Skip to main content

Tax Road Map to Deal with Disputes in Works Adhia

By
India is preparing a plan to deal with the problem of a large number of tax disputes, a top finance ministry official said, in a bid to clear an almost intractable issue that's given the country's investment regime a bad name.
“We are preparing a roadmap separately for dealing with the existing tax litigation,“ Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said on Monday.
`Tax terrorism' has become part of the vocabulary in the country to describe the highpitched stance taken by the authorities, especially the amendment of the law that enabled taxation of indirect transfers of Indian assets with retrospective effect.
Tax demands exceeding Rs.4 lakh crore are under dispute and litigation in various courts and appellate authorities, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said in his 2014-15 budget speech.
The government is considering an option to raise the threshold for cases to be filed before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal. The government will also come out with a roadmap by next month to phase out corporate tax exemptions and a gradual reduction of the rate to 25% over four years, the revenue secretary said. Adhia said the Justice RV Easwar panel will look at ways to simplify income tax laws, although it will not deal with the issues concerning the retrospective tax amendment. He said the terms of reference for the committee for the simplification of tax laws have been laid out and it will work accordingly.
Asked if the government is open to the idea of reaching an out-of-court settlement in the Vodafone case, the reve nue secretary said, “They had invoked arbitration and we have responded to it. And if there is an offer for out-of-court, the government will consider it.“
India is locked in a Rs.20,000 crore tax dispute with UK telecom company Vodafone, which had acquired indirect control of Hutchison Essar in India by buying an overseas company from Hutchison Telecommunications for $11.1 billion in 2007.While the basic tax demand was Rs.7,990 crore, the total outstand` ing amount, including interest and penalty , is estimated to have risen to over Rs.20,000 crore.
The UPA government amended the law to allow retrospective taxation of such transactions in 2012 to overturn a SC verdict that favoured Vodafone.

The Economic Times, New Delhi, 3rd nov. 2015

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Data storage norm splits digital payments industry

By
Data storage norm splits digital payments industry  India’s nascent digital payment industry could be thrown into disarray due to the demand by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that all user data be stored within the country, fears an industry grouping, which has termed the decision as “heavy-handed”, even as others, including the country’s largest digital payment provider Paytm, have hailed the move.  In a bid to narrow the growing schism, the industry is planning to send a formal representation to the regulator highlighting its concerns, a top official told ET.  “We are trying to build a consensus on the issue," said the person adding that the representation to the central bank will be ready this week.  RBI on April 6, mandated all payment companies—global and local—to set up data storage facilities within India by October. The stringent six-month deadline has attracted the ire of several sections of the industry that fear it will lead to a disruption of wel...
18 comments
Read more

Offer’s for all of you

By
Great Bumper Dhamaka Offer’s for all of you... It's Time to see your Business Online, WebeCreator Offer Website Designing with domain & Email @ nominal charges. For a year For More information visit us http://goo.gl/KlpppF call on 9890151261/9773197533  drop a mail to sales@webecreator.com
Post a Comment
Read more

Sebi to finalise options in commodities today

By
The Commodity Derivatives Advisory Committee of the Securities and Exchange Board of India ( Sebi) will meet on Friday with senior officials of the latter, to give a final shape to the rules on options trading in commodity futures, beside revising the warehousing norms to ensure good delivery on settlement. The decision taken, after discussing with the advisory committee, will be placed before the regulator’s board, to finalise the regulations. According to knowledgeable sources, three commodities in each segment, agricultural and non- agricultural, have been proposed for introducing options. It appears commodities from the soya and guar segments are preferred in the former. From the non- agri segment, it is likely that gold, silver and crude oil will be finalised. All these These have better liquidity and both the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange and the Multi Commodity Exchange, respectively, will be able to introduce the options. In the equity segments, options ar...
17 comments
Read more