Below The Line

Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy is in a bit of a hurry to get the State machinery going. He has just about 10 months left before the General Elections and needs to do more than enough to impress upon the voters that the grand alliance between his JD (S) and the Congress is actually a working model which can be replicated elsewhere too. One of his first visits after he took over was to the Jayanagar residence of the IT czar, NR Narayana Murthy to seek his services to restore Bengaluru’s pride.

Impressed with his zeal and sincerity, Murthy was quick enough to extend his help. But when Kumaraswamy announced to the media that he had nominated Murthy to head the State planning board, he seems to have realised that he was asking a bit too much from the veteran industry icon who is as busy as ever.

The CM was quick enough to retrace his decision. He should try finding the right man for the job quickly before the key post falls victim to caste politics.

Recently, a hack quizzed a top RBI honcho as to how the currency with public has more than doubled to nearly ₹18.50 trillion now against the ₹7.8 trillion one saw post demonetisation in January 2017.

Should one see this as failure of the government’s Digital India initiative, given that currency with public has only gone up in last 15 months? Pat came the reply: “Certainly not.

You are missing the fact that India’s GDP is growing 5-6 per cent levels in recent years. Actually the cash requirements would have been much higher. Thanks to the digital payments boom, some space has been filled”.

The health care insurance scheme — Ayushmann Bharat — will after all be dependent on Aadhaar. Though the Aadhaar card will not be required for the first time during the registration for the scheme, if the patient comes around the second time to seek services, he or she will have to provide the Aadhaar number, the Health Ministry officials were heard discussing.

Also, the Ministry will soon be launching an app to help people navigate through the scheme. Wonder how this will help those with no internet connectivity or smartphone, considering that the scheme is for the poor!

If the buzz in corridors of power is anything to go by, the Reserve Bank of India is toying with the idea of setting up another pan-India payment institution on the lines of National Payments Corporation of India. Plans are afoot to throw open this idea for public comments. So far this has only been a thinking within the confines of the RBI, according to RBI insiders.

The point of debate is that payment systems are “concentrated” in one institution (NPCI). Also, there is a raging debate within the RBI as to whether one institution (NPCI) is enough to handle the whopping growth in digital payments, which has already grown 350 per cent in value terms since demonetisation! With the digital payments volumes set to further zoom in the coming days, there are good chances NPCI itself will face competition.

The CA Institute has knocked at the CBDT’s doors to do a rethink on the latter’s decision to keep chartered accountants out of certain valuation jobs.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had recently amended the income tax rules to provide that only Merchant Bankers are entitled to do Valuation of Unquoted Shares and that Chartered Accountants are no more eligible to do so. The aggrieved ICAI has now joined hands with some regional accountancy associations to petition the CBDT. Our Delhi and

Bengaluru Bureaus

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