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Urban ministry changes rule before public consultation by environment ministry Following the NDA government’s “Ease of Business” mantra, the environment ministry has proposed that the entire construction sector could be exempted from mandatory environmental clearances if states impose pre-specified and standard green conditions under their building bye-laws. But, even before the environment ministry carries out mandatory public consultation and notifies these proposed changes, the urban development ministry has already amended its model Building bye-laws public announcing the relaxation for the construction industry. It has asked the states to adopt the model bye-laws to avoid the mandatory environmental clearances. Taking cue, the Delhi Development Authority has adopted these amended building bye-laws without awaiting a final notification of the changes by the environment ministry. Business Standard reviewed documents that show the two ministries consulted repeatedly to deci...

The Special Investigation Team ( SIT) on undisclosed money held a meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday to review some high- profile tax evasion and money laundering probe cases, including those related to bank fraud. The meeting was chaired by SIT Chairman Justice (retired) M B Shah with Vice- Chairman Justice (retired) Arijit Pasayat. It is expected that the panel may soon submit a fresh report (its fifth) to the Supreme Court, officials said. During the meeting, the SIT also reviewed the progress of the ongoing one- time black money compliance window, also called the Income Declaration Scheme, being run by the income tax department. The panel was also "updated" by the multiagency group on the probe in the Panama Papers list case in which at least 500 Indians have been named. Reports were submitted to the SIT by the income tax department, Financial Intelligence Unit and the Enforcement Directorate with regard to their respective probes on the tax evasion and money laund...

Shareholders invited to deposit all or part of their holding in demat form in escrow account by Aug 22 Asia’s oldest bourse, BSE, has set up an escrow account to enable shareholders to tender shares for the exchange’s offer for sale (OFS), to culminate in an initial public offering ( IPO), with shareholders getting about a month for the process. Shareholders have to give a consent form, a notarised power of attorney and deposit their shares in an escrow account by August 22. They may offer all or part of their shares in the offer, if these are in dematerialised form and have been held for a continuous period of one year prior to filing of the draft prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), it wrote on July 5. Shares not sold in the OFS shall be locked- in for a year from the date of allotment/ transfer of shares in IPO. Venture capital funds, category1alternative investment funds or foreign venture capital investors registered with Sebi will be exempt. ...

To provide relief to telecom users on service quality, Telecom authority regulator of India (Trai) is considering seeking feedback from the public on introducing a new ombudsman mechanism to resolve their complaints. As things stand, the scales are tilted towards service providers as current rules do not allow a customer to approach courts for resolving such disputes. “The current system of complaint resolution is not effective. It is an unhappy situation,” TRAI Chairman R S Sharma told PTI. Sharma said the regulator plans to release a consultation paper in a fortnight to deliberate on the institutional arrangement should be adopted to improve efficiency of the consumer grievance redressal framework. He said the views on the same will be sought from people and an automated or technology-based platform could be explored. “We need to mull whether an automated system, say a technology platform, can be used. We will have to see how technology can be leveraged to resolve complai...

The government is looking for concrete and practical suggestions from the Congress on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill, said Arjun Ram Meghwal, the newly appointed minister of state for finance and corporate affairs. Meghwal's comment to ET comes at a time when the government has revived attempts to convince the Congress to enable passage of the Bill in Rajya Sabha, where the ruling coalition is a minority . He expressed the government's willingness for negotiations on all objections, but also sought clear suggestions as to how proposals could be implemented. For instance, he mentioned demand for capping GST rate at 18% in the constitutional amendment Bill and what he sees as the practical problem of implementing it. “Let them tell us which country with a GST has written (GST) rate in their Constitution. How will it function, let them tell us,“ he told ET. “Whichever item, if (at some point) it is felt that its rate should be more than 18%, it will have to go into ...

With almost two months left for people to declare undisclosed income, the revenue department in an internal assessment has pegged a collection of Rs.10,000-15,000 crore through black money declarations, according to sources. The budget for 2016- 17 announced a four-month compliance window, allowing domestic black money holders to declare their unaccounted wealth, pay a tax and penalty total ling 45% and escape prosecution and harsher punishment. The window under the Income Declaration Scheme (IDS) 2016 opened on June 1 and will close on September 30. Tax and penalty at a total rate of 45% on the declared income is to be paid by November. Though response to the ongoing income declaration scheme is lukewarm as of now, the flood of queries about the disclosure has given the government confidence that the collection may be sizeable, sources said. Finance minister Arun Jaitley has recently asked his officers to address all the taxpayer concerns to encourage disclosure of black m...

www.caonline.in News... 1. TEXPROCIL members can also seek clarification on duty free import entitlement. 2. HC not to admit writ petition if assessee already participated in reassessment proceedings.[M/s. Amaya Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. vs. Income Tax Officer (Bombay High Court)]. 3.SCN cannot be issued to debtors until tax liability crystallise.[ M/s Quality Fabricators and Erectors vs. The Deputy Director, DGCEI, Zonal Unit Mumbai and Others (Bombay High Court)]. 4.No attachment of bank accounts without following proper procedures.[ M/s Kunj Power Project Pvt. Ltd. vs Union Of India (Allahabad High Court)]. 5. Benchmarking of brand royalty : aggregation is an appropriate approach.[Goodyear India Ltd, vs DCIT (ITAT Delhi)].