Ministry of Finance

Expert Committee on Longevity Finance recommends setting up of Longevity Hub at GIFT-IFSC

Dated: 13 APR 2022

International Finance Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) constituted Expert Committee on Longevity Finance, co-chaired by Ms. Kaku Nakhate, Country Head (India), Bank of America and Mr. Gopalan Srinivasan, Ex-CMD, New India Assurance Co. Ltd. submitted its final report to Chairperson, IFSCA on 12^th April 2022.

The committee examined emerging trends in Longevity Economy globally and observed that people over 60 years are still very much a highly productive demographic group in terms of purchasing power and make up the wealthiest part of financial system with a global spending power of $15 trillion.

Highlighting the critical role of financial services sector for the growth of Longevity industry, the Committee recommended the setting up of first Global Longevity Hub (GLH) in GIFT-IFSC and suggested that the hub should focus on developing the longevity economy by offering various longevity finance solutions in coordination with leading corporates and financial institutions such as Banks, Pension Funds, Asset Management Funds, Insurance Companies, etc.

Ms. Kaku Nakhate, Co-Chair of the Expert Committee stated, “Advances in healthcare and medical technology have increased the lifespan of humans. The long-term vision of building a strong longevity finance hub at IFSC can open-up opportunities in wealth management, insurance, pension, silver entrepreneurship and medial tourism. This will help GIFT IFSC emerge as a global leader in longevity finance, immediately addressing the requirements of baby boomers, Gen X & Gen Y cohorts, and setting the path for millennials. I would encourage global banks, insurance companies, financial institutions, and fintechs & health-techs to set up shops here to create a unique longevity hub for the world.”

“This is a great move and will have very positive impact on the role of silver generation,” observed Mr. Gopalan Srinivasan, Co-Chair of the Expert Committee. He further stated, “It has been a pioneering effort on the part of IFSCA to establish an expert committee on Longevity Finance and recognize the importance of developing longevity finance hub in IFSC. The Hub will focus on skill development, entrepreneurial development and also address the demand of financial and insurance products for silver generation.”

Chairperson, IFSCA, thanked the Expert Committee for their valuable recommendations and supported the idea of promoting Longevity Finance as one of the priorities in GIFT IFSC under the overall framework of Sustainable Finance.

The committee members comprised of leaders from the entire longevity finance ecosystem including from areas such as banking, insurance, wealth management, FinTech, legal, compliance and management consultancy.

The report of the committee can be accessed through the weblink:

https://ifsca.gov.in/Viewer/ReportandPublication/29   

****

RM/KMN
(Release ID: 1816374)

 

Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Commerce & Industry
Dated: 30 MAR 2022

Innovations In Startups

Startups and the entire innovation ecosystem are the engines of growth for any country. Recognizing this aspect, the Government launched Startup India initiative on 16th January 2016 with an aim to build a stronger ecosystem for nurturing India’s startup culture that would further drive our economic growth, support entrepreneurship, and enable large-scale employment opportunities.

Sustained Government efforts in this direction have resulted in increasing the number of recognized Startups from 726 in FY 2016-17 to 65,861 in FY 2021-22 (as on 14th March 2022). There is at least one recognized startup from every State and UT and nearly 50% of the recognized startups are from Tier-II and III cities. Recognized startups are spread across over 640 districts and have reported creation of more than 7 lakh jobs.

Assisted by the States’ Startup Rankings on Support to Startup Ecosystems, which is primarily an exercise to identify good practices, learn from each other and helping each other in formulation and implementation of policies in true spirit of cooperative federalism, a momentum has been built across states to build favourable policy landscape for startups. Mentorship has been a key pillar of evaluation under this ranking exercise which has played an important role in enabling mentorship to startups across the country.

To identify the depth, quality and spread of innovation and entrepreneurship in country, the Government instituted the National Startup Awards (‘NSA’). The winners of NSA have emerged from Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad Chennai, Mumbai Mysuru, Bhopal, Ernakulam, Gurugram, Kochi, Lucknow, Margao, Sonipat and Tiruvanantpuram etc. The winners and finalists of NSA are also provided handholding support across various pillars including mentorship. The Government under the Startup India initiative also helps Indian startups to connect with global startup ecosystems through various engagement models including enabling global mentorship.

Startups, have actively contributed in Government’s flagship programs such as Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), Smart Cities Mission, Swachh Bharat Mission, National Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY scheme) to improve urban infrastructure and service provision.

Furthermore, DPIIT has recognized startups which are spread across 56 diversified sectors. More than 20% of these startups are in sectors such as Automotive, Green Technology, Healthcare and Lifesciences, Renewable Energy, etc. Over 4,500 recognized startups are in Sectors like Construction, House-hold Services, Logistics, Real Estate and Transportation and Storage contributing towards urban concerns.

This information was given by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Shri Som Parkash, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.

 

Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Direct Taxes

New Delhi, 30th March, 2022

PRESS RELEASE

Amendment to the provisions of Income-tax Rules, 1962 for prescribing fees under section 234H of the Income-tax Act, 1961

Under the provisions of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (“the Act”), every person who has been allotted a PAN as on 1st July, 2017 and is eligible to obtain Aadhaar Number, is required to intimate his Aadhaar to the prescribed authority on or before 31st March, 2022. On failure to do so, his PAN shall become inoperative and all procedures in which PAN is required shall be halted. The PAN can be made operative again upon intimation of Aadhaar to the prescribed authority after payment of a prescribed fee.

In order to mitigate the inconvenience to the taxpayers, as per Notification No.17/2022 dated 29th March, 2022, a window of opportunity has been provided to the taxpayers upto 31st of March, 2023 to intimate their Aadhaar to the prescribed authority for Aadhaar-PAN linking without facing repercussions. As a result, taxpayers will be required to pay a fee of Rs. 500 up to three months from 1st April, 2022 and a fee of Rs.1000 after that, while intimating their Aadhaar.

However, till 31st March, 2023 the PAN of the assessees who have not intimated their Aadhaar, will continue to be functional for the procedures under the Act, like furnishing of return of income, processing of refunds etc. A detailed Circular No.7/2022 dated 30.03.2022 has also been issued in this regard.

After 31st March, 2023, the PAN of taxpayers who fail to intimate their Aadhaar, as required, shall become inoperative and all the consequences under the Act for not furnishing, intimating or quoting the PAN shall apply to such taxpayers.

(Surabhi Ahluwalia)
Commissioner of Income Tax
(Media & Technical Policy)
Official Spokesperson, CBDT

 

Government of India

Ministry of Finance

Department of Revenue

Central Board of Direct Taxes

New Delhi, 20th March, 2022

PRESS RELEASE

Income Tax Department conducts searches on a Pune & Thane based unicorn start-up group

Income Tax Department conducted a Search & Seizure operation on a Pune & Thane based unicorn start-up group, primarily engaged in the business of wholesale and retail of construction material, on 09.03.2022. The group has Pan-India presence having annual turnover exceeding Rs. 6,000 crore. A total of 23 premises were covered in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, in the search operation.

A large number of incriminating evidences in the form of hard copy documents and digital data have been found & seized during the search operations. These evidences revealed that the group has booked bogus purchases, made huge unaccounted cash expenditure and obtained accommodation entries, aggregating to the tune of over Rs. 400 crore. These evidences were confronted to the Directors of the group, who admitted under oath this modus operandi, disclosed additional income of more than Rs. 224 crore in various assessment years, and consequently offered to pay their due tax liability.

The search action also revealed that the group had obtained huge foreign funding via the Mauritius route, by issuing shares at exorbitantly high premium.

During the search operation, a complex hawala network of some Mumbai and Thane based shell companies, was also unearthed. These shell companies exist on paper, and were created only for the purpose of providing accommodation entries. Preliminary analysis has revealed that the total quantum of accommodation entries provided by these shell entities exceeds Rs. 1,500 crore.

So far, unaccounted cash of Rs. 1 crore and jewellery of the value of Rs. 22 lakh have been seized.

Further investigations are under progress.

(Surabhi Ahluwalia)

Commissioner of Income Tax

(Media & Technical Policy)

Official Spokesperson, CBDT

 

Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Direct Taxes

New Delhi, 16th March, 2022

PRESS RELEASE

More than 6.63 crore Income Tax Returns (ITRs) and 99.27 lakh statutory forms

filed on the new e-filing portal of the Income Tax Department More than 6.63 crore Income Tax Returns (ITRs) were filed for AY 2021-22 on the new e-filing portal of the Income Tax Department as on 15th March, 2022, which was the due date for filing of ITRs by Companies and other taxpayers who were required to file Tax Audit Report. As on 15 th March, 2022 more than 5.43 lakh ITRs were filed (compared to 4.77 lakh last year on the due date) and over 13.84 lakh ITRs were filed in the last 5 days (compared to 11.87 lakh last year on the due date). 

Out of the 6.63 crore ITRs filed for AY 2021-22, 46% are ITR-1 (3.03 crore), 9% are ITR-2 (57.6 lakh), 15% are ITR-3 (1.02 crore), 26% are ITR-4 (1.75 crore), 2% are ITR-5 (15.1 lakh), ITR-6 (9.3 lakh) and ITR-7 (2.18 lakh). This reflects an increase of over 16.7 lakh ITRs over total filing of ITRs for AY 2020-21 till 15.03.2021.

Over 43% of these ITRs have been filed using the online ITR form on the portal and the balance have been uploaded using the ITR created from the offline ITR preparation software utilities, including Departmental software.

Further, out of the 6.63 crore ITRs filed for AY 2021-22, more than 6.01 crore ITRs have been verified (75% using Aadhaar OTP). Out of the verified ITRs, more than 5.17 crore ITRs have been processed and 1.83 crore refunds for AY 2021-22
have been issued till 15.03.2022.

More than 99.27 lakh statutory forms were filed in FY 2021-22 till 15 th March, 2022 on the new portal including 26.19 lakh Form 3CB-CD, 2.76 lakh Form 3CA- 3CD, 20.9 lakh Form 15CA, 5.4 lakh Form 15CB, 2.27 lakh 10A, 5.86 lakh 10E, 77,634 Form 35 and 23.79 lakh TDS statements. The extended due date for filing of form 3CFA, 3CEAA, 3CLA, 9A, 10, 10IB/IC/ID, 10CCF, 56FF was 15th March, 2022 for which total filings till 15th March, 2022 is nearly 1.64 lakh.

To assist taxpayers with a smooth experience on the portal, over 8,500 taxpayer calls and 260 chats were responded to by the helpdesk only on 15th March, 2022 itself. Two email ids were created to resolve grievances of taxpayers in an expeditious manner related to uploading of ITRs (itr.helpdesk@incometax.gov.in) and Tax Audit Report (TAR)  (tar.helpdesk@incometax.gov.in). In this regard, 16,252 emails were received, of which 16,233 were resolved by 15 th March, 2022. In addition to the above, the Department has been proactively engaging with and reaching out to taxpayers and professionals for assistance through its official Twitter handle on a continuous basis and through direct webex calls/webinars for better handholding.

The Department expresses gratitude to all tax professionals and taxpayers for the support in timely compliances. Taxpayers and tax professionals are also requested to note that the last date of filing belated return, revised return, linking of Aadhaar and PAN and compliance to the e-proceedings for assessment etc. is 31.03.2022.

(Surabhi Ahluwalia)
Commissioner of Income Tax
(Media & Technical Policy)
Official Spokesperson, CBDT