CA Online

Government on Tuesday asserted in the Supreme Court that Aadhaar was made mandatory for PAN card to weed out fake PAN cards which were used for terror financing and circulation of black money, while terming the concerns over privacy as "bogus". Business Standard New Delhi, 03rd May 2017

The goods and service tax (GST) council's rate fitment committee will deliberate for three days starting on May 4 to align all goods and services to different slabs. A member of the committee, which comprises central and state tax officials, said that the tax rate alignment will be more or less final at the end of the meeting. "We shall do this exercise in such a way that there is little work left to be done or time required to be spent by the council in giving its approval." The council is set to meet for two days from May 18 in Srinagar and approve the rates so that GST can be rolled out from July 1. Hindustan Times New Delhi, 03rd May 2017

As government turns the heat on black money, number of returns filed jumps substantially The number of people who filed tax returns surged by 95 lakh as the government turned the heat on black money with demonetisation and various other measures, two top government officials told ET. The figure was in a presentation made before Prime Minister Narendra Modi as part of the revenue department's review on Tuesday . “There has been an addition of about 95 lakh new taxpayers,“ said one of the officials aware of the details of the presentation. The government has been looking to widen the tax net as barely a little over 1% of the population is said to pay income tax. As many as 5.28 crore returns were e-filed in FY16, a rise of 22% over the previous year. Some returns were filed in paper mode as well. The income-tax department had launched a crackdown against tax evaders as part of its war against black money . It identified 18 lakh persons who had made bank depo Rs 1,000 and 500

Banks allowed these to take up private placements of equity in rival companies; conflict clause confined to specific sub-sectors To ensure success of its 2017-18 disinvestment target, the government is taking an easier approach towards investment banks participating in public sector undertaking (PSU) share sales. The department of public asset management (Dipam), the government body in charge of divestment, has allowed investment banks with PSU mandates to take up certain types of capital market offerings by rival companies in the private sector. The move comes after some lenders, including Deutsche Bank, raised concerns over the ‘conflict of interest’ clause applicable for the share sale mandate in seven PSUs, including Indian Oil and NTPC. Recently, the government floated a Request for Proposal, inviting i-bankers to manage share sales in these seven entities, in the power, finance, energy and metal segments. Sectoral players say the bankers were keen on applying for the mandate