CA Online

The anti-profiteering clause in the  GST  Bill has  India Inc  worried, even as finance minister Arun Jaitley, in various interactions, has said that there would be no witch-hunt.  Clause 171(1) of the GST Bill provides that any reduction in rate of tax on any supply of goods or services, or the benefit of input tax credit shall be passed on to the recipient (consumer) by way of a commensurate reduction in prices.  There are many aspects that are currently open ended. "An authority is to be empowered to examine this. The finer rules and regulations and penalties are not yet known. The yardstick that would be deployed for such measurement also needs to be spelled out. However, savings to a company arising out of logistic or other efficiencies do not have to be passed on," says Sachin Menon,  indirect tax  leader at  KPMG  India.  Badri Narayanan, partner, Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan, a law firm, says, "In many countries, it is th...

Declarants who failed to pay the first instalment of the tax and penalty by Nov 30, 2016, won't get any relaxation The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has ruled out any relief for those who declared unaccounted income under the Income Declaration Scheme (IDS) but failed to pay the first instalment of the tax and penalty. The CBDT said any relaxation will be “discriminatory“ against those who made payment as per the first deadline of November 30, 2016. “It is noted that IDS does not provide for levy of interest on delayed payments, and hence, granting such a condonation to the defaulters may be discriminatory against the declarants who made it a point to adhere to the prescribed time schedule,“ the CBDT said in an order. The four month-long IDS scheme, which closed on September 30, 2016, gave anyone with unaccounted wealth a chance to come clean by paying 45% tax and penalty. The government had allowed the amount to be paid in instalments over one year ending Septe...

Central depts, states told to ensure info such as Aadhaar nos, bank details not published anywhere The government has ordered central departments and states to ensure that the Aadhaar numbers of people and their bank account details are not published anywhere, including online platforms, and any such personal information available in public domain must be taken down immediately . The directive follows a backlash on social media last week over the online publication of personal information such as Aadhaar numbers, bank account details, names and addresses. Several privacy advocates alleged that information collected by mini stries, departments and state governments were easily accessible through an online search. The notice issued on March 25 was sent to secretaries to the government of India, chief secretaries and IT secretaries of all states and union territories, along with web informa tion managers of websites managed by the National Informatics Centre. Concerns over the sec...

Reserve Bank of India has said all payment systems will remain closed on April 1. It isachange from its earlier directive asking banks to remain open on the first day of the next financial year beginning April 1. Business Standard New Delhi,30th March 2017

Government services such as issuing of passport, birth certificate and driving licence would attract the goods and services tax (GST), according toarevised draft of the Central GST Bill, introduced in Parliament this week. This isadeparture from the draft Bill introduced in November, which had included these services in Schedule IV,alist of exemptions. The latest version specifically states these would qualify as “business”. “GST appears to be applicable on passport services, issue of birth certificates etc unless exempted atalater stage through an exemption notification,” said Punebased chartered accountant and GST trainer Pritam Mahure. Also, the noncompete amount given by an employer to its outgoing employee is likely to attract the goods and services tax (GST), though clarity on this will emerge only after 31 March when the GST Council meets to frame rules for the new unified tax regime. Noncompete amount isasum paid to an outgoing employee —based on an agreement with the...

The Lok Sabha on Monday cleared the four goods and services tax (GST) Bills, but not beforeaheated debate between the treasury benches and the Opposition over multiplicity of rates, ambit of the new tax system, nature of legislation, proposed antiprofiteering body and Parliament´s right over the new tax system. All eyes are now on the subordinate rules, which will be taken up by the GST Council on March 31 and the specific tax rates, which will be recommended byacommittee of officers next month for the new indirect tax system to be rolled out from July 1 as slated. Soon after the Lower House cleared the Bills relating to Central GST, Union Territory GST, Integrated GST and Compensation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: “Congratulations to all the countrymen over passage of the GST Bills. New Year, New Law, New Bharat.” States will now have to pass their State GST Bills, which would be more or less the replica of the Central GST and Union Territory GST Bills. Finance Minist...