HENCY R SHAH AND ASSOCIATES

Professionals under PMLA On May 3rd, 2023, the Central Government issued a notification bringing practicing professionals in the field of Chartered Accountancy, Company Secretaries, and Cost and Works Accountants under the ambit of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) if they execute any financial transactions on behalf of clients. This notification has been issued under sub-clause (vi) of clause (sa) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002 (15 of 2003). The following financial transactions carried out by a relevant person on behalf of his or her client, in the course of his or her profession, will be considered an activity for the purposes of the PMLA: 1. Buying and selling of any immovable property. 2. Managing of client money, securities, or other assets. 3. Management of bank, savings, or securities accounts. 4. Organization of contributions for the creation, operation, or management of companies. 5. Creation, operation, or managemen...

  US Banks Collapse: Could the US bank crisis be blessing in disguise for Nifty bulls, OR are we heading back to 2008? A week after Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank failed, First Republic Bank is considering a sale following a dramatic 60 percent drop in its stock price over the past week. The bank also received $70 billion in emergency loans from JP Morgan Chase and the Federal Reserve. Eleven of the biggest U.S. banks Thursday announced a $30 billion rescue package for First Republic Bank in an effort to prevent it from becoming the third to fail in less than a week and head off a broader banking crisis. The rescue package brought back memories of the 2008 financial crisis, when banks collectively came to the aid of weaker banks in the early days of the crisis. Banks then bought each other in hurried deals in order to keep the crisis from spreading further. With FIIs pulling out more dollars from India after back-to-back collapse of three US banks, including Signature and...

Crypto under PMLA: New rules of the game The central government has tightened regulatory control over virtual digital assets, more commonly known as cryptocurrencies. According to a gazette notification, the government has mandated that a host of trading activities in such assets will now come under the ambit of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). In other words, going ahead, trading between cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies or among cryptocurrencies and other such services can be investigated by agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Income Tax department. The move should be seen in light of the government’s efforts to bring cryptocurrencies under greater regulation. In April 2022, for instance, the government introduced a 30% income tax on gains made from cryptocurrencies. Later in July 2022, the government brought in rules regarding 1% tax deducted at source on cryptocurrency. Broadly speaking, greater regulation of cryptocurrencies is advisable. ...

G20, IMF, FSB to work on policy formulation of crypto assets The Indian Administration has proposed a joint specialized paper by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Financial Stability Board (FSB) to "integrate the macroeconomic and administrative points of view of crypto-resources". These associations are supposed to introduce their joint paper during the fourth G20 Money Clergymen and National Bank Lead representatives Meet, planned next October. This would assist in the detailing of a planned and far reaching strategy with drawing closer to crypto resources, when numerous nations including India didn't have an administrative system for crypto resources. A few conversations on the issue are normal over the span of G20 gatherings this year, which will help "construct informed banter inside the G20 gatherings and lead to the detailing of composed and extensive strategy approach," as per a Press Data Department discharge. The IMF-JSB paper is "expe...

Here's how to manage finances after a job layoff Since your regular flow of money has stopped the next challenge is to have enough money in hand to meet your daily expenses. Following biggies like Meta, Twitter, Amazon, Microsoft, Indian corporates have also been issuing pink slips to thousands of employees. For example, Swiggy announced that it is firing 380 employees as part of its latest layoff process. Similarly, Exotel, a customer engagement platform based out of Bengaluru, has laid off 15 per cent of its employees in the latest layoff rounds. GoMechanic fires 70 per cent employees, founder admits to financial reporting errors At some stage, you will get back to earning, but you need to provide a bridge till such time. While we cannot avoid the situation, we can definitely protect us and our family financially by taking right decisions. The first right move is to take account of your expenses. The immediate action to take is to evaluate expenses into 3 buckets: a) must spend (...

Rise of the unbelievable world: AI and Businesses AI is a rapidly growing field that is having a significant impact on businesses of all sizes and industries. AI is the simulation of human intelligence processes by computer systems and it is being used to automate various tasks, analyze data, and make predictions and decisions. One of the most common applications of AI in businesses is the automation of routine tasks. This includes things such as data entry, customer service, and even financial analysis. By automating these tasks, businesses can save time and money, while also increasing efficiency and accuracy. Another key application of AI in businesses is the use of data analysis. With the increasing amount of data being generated by businesses, it is becoming increasingly difficult for humans to make sense of it all. AI can be used to analyze this data and uncover insights and patterns that would not be possible for humans to detect. This can be used for things such as marketing, f...

Exploring tech, legal provisions to keep e-Rupee transactions 'anonymous' RBI is exploring technological solutions to keep retail transactions using the digital rupee ‘anonymous’. RBI could also explore legal provisions to keep the transactions anonymous. It will weigh its options as things evolve but will ensure the anonymity of transactions up to a certain limit, which is a basic feature of cash transactions. The basic distinction between Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions and digital rupee transactions is that UPI is a payment mode, which involves the intermediation of banks, and the digital rupee is money. So, all UPI transactions hit banks’ core banking solution (CBS). But in the case of a digital rupee, once the money is withdrawn from the bank and reaches the customer’s wallet, the transaction that takes place following this process is essentially a transfer of money between two wallets. Experts have suggested that when a bank ...

Digital Rupee is the future of money Almost nine months after the Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman first spoke about the digital currency in parliament, the digital rupee was launched in India. The pilot project launched by the RBI is for wholesale transactions in the bond market. The retail phase for the customers, however, will be launched sometime later. Digital Rupee or CBDC is a new digital form of money issued by central banks. The digital rupee rollout is a big step ahead in India’s digital transformation. It will be an excellent opportunity for India since it will potentially increase the ease of doing business, as well as improve resilience and security of the entire payments infrastructure. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced that the first pilot in Digital Rupee - Retail segment is planned for launch within a month in select locations. The central bank said that nine banks -- State Bank of India (SBI), Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank,...

  SUBSCRIBERS’ WIN OVER TELECOM OPERATORS Buying a recharge plan with 28 days validity or less is like paying for pizza with less or no cheese. A 30 days validity plan sounds like a more complete package. Following the concerns expressed by several telecom subscribers over such 28 days validity plans, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India decided to take an action on this and therefore, asked telecom operators to offer vouchers with a validity of 30 days. “Every Telecom Service Provider shall offer at least one Plan Voucher, one Special Tariff Voucher, and one Combo Voucher which shall be renewable on the same date of every month, and if the date of such renewal is not available in a month, the date of renewal shall be the last date of that month,” the telecom regulator said in a release. Abiding by these rules, telcos launched monthly validity plans for their customers that offer either 30 days of validity or 1-month validity. Now TRAI in its latest press release has liste...

In a crackdown on illegal digital lending platforms, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will soon prepare a ‘whitelist’ of all legal applications (apps) that offer loans, and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) will ensure only these apps are hosted on app stores. “The RBI will monitor the ‘mule/rented’ accounts that may be used for money laundering and review or cancel dormant NBFCs (non-banking financial companies) to avoid their misuse. The RBI will ensure that registration of payment aggregators be completed within a timeframe and no unregistered payment aggregator be allowed to function after that,” the finance ministry said in a statement on Friday. The decisions were taken in a meeting chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday. The steps by the government come after illegal loan apps hosted on app stores have been found offering micro-credit to the pandemic-hit people and low-income g...