CA Online

Deadline for Aadhaar PAN linkage to stay Tax payers will have to link their PAN with Aadhaar by the stipulated deadline, which is this month-end, as the Supreme Court verdict on privacy has no bearing on the requirement, UIDAI CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey has said. The requirement for Aadhaar being quoted for availing government subsidies, welfare schemes and other benefits will also continue unhindered for now, he told PTI. The government had mandated linking of PAN with Aadhaar by the extended deadline of August 31. Asked about the implication of the Supreme Court ruling (privacy being a fundamental right) on linking of Aadhaar and PAN, Pandey said: "There also, linking of PAN to Aadhaar is mandated by an amendment in income tax act...the linking will continue under that act and law. There is no change". Pandey said various deadlines that have been prescribed, be it under provision of Aadhaar Act, Income Tax Act or money laundering rules will "have to be adhered to...

Tighter norms for gold jewellery exporters The Centre is considering fresh measures to stop malpractices in the export of gold jewellery, said two persons familiar with the development. A trade notice issued by the Noida Export Promotion Zone Customs collector on Thursday asked jewellery exporters not to import gold on loan. They will now have to take gold on loan only from nominated agencies and banks. Importing gold on loan is considered a banking transaction where interest is paid and hence, “banking transactions for gold exports, like taking gold on loan, shall be done in India,” said Rahul Gupta, chairman of the Export Promotion Council for EOUs and SEZs (EPCES). Another person familiar with the development said that a recent meeting of development commissioners of SEZs discussed misuse of facilities by jewellery exporters and decided to review the practice of job work outside SEZ areas. “If it is found that misuse is rampant more stringent measures may be taken,” the source s...

More than 2.9 million file GST returns As many as 2,964,653 filers had submitted returns for July under the goods and services tax (GST) regime by the Friday evening. Friday was the deadline for filing returns. The number of filers are likely to increase as the day ends. GST Network, which is responsible for the information technology backbone of the indirect tax regime, has estimated about 4.8 million returns would be filed. Those who have filed returns constitute over 34 per cent of total assessees, of about 8.7 million, under the GST regime.However, of the 8.7 million assesses, 2.2 million are yet to complete the migration process. A last minute rush had led to the GSTN portal crashing last week, forcing the government to postpone the tax filing deadline by five days to August 25. Those who wish to claim transitional input tax credit can file returns by August 28. About 4.8 million taxpayers had saved their sales data on the portal till August 23 and they are just a step away fr...

Customs Seeks to Put Exports in Cruise Mode Cargo to bypass inspectors, to sport RFID chip from Oct Keen to reduce inspector raj from movement of India's exports, the customs department is devising a plan that will allow goods to move from factory to ships without any checks.From October, consignments would not be required to be sealed in the presence of inspectors. Instead they will sport an RFID chip with details of the consignment that can be accessed by a reader. “Supervised sealing of containers will be discontinued from October,“ said a government official. Instead, electronic self-sealing with RFID chip will be introduced, the official added. Only those consignments with perceived risk will be closely examined. This would enable cargo to move expeditiously and prevent unnecessary hold ups at ports bringing down transaction cost of exporters and also chances of corruption. The development follows the risk based assessment introduced by the Customs through SWIFT, or Sing...