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Updates Of the Day 1.Deduction on cess paid on green tea leaves has to be allowed on 100 per cent of the composite income under the Income-tax Act, 1961, and not on 60 per cent of the agricultural income. [Commissioner of Income Tax, Kol-II vs M/s Moran Tea Co. Ltd. - 2016 (2) TMI 278 - CALCUTTA HIGH COURT] 2.So long as the documents (debit notes) reveal the essential details like registration number, service provided, service recipient, value of taxable service, refund cannot be rejected merely because the documents are debit notes. – Tribunal. [M/s.Shivam Exports, M/s. Mecshot Blasting Equipment (P) Ltd. And M/s. Shree Ram Industries vs CCE Jaipur - 2016 (2) TMI 259 - CESTAT NEW DELHI] 3.Refund cannot be denied merely for procedural lapse i.e. if assessee is eligible to get refund, it should be allowed even if there is a delay of 2 days because of the intervening saturday and sunday and the claim was filed on Monday.[Markers Mart And Prince Exports vs C.C.E & S. Tax., Jaipur...

The government is considering permitting 100 per cent FDI in the market place format of e-commerce retailing with a view to attract more foreign investments.  The norms on foreign direct investment (FDI) in the sectors of e-commerce, and IT and ITeS are expected to be part of detailed guidelines, which would be rolled out soon by the government, sources said.  Last week, a group of senior officials from departments of DIPP, Corporate Affairs and Economic Affairs, among others, discussed these matters in great detail.  According to sources, the DIPP has suggested that 100 per cent FDI should be allowed in "market place model e-commerce" activities.  In such a model, the e-commerce company provides an online platform for buyers and a sellers.  At present, global e-tailer giants like Amazon and Ebay are operating online marketplaces in India while homegrown players like Flipkart and Snapdeal have foreign investments even as there are no clear FDI guidelines on var...

Labour bureau to visit over 10,000 firms every quarter, more than four times present number, to track employment The Union labour ministry will revamp its quarterly job survey to reflect the latest employment data from both the manufacturing and service sectors in a bid to make it more structured and sync it with policymaking. So far, employment data collection in India has been ad hoc, patchy and irregular. For instance, employment data from many manufacturing and export-oriented firms is available only up to June 2015, unlike export data, which comes in every month. “The quarterly survey will be revamped soon. We are looking to expand the base of the survey as well. The aim is to have regular up-to-date jobs data for both policymaking and public consumption,” said Daljeet Singh, deputy director general of the labour bureau, which functions under the labour ministry. “The quarterly survey which has been carried out since 2008-09 (but only for a small segment of companies) will be exp...

Budget may kill excise exemptions for some grocery items in preparation for GST Your monthly grocery bill could rise after the Budget as the government is considering the elimination of excise duty exemptions for some items and moving up the lowest rate currently applied on many goods to set the stage for the goods & services tax (GST). Green tea, dairy spreads, yoghurt, cheese, ice-cream, frozen food products, pasta, ready-to eat foods, packaged fruit juices and soya milk could see excise duty kicking in or going up to the standard rate of 12.5%. Many of these products currently attract nil to 6% excise. “A number of exemptions in the excise duty have been sit ting for years,“ said a government official. “With GST round the corner, it makes sense to take a relook at the existing structure.“ He pointed out that a number of exempted items already attract value ad ded tax (VAT) in some states. The government is expected to give a renewed push to GST in the Budget session by at tempt...

Govt considers entity level taxes for infrastructure firms instead of SPV level taxes In what could boost the growth of the infrastructure companies, which are currently reeling under the burden of massive debt, the government is looking to allow them to file a consolidated group tax return, a person familiar with the development said. This means, infrastructure companies would be able to consolidate profits and losses in all their subsidiaries and pay taxes as a single entity. Currently, these firms treat each project as a separate entity and the performance of one such operation--mostly registered as a special purpose vehicle (SPV)--is independent from another such operation. The government is conducting a feasibility research to find out if a model of allowing companies to consolidate the SPVs would lead to any loss in their tax revenue, the person told ET. “Currently, the government doesn't know if allowing such a leeway would lead to increase or decrease in taxes.“ The govern...