Gold Monetization Scheme

The Finance Minister in his budget speech for the Union Budget 2015 - 16 made the following announcement:

"India is one of the largest consumers of gold in the world and imports as much as 800-1000 tonnes of gold each year. Though stocks of gold in India are estimated to be over 20,000 tonnes, most of this gold is neither traded, nor monetized. Keeping this in view, the government in Budget 2015-16 has announced the Gold Monetization Scheme which will replace both the present Gold Deposit and Gold metal Loan Schemes. The new scheme will allow the depositors of gold to earn interest in their metal accounts and the jewellers to obtain loans in their metal account. Banks/other dealers would also be able to monetize this gold".

For the purpose, a draft of the Scheme has been prepared and released on Tuesday and comments & suggestions have been invited by the government on the draft and same can be posted by accessing the link below:-

http://mygov.nic.in Portal. 

The main objective of the Scheme is to mobilize gold held by the households in lieu of interest and to make it available to the gems and jewellery sector as raw material on loan. This scheme aims at reducing reliance on import of gold to meet the domestic demand. A brief FAQ is given below to understand the scheme:-

New Rate of Service Tax will be effective from 01st June 2015

Notification notifying the applicability of new service tax rate has been issued.
New Rate of Service Tax i.e @14% (including Education Cess) will be effective from 1st June, 2015 as per Notification No. 14/2015 issued on 19th May, 2015. Swach Bharat cess @ 2 % will not applicable form 01 st, June, 2015. Date of applicability of Swach Bharat Cess will notified soon.

Indirect Taxes-Budget 2015-Changes Effective from 14th May 2015

Changes which are become effective from 14^th May 2015 (i.e. the date on which Finance Bill received Presidential Assent) are summarised below:-

Amendments in the Central Excise Act, 1944

1. Section 11A stands amended as follows:

(i) category of cases where extended period of time applies but the transactions are recorded in the specified record, will be removed from the statute,

(ii) provision relating to relevant date also amended to provide definition of relevant date in respect of cases where a return is not filed on the due date and where only interest is required to be recovered,

(iii) provisions of section 11A will not apply to cases where the non-payment or short payment of duty is reflected in the periodic returns filed and that in such cases recovery of duty will be made in such manner as may be prescribed in the rules.

Sukanya Samariddhi Yojna - Part-II

These FAQs are the continuation of the post on "Sukanya Samriddhi Yojna" posted on 18-03-2015,

1.     Where can the account be opened?

As per Sukanya Samriddhi Account Rules, 2014 account can be opened in any branch of the Commercial Banks as autorised by the Government or in any branch of the Post Office in India.

2.     With what amount, account can be started/opened?

The account may be opened with an initial deposit of one thousand rupees (Rs.1000/-), and a maximum amount of Rs. One lakhs fifty thousand can be deposited in a year.

3.     How many times a person can deposit in the account in a particular year?

Sukanya Samariddhi Yojna

P.M.Shree Narendra Modi with a vision to provide for education and marriage expenses of a girl child, has announced a scheme i.e. “Sukanya Samriddhi Yojna’.

Under this scheme an account shall be allowed to get open with Banks or post office and amount deposited such accounts will be eligible for deduction U/S 80C of the Income Tax Act,1961

As it is new announcement and financial year is near to close, many of the taxpayers are rushing to invest under various schemes eligible for deduction to save tax.

I have just tried to sum up FAQs for clarification on the scheme based on Notification and rules notified so far.