say the Aadhaar number would not be disclosed online; he was backed by the officer. Clearly, once bitten...

Narrow escape

At the same programme, Goyal found himself in a soup. Referring to the recent assembly elections, he said that all performing State governments had been re-elected and non-performers had been shunned by the people. He overlooked the fact that the Congress had scored a scorching victory over the ruling BJP-SAD government. He realised his error and padded his statement by adding that these were the results “by and large”.

Smart strategy

Commuters taking buses from Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar bus shelter were in for a surprise. Japanese AC-maker Daikin India has air-conditioned the shelter. And branded it. Though the exercise is short-term, it offers welcome respite from the soaring mercury levels , so no one’s complaining. Competitors, are you listening?

IPL dampener

Entry into IPL matches will attract a whopping GST rate of 28 per cent (with input tax credit). This is going to come as a dampener for millions of cricket fans. What takes the cake is that entry into IPL matches is equated to gambling, entry into race courses and casinos when it comes to deciding a GST rate! All these have been put under the 28 per cent category.

Party on, bar-boys!

Having an astute lawyer as finance minister helps, it seems. Lawyers will not have to fork out a single penny to the exchequer out of their pockets because the GST rules are being suitably written. Remember, legal services were not subjected to service tax in the first two decades after its introduction in the mid-nineties. Even when it was finally imposed two-three years back, the onus to pay service tax was put on the client! It’s ditto with GST. The reverse charge saga continues and the client (only business entities with over ₹20 lakh turnover) will have to pay for GST on legal services. A cushy arrangement this. As for the chartered accountants’ fraternity, there’s no special dispensation for them. Only grin and bear it.

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