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Promising a rational tax regime and easier business environment, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday asked Turkish industry leaders to invest in India including in smart cities, textiles, food processing and renewable business sectors. In an interactive session with them on the sidelines of the G20 Meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, he said the government has made significant progress in improving ease of doing business in India and alot more was being done in this regard. "We have made significant progress on ease of doing business, although I would not say as yet that we have perfected it," Jaitley said. Committing himself to rationalising the taxation regime, both in terms of direct and indirect taxes, he said a number of initiatives that offer significant investment opportunities have been announced for global investors including from Turkey. Business Standard, New Delhi, 05 September 2015

The government aims to utilise bank accounts under its flagship financial inclusion scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana ( PMJDY), to extend insurance, pension and credit facilities to those excluded from these benefits, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Friday. He said so on the occasion of India joining a United Nations initiative to enable countries’ transition to electronic payments. The initiative, Better Than Cash Alliance, will facilitate the government’s aim of promoting cashless transactions in the economy. “The scale of ambition of the Jan- Dhan Yojana has been much higher than for any other financial inclusion initiative in the past. The project has been instrumental in bringing almost all families of the country into the formal financial system and enabling citizens at the grassroots to perform financial transactions and keep their hard- earned money safe,” Jaitley, away in Ankara, Turkey, for a G- 20 countries meet of finance ministers, stated on the first anniv...

Tax-trade dept directs all e-traders to furnish details of transactions on govt site NEW DELHI: The Delhi government has ordered all traders who sell goods through online portals to immediately furnish information related to their transactions and made it mandatory for them to submit tax. “The department of trade and tax has made it mandatory for all e-commerce companies providing e-platform facilities to file information online with regard to the transactions made by such traders through their portals. In the financial year 2014-15, it had come to the notice that some dealers engaged in the selling of goods through online portals were not depositing the tax that they owe to the department, even after collecting from consumers,” said a Delhi government spokesperson. A Delhi government official said that as e-commerce was an emerging and fast growing sector, the department felt it was imperative to regulate these dealers to bring them under the ambit of VAT. “The department rec...

India could bring in a law to amend the income-tax Act in the forthcoming winter session of Parliament to completely exorcise the ghost of minimum alternate tax on foreign portfolio investors (FPIs). Finance ministry officials said the law needs to be changed as soon as possible, rather than wait for the next Budget, because as sessing officers may feel themselves legally bound to take action in cases that will become timebarred by the end of the financial year. Under Indian laws, fresh tax de mands cannot be raised after six years. Even though assessments and tax demands in already processed cases have been put on hold through an administrative advisory, some assessing officers may not consider this to be legally binding. “Bringing a tax law amendment in the winter session is an option being examined,“ said a ministry official, adding that this has been done in the past. A call would be taken soon on the way forward, the official told ET. Tax experts said there is a need to move urge...

On Aug 28- 31, anaverage of 1.5mn e- filed tax returns a day, against IRCTC’s daily average bookings of 600,000 & Flipkart’s 100,000 India’s information technology prowess has been vindicated. On an average, 1.5 million people e- filed their tax returns everyday, during the last four days of August, much more than the combined daily average bookings of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation ( 600,000) and Flipkart ( 100,000). On August 30 and 31, 1,5002,000 e- filings were recorded every minute, going up to 3,000 at the peak. According to officials at the income tax department’s central processing centre ( CPC) here, where teams from Tata Consultancy Services ( TCS) and Infosys are collocated with tax officials, there were 18.4 million e- filings of income tax returns as of August 31, 15 per cent higher than a year ago. While TCS manages the e- filing portal, Infosys manages the CPC. “We had almost 6.5 million hits on the site on August 31. The number of returns filed...