Skip to main content

CBDT to waive interest if tax demand paid in retro cases

By
The tax department will waive interest liability if the principal demand of capital gains tax is paid by companies like Cairn India and Vodafone plc.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on March 24 issued a circular for waiver of interest in disputed tax demand in different scenarios.
In cases where tax liability arose because of retrospective amendment to the law or a court ruling, the interest payable on the demand will be waived, it said.
"However, no reduction or waiver of such interest shall be ordered unless the principal demand... stands fully paid or satisfactory arrangements for payment of the principal demand have been made," CBDT guidelines to Chief Commissioner of Income Tax and Director General of Income Tax said.
The guidelines came seven weeks after the Direct Tax Dispute Resolution Scheme, announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on February 28 last year, closed.
The scheme, which closed on January 31, provided for waiver of interest and penalty if the principal amount involved in retrospective tax cases is paid and all appeals against the government challenging constitutional validity of back-dated amendment to Income Tax laws are withdrawn.
Vodafone faces Rs 14,200 crore tax bill for failing to collect taxes when it paid $11 billion to acquire Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa's 67 per cent stake in India mobile-phone business in 2007.
UK's Cairn Energy plc has been slapped with over Rs 29,000 crore in tax demand including Rs 10,247 crore in principal due, for alleged capital gain it made in 2006 when it transfered its India business into a new subsidiary, Cairn India, and got it listed.
Simultaneously, the tax department also raised a tax demand of Rs 20,495 crore on Cairn India for failing to deduct withholding tax on alleged capital gains made by its erstwhile parent company Cairn Energy in 2006-07 when it reorganised India business.
While the tax scheme that closed on January 31 primarily targeted Cairn Energy and Vodafone, the new guidelines will be applicable for Cairn India as well as Vodafone.
Neither Cairn Energy nor Vodafone participated in the scheme that closed on January 31 and have dragged India to arbitration contesting the demands.
The tax department in the guidelines said the cases where the interest can be waived include ones where tax was not deducted because of an order passed by the High Court but the same has been reversed by "any retrospective amendment of law or a decision of the Supreme Court of India or a decision of a larger bench of the jurisdictional High Court."
Earlier this month, tax tribunal ITAT upheld levy of Rs 10,247 crore capital gains tax on UK's Cairn Energy Plc but has held that interest cannot be charged on it as the demand was raised using retrospective tax legislation.
Business Standard New Delhi,27th March 2017

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Household debt up, but India still lags emerging-market economies: RBI

By
  Although household debt in India is rising, driven by increased borrowing from the financial sector, it remains lower than in other emerging-market economies (EMEs), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its Financial Stability Report. It added that non-housing retail loans, largely taken for consumption, accounted for 55 per cent of total household debt.As of December 2024, India’s household debt-to-gross domestic product ratio stood at 41.9 per cent. “...Non-housing retail loans, which are mostly used for consumption purposes, formed 54.9 per cent of total household debt as of March 2025 and 25.7 per cent of disposable income as of March 2024. Moreover, the share of these loans has been growing consistently over the years, and their growth has outpaced that of both housing loans and agriculture and business loans,” the RBI said in its report.Housing loans, by contrast, made up 29 per cent of household debt, and their growth has remained steady. However, disaggregated data sho...
Post a Comment
Read more

External spillovers likely to hit India's financial system: RBI report

By
  While India’s growth remains insulated from global headwinds mainly due to buoyant domestic demand, the domestic financial system could, however, be impacted by external spillovers, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its half yearly Financial Stability Report published on Monday.Furthermore, the rising global trade disputes and intensifying geopolitical hostilities could negatively impact the domestic growth outlook and reduce the demand for bank credit, which has decelerated sharply. “Moreover, it could also lead to increased risk aversion among investors and further corrections in domestic equity markets, which despite the recent correction, remain at the high end of their historical range,” the report said.It noted that there is some build-up of stress, primarily in financial markets, on account of global spillovers, which is reflected in the marginal rise in the financial system stress indicator, an indicator of the stress level in the financial system, compared to its p...
Post a Comment
Read more

Retail inflation cools to a six-year low of 2.82% in May on moderating food prices

By
  New Delhi: Retail inflation in India cooled to its lowest level in over six years in May, helped by a sharp moderation in food prices, according to provisional government data released Thursday.Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation eased to 2.82% year-on-year, down from 3.16% in April and 4.8% in May last year, data from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) showed. This marks the fourth consecutive month of sub-4% inflation, the longest such streak in at least five years.The data comes just days after the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee cut the repo rate by 50 basis points to 5.5%, its third straight cut and a cumulative reduction of 100 basis points since the easing cycle began in February. The move signals a possible pivot from inflation control to supporting growth.Food inflation came in at just 0.99% in May, down from 1.78% in April and a sharp decline from 8.69% a year ago.A Mint poll of 15 economists had projected CPI ...
Post a Comment
Read more