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Maharashtra publishes Special Allowance for Revised Minimum Wages for Engineering Industries from 29.11.22 to 31.12.22

D. A. of Drugs and Pharmaceuticals schedule employment for the period of 21.11.2022 to 31.12.2022

The CBDT circular contains the rates of deduction of Income-tax from the payment of income chargeable under the head “Salaries” during the financial year 2022-23

Copy of the circular is attached.

Maharashtra revises Minimum Wages for industries manufacturing Drugs and Pharmaceuticals from 21.11.22

Copy of notification attached

Maharashtra revises Minimum Wages for Engineering Industry from 21.11.22

Copy of notification attached

Maharashtra declares Public Holidays for the year 2023 under the Negotiable Instruments Act 1881

As per the Government, the National Single Window System (NSWS), a digital platform for facilitating ease of doing business, is rapidly gaining traction amongst the investors community and as of date has about 3.7 lakh plus unique visitors.Around 44,000+ approvals have been facilitated through NSWS and 28,000+ approvals are currently under process. The portal will progressively onboard a greater number of approvals and licenses, based on user /industry feedback.

The portal currently accepts applications for 248 G2B clearances from 26 Central Ministries/ Departments, in addition to different State/UT Level clearances in 16 States/UTs.

The NSWS was envisioned to reduce duplicity of information submission to different ministries, reduce compliance burden, promote sector specific reforms and schemes, reduce gestation period of projects, and promote ease of starting and doing business. NSWS enables the identification, applying and subsequent tracking of approvals for all integrated States and Central Departments, making it a true National Single Window System

Further, the Know Your Approvals (KYA) service is live on NSWS with 544 approvals across 32 Central Ministries/ Departments and 2895 approvals across 30 States/ UTs. While a total of 3439 approvals are listed, 1,32,510 investors have used the KYA module to know about the type of approvals they need for their businesses.

Plans are on to integrate 5 more states (Haryana, Andaman & Nicobar, Tripura, Jharkhand and Arunachal Pradesh) to the portal by 15 December and a total of 71,000 approvals have been applied on NSWS till date. The Government has said that it expects to onboard the remaining 8 Ministries/Deptts of Govt of India by 31 Dec 2022 and the balance states/UTs by 31 March 2023.

The gross GST revenue collected in the month of November 2022 accounted for ₹1,45,867 crore of which CGST was ₹25,681 crore, SGST – ₹32,651 crore, IGST -s ₹77,103 crore (including ₹38,635 crore collected on import of goods) and Cess was ₹10,433 crore (including ₹817 crore collected on import of goods)

As per the Government, it had settled ₹33,997 crore to CGST and ₹28,538 crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement. The total revenue of Centre and the States after regular settlements in the month of November 2022 was ₹59,678 crore for CGST and ₹61,189 crore for the SGST. In addition, Centre had also released ₹17,000 crore as GST compensation to States/UTs in November 2022.

The revenues for the month of November 2022 are 11% higher than the GST revenues in the same month last year, which itself was Rs. 1.31,526 crore. During the month, revenues from import of goods were 20% higher and the revenues from domestic transactions (including import of services) were 8% higher than the revenues from these sources during the same month last year.

Chief Guest Mr Uday Kotak Speaks on ‘The Role of India in the Emerging World Order’

L-R: Nilesh Shah, President, Bombay Chamber and Group President & MD, Kotak Mahindra AMC; Mr Uday Kotak, Managing Director & CEO, Kotak Mahindra Bank; Dr Sandeep Shastri, Vice Chancellor, Jagran Lakecity University, Bhopal and Mr Ritesh Tiwari, Sr. Vice President, Bombay Chamber & CFO, Hindustan Unilever ltd. & Unilever South Asia

01 December 2022, Mumbai: The Bombay Chamber of Commerce & Industry celebrated its 187 th Foundation Day at the Taj President on 30 th November 2022. The momentous occasion, which had Mr Uday Kotak, Managing Director & CEO, Kotak Mahindra Bank as the Chief Guest, and Dr Sandeep Shastri, Vice Chancellor, Jagran Lakecity University, Bhopal, as the Guest of Honour, saw luminaries from across industries attend an evening of thought-provoking talks and discussions, on India’s position on the economic and financial front and its political prospects in the run-up to the 2024 General Election.

Welcoming the audience, Mr Nilesh Shah, President, Bombay Chamber spoke about the illustrious past of the Chamber, which formally came into existence on 22nd September 1836. He applauded the stellar contribution and guidance from the past Presidents of the Chamber and reiterated the role of the Chamber in the development of Mumbai as a city and its continued emphasis on ‘Corporates for Change.’ Mr Shah also spoke about the Chamber’s ongoing programmes and its aim to double its membership through the ‘Each One Get One’ Membership Referral Drive.

In his Keynote address, Mr Kotak spoke about how Mumbai and India, as a nation, need to start thinking out of the box to be able to change destiny and reach a different paradigm from where it is currently. He highlighted the importance of the topic, the Role of India in the Emerging World Order, and how the nation can redesign itself in this new world order. The past two years have been tumultuous – with Covid 19 and the geopolitical changes brought on by the Russia-Ukraine war. While, India has come out stronger and better positioned as compared to the other countries – both in terms of how we tackled the Covid-19 pandemic and our positioning in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, there is a need to challenge the status quo and not be complacent.

Mr Kotak urged businesses to make themselves more competitive in the international market, without just being content with the large domestic market that buys goods and services. According to him, true Atmanirbharta will be when India makes ends meet without depending on foreign investment and welcomes foreign investment on its own terms. Mr Kotak hoped for a time when Bombay Chamber celebrates its 200 th Foundation Day in a truly Atmanirbhar India, with the country’s P&L account at least neutral and to make that the goal that the business, trade services and manufacturing sector focus on. He added that India, and the Bombay Chamber, should take a lead in growing India’s manufacturing, competitively. Mr Kotak also said that for the country to transform and emerge even stronger there is a need for more teachers and judges.

In his address, Dr Sandeep Shastri, political scientist who has been the Pro Vice Chancellor of Jagran Lakecity University for the past decade, looked at the future political prospects of the country in the light of the 2024 General Election. He identified 3-Bs – the Battle in the states, the Battle in the regions and the Battle of perceptions – to keenly watch for in the next 18 months, as they could change the entire narrative of the 2024 outcome. According to him, at the state level, in those states where there is weak state-level leadership, it is the centre that has had to push the state. An important aspect to look at is how much the centre pushes the states and maintains the momentum for the next 18 months.

Concerning the battle of regions, while the BJP was able to maintain their strike rate in North, West and Central India, and add North East India to the tally in 2019, the challenge in 2024 will be to maintain this high strike rate and add the south region, to ensure it is an all-India picture. He added that 2024 will also be critical states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra. Further, elections have today also become perception battles, where the ground realities may be vastly different from the perception that people bring with them when they go to the voting centre.

The evening also saw many questions being put forward by the audience and some highly insightful responses to the same. The event ended with a Vote of Thanks by Mr Ritesh Tiwari, Sr. Vice President, Bombay Chamber, who thanked the Speakers and the Audience for their invigorating talks and consistent support.

About Bombay Chamber of Commerce & Industry: Established in 1836, the Bombay Chamber is the oldest Chamber of Commerce in India. The Chamber’s membership constitutes several thousand corporate members (more than 60% being MSMEs) across different industries. The Chamber has a long tradition of Institution building and promoting trade and commerce in India.

Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman chaired the pre-budget consultation meetings for Budget 2023-24 held in virtual mode from 21st to 28th November, 2022.

More than 110 invitees representing seven stakeholder groups participated in eight meetings scheduled during this period. The stakeholder groups include representatives and experts from Agriculture and Agro Processing Industry; Industry, Infrastructure & Climate Change; Financial Sector and Capital Markets; Services and Trade; Social Sector; Trade Unions and Labour Organisations and Economists.

The representatives of the stakeholder groups made a number of suggestions for the forthcoming budget that included mechanism for green certification to help MSMEs, urban employment guarantee programme to boost employment generation in urban areas, rationalisation of income tax, creation of innovation clusters, schemes for improving domestic supply chains, reduction of taxes on electric vehicle, introduction of EV policy, measures to promote India as a hub for Green Hydrogen, Social Sector Entrepreneurship Fund for Social Impact Companies, Training and Accreditation of Care Economy Workers, portable social benefit for children, National Regulatory Authority for Water and Sanitation, coverage of unorganised workers under ESIC, continuation of Public Capex, fiscal consolidation and lower customs duties, among others.