Business

New Delhi, Dec 17 (IANS) No tax increase on any item was decided at the GST Council meeting on Saturday. Meanwhile, the Council recommended reducing GST on biofuel from 18 per cent to 5 per cent.

The GST Council has made the recommendations relating to changes in GST tax rates, measures for facilitation of trade and measures for streamlining compliances in GST.

As per the Council recommendations, GST on husk of pulses reduced to nil from five per cent.

Besides, the Council also recommended reduction of GST on Ethyl alcohol or biofuel supplied to refineries for blending with motor spirit (petrol) to five per cent from current 18 per cent.

Officials said that GST on online gaming and casinos was not discussed as the report of GoM on the issue submitted its report only a couple of days back. The report of the GoM was not even circulated to GST Council members, said an official.

The GST council decided to clarify that goods falling in lower rate category of 5 per cent under schedule I of notification No. 1/2017-CTR imported for petroleum operations will attract lower rate of 5 per cent and the rate of 12 per cent shall be applicable only if the general rate is more than 12 per cent.

It also clarified that no GST is payable where the residential dwelling is rented to a registered person if it is rented in his/her personal capacity for use as his/her own residence and on his own account and not on account of his business.

The GST council further clarified that incentives paid to banks by the Central government under the scheme for promotion of RuPay Debit Cards and low value BHIM-UPI transactions are in the nature of subsidy and thus not taxable.

The 48th GST Council met under the Chairmanship of Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman via virtual mode in Delhi on Saturday.

The meeting was also attended by Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Choudhary besides Finance Ministers of States & UTs (with legislature) and senior officers of the Ministry of Finance and states/ UTs.

--IANS
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Vladivostok, Dec 17 (IANS) The Russian government will allocate 4.5 billion rubles ($69.4 million) to the state-owned Russian Railways in 2023 and 2024 to expand its quantum communication network, Russia's RIA Novosti news agency reported on Saturday.

As part of its digital economy framework, the government plans to invest a total of 9.4 billion rubles ($144.9 million) in the Russian Railways to develop the quantum communication network from 2021 to 2024, including 2.7 billion rubles ($41.6 million) in 2023 and 1.8 billion rubles ($27.7 million) in 2024 respectively, according to Russia's quantum communication roadmap approved in late 2021.

The roadmap includes more than 120 projects, such as tools to promote quantum communications for potential users, development of sales markets, commercialisation of services and products of quantum communications, Xinhua news agency reported.

The first pilot quantum communication line, built between Moscow and St. Petersburg in 2021 based on its existing optic network, is 700 km long and is expected to increase to 7,000 km by 2024.

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New Delhi, Dec 17 (IANS) The GST Council approved the amendments in the GST Act and GST Rules for allowing unregistered suppliers and composition taxpayers to make intra-state supply of goods through E-Commerce Operators (ECOs), subject to certain conditions.

Appreciating wholeheartedly the major decision of the GST Council to allow small unregistered vendors to sell their goods through e-commerce portals, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) on Saturday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for this "progressive decision" which was demanded by CAIT since last more than two years.

CAIT national president B.C. Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said this decision will empower small traders who are below GST threshold limit to expand their business through e-commerce and will strongly strengthen Digital India vision.

There are more than 8 crore small traders in the country but a large number of traders are conducting business activities without GST registration since their annual sale is below the GST threshold limit. Such traders will now be able to trade on e-commerce.

Earlier, GST Council in its 47th meeting had granted in-principle approval for allowing unregistered suppliers and composition taxpayers to make intra-state supply of goods through ECOs, subject to certain conditions.

CAIT said that India is fast emerging as the e-commerce hub and there is tremendous growth in online business.

E-commerce business in India is now approximately 10 per cent of total retail.

"In view of this it was extremely pertinent that small vendors, those who have small turnovers and do not fall under the purview of the GST, were not able to conduct online business, thus causing huge loss of market and business opportunities," a statement said.

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New Delhi, Dec 17 (IANS) The GST Council on Saturday recommended decriminalising certain offences and doubled the threshold for launching prosecution from Rs one crore to Rs two crore, except for the offence of issuance of invoices without supply of goods or services or both.

Moreover, it also recommended reducing the compounding amount from the present range of 50 per cent to 150 per cent of tax amount to the range of 25 per cent to 100 per cent.

Measures for facilitation of trade also included recommendation on decriminalising certain offences including obstruction or preventing any officer in discharge of his duties; deliberate tempering of material evidence and failure to supply the information.

Speaking on the deliberations at the Council's meeting, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that no new taxes have been brought.

The 48th GST Council met under the Chairmanship of Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman via virtual mode in New Delhi on Saturday. The meeting was also attended by Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Choudhary besides Finance Ministers of States & UTs (with legislature) and senior officers of the Ministry of Finance and states/ UTs.

"Union Finance Minister Smt. @nsitharaman chairs the 48th meeting of the GST Council via virtual mode, in New Delhi, today, the finance ministry tweeted.

Moreover, the Council has clarified on what constitutes an SUV and the tax applicable for such categories of automobiles. The council clarified that vehicle SUVs with an engine capacity exceeding 1,500 cc and length exceeding 4,000 mm with a ground clearance of 170 mm or above will attract a 22 per cent compensation cess.

Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra said GST on online gaming and casinos was not discussed as the report of a Group of Ministers (GoM) on the issue submitted its report only a couple of days back.

It was also clarified that goods falling in the lower rate category of 5 per cent under schedule I of notification No. 1/2017-CTR imported for petroleum operations will attract a lower rate of 5 per cent and the rate of 12 per cent shall be applicable only if the general rate is more than 12 per cent.

As a relief measure, the Council decided to regularise the intervening period starting from the date of issuance of Circular (3.08.2022) in respect of GST on 'husk of pulses including chilka and concentrates including chuni/churi, khanda' on "as is basis" on account of genuine doubts.

It also said that no GST is payable where the residential dwelling is rented to a registered person if it is rented it in his/her personal capacity for use as his/her own residence and on his own account and not on account of his business.

The GST Council could not discuss the taxation on tobacco and gutkha due to paucity of time on Saturday. No decision has been taken on the next meeting of the GST Council, said officials.

--IANS
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San Francisco, Dec 17 (IANS) Ride-hailing major Uber has partnered with the US-based robotics company, Cartken, which will provide sidewalk robots to its subsidiary, Uber Eats, to deliver food.

According to The Verge, the company will be getting six-wheeled delivery robots, developed by a team of former Google engineers, mostly known for deploying their vehicles on college campuses.

Uber claims that its partnership with Cartken represents the robotics company's "first formal partnership with a global on-demand delivery app beyond college campuses".

Cartken's robots are electric, with a trunk that can hold nearly two dozen pounds of cargo, and embedded cameras that can detect obstacles and direct them to their destination, according to the report.

The report also mentioned that the robots have a delivery radius of several miles, but they only travel slightly faster than walking and they cannot climb stairs so they may not be as appealing to people living in multi-storeyed houses.

In October, Uber and Motional, a global driverless technology leader, announced a 10-year agreement to offer fully driverless rides using Motional's new all-electric IONIQ 5-based robotaxis.

With this, Uber has now returned to the game of robotaxis after it sold its struggling autonomous vehicle business to the US-based Aurora Innovations in 2020.

The companies said they will strategically deploy the service in cities across the US, with the first trips expected to start later this year.

--IANS
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Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 17 (IANS) Liquor prices in Kerala were hiked from Saturday after the state cabinet approved a 4 per cent increase in the general sales tax, which came into effect after state Governor Arif Mohammed Khan gave his assent to pass the Kerala General Sales Tax (Amendment) Bill.

As a result of the increase, the price of brands of various Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) brands has gone up by Rs 10 to Rs 20, while the price of wine and beer has been raised by 2 per cent.

The IMFL manufacturers have been urging the Kerala State Beverages Corporation (KSBC) -- the sole wholesaler of liquor in Kerala -- to increase the prices in the wake of steep rates of extra neutral alcohol.

The data in the past seven years shows that while in 2015-16 the total sales of KSBC was Rs 11,577 crore, it reached Rs 14,707 crore in 2019-20 but decreased to Rs 13,212 crore in the next fiscal when the state was reeling under Covid-19 pandemic.

However, in 2021-22 the total sales of KSBC again rose to Rs 14,576 crore and according to the data for the first six months in the present fiscal, it has touched Rs 8,460 crore.

--IANS
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San Francisco, Dec 17 (IANS) As Tesla stocks bleed amid heavy losses, Elon Musk on Saturday blamed the Federal Reserve for the current situation, saying his electric car company is doing better than ever.

Tesla stock has nosedived around 60 per cent since January this year, and traded at $156.80 after hours this week.

When a Twitter follower said that Musk has now erased $600 billion of Tesla wealth and still nothing from the Tesla board of directors which is "wholly unacceptable", he said Tesla is executing better than ever.

"We don't control the Federal Reserve. That is the real problem here," he tweeted.

Musk further said that he just finished his meeting going over Giga Texas production progress.

The falling Tesla shares have hit Musk's net worth which fell to $174 billion, taking him to the second spot at the world's richest person's list, toppled by French fashion and cosmetics magnate Bernard Arnault.

Musk saw his net worth tumble by more than $100 billion in 2022.

This week, he sold over 20 million more Tesla shares worth about $3.5 billion and did not provide any reason for selling more stock in the electric car company.

Since November 2021, Musk has sold more than $39 billion of Tesla shares.

The share sale comes at a time when Tesla investors have raised concerns over Musk's $44 billion Twitter acquisition, saying his 24/7 involvement with the micro-blogging platform is "detrimental to Tesla".

According to industry analysts, "the fresh stock sale is Musk's answer to some of the high interest debt he's paying on his $44 billion Twitter deal".

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San Francisco, Dec 17 (IANS) Elon Musk is aiming to get more investors for Twitter at the original $54.20 per share price, at which he acquired the company for $44 billion.

According to news portal Semafor, Musk's money manager Jared Birchall has reached out to potential investors, "offering shares of Twitter at the same price, $54.20, that Musk paid to take the company private in October".

"Over recent weeks we've received numerous inbound requests to invest in Twitter," Birchall wrote to investors in an email seen by Semafor.

"Accordingly, we are pleased to announce a follow-on equity offering for common shares at the original price and terms, targeting a year-end close," the email read.

According to the report, Tesla investor Ross Gerber, who said he put less than $1 million in Musk's original takeover of Twitter, confirmed that he was contacted again about another funding round at the $44 billion valuation.

The move comes at a time when Musk has frightened away advertisers and banned several journalists.

The new Twitter boss suspended accounts of more than half a dozen journalists from outlets including CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post, following their reporting on an account related to him.

He suspended the accounts of journalists like Donie O'Sullivan from CNN and Drew Harwell from The Washington Post as they covered the "exact real-time location" of Musk.

He had earlier said that any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation.

Musk has also been offloading Tesla shares, planning to buy or personally pay Twitter's debt.

--IANS
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San Francisco, Dec 15 (IANS) Former Twitter employee Ahmad Abouammo has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison after being convicted of spying for Saudi Arabia, media reported on Thursday.

He was sentenced in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, reports NBC News.

Abouammo was found guilty by a US court in August this year for accessing private information in the accounts of certain Twitter users, and providing that information to officials in Saudi Arabia.

Abouammo and Ali Alzabarah -- two Twitter employees -- and Saudi national Ahmed Almutairi, aka Ahmed Aljbreen, were charged in 2019 for acting as illegal agents of the Saudi government in the US.

Abouammo was also charged with destroying, altering, or falsifying records in a federal investigation.

In the trial, the prosecution argued that a prominent member of Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman's government tapped Abouammo for help investigating his enemies.

"In 2018, Saudi government agents murdered and dismembered Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post journalist, Virginia resident and frequent critic of the regime," The Verge reported.

According to the complaint by the US Department of Justice, between November 2014 and May 2015, Almutairi, 30, of Saudi Arabia, and foreign officials of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia convinced Abouammo and Alzabarah to use their employee credentials to gain access without authorisation to certain nonpublic information about the individuals behind certain Twitter accounts.

"Specifically, representatives of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Saudi Royal Family sought the private information of Twitter users who had been critical of the regime," read the complaint.

Such private user information included their email addresses, phone numbers, IP addresses, and dates of birth.

This information could have been used to identify and locate the Twitter users who published these posts.

The complaint alleged that Abouammo was compensated for his illicit conduct, including through the provision of a luxury watch and cash.

Abouammo was arrested in Seattle, Washington in November 2019, while Alzabarah and Almutairi are believed to be in Saudi Arabia. Federal warrants have been issued for their arrest.

--IANS
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