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In a move that could add real bite to India’s war on black money, the Swiss Federal Council on Wednesday approved a bill that would allow the government to share “stolen data” with other countries. The council, Switzerland’s highest executive authority, said in a statement: “The Federal Council initiated the consultation proceedings on the revision of the Tax Administrative Assistance Act, which provides for an easing of Swiss practices with regard to stolen data. Partner countries find Switzerland’s current practice too restrictive… the most pertinent illustration is the case of India (HSBC list).” The statement said that it would now be possible to respond to requests if a foreign country has obtained the “stolen data” via normal administrative assistance channels or from public sources. Switzerland has for long maintained that its domestic laws don’t acknowledge leaked data that is considered “stolen”. This stance has thwarted New Delhi’s probe into a list of more than 600 account...

If the finance ministry has its way, you will soon be able to withdraw Rs. 5,000 through point of sale machines at shops, up from Rs. 2,000 now. This can potentially bring down the use of automated teller machines (ATMs) to just large-value transactions. ×Ads by CinemaPlus-4.2v A senior finance ministry told ET that the government is in discussions with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to increase the withdrawal amount from the current limit of . 2,000 per day Rs. The facility was made available in 2013 for all debit and prepaid card holders. “There is a case for increasing the amount, more so in Tier III and Tier IV cities where ATMs are less and also at a lot of distance,“ the official said, adding that the move will support the mission of providing universal banking access. Under the government's ambitious financial inclusion scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), banks have opened 17.74 crore accounts with deposits of more than Rs. 22,000 crore. “Ease of taking out...

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday gave its approval to an order issued by government on August 28, to extend the provisions of compensation, rehabilitation and resettlement available to farmers under the 2013 Land Acquisition Act to 13 other central laws as well. The controversial issue of land ordinance, which was allowed to lapse on August 31, was also briefly discussed at the meeting of the Cabinet chaired by prime minister Narendra Modi, during which views were exchanged on the feedback from grassroots after the lapse of the ordinance. Sources said the prime minister was keen to know the reaction of farmers to the two land ordinance- related decisions taken by government in the past one week. Some ministers, according to the sources, said the decision to allow the ordinance to lapse was the right move against the backdrop of the " misinformation campaign" by opposition parties and some non- governmental organisations, which was creating " perception problems" for ...

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India ( ICAI) has formed a ‘ prima facie’ opinion in the complaint against the auditor of National Spot Exchange ( NSEL) at the time of the latter’s payments scam. The institute said in a reply to a query under the Right to Information law) that its director (discipline) had formed the view and this had been sent to the (internal) ‘ competent authority’. The decision of the latter is to be reported in due course, it added. The reply did not indicate whether the said view confirmed the alleged misconduct or not. ICAI has been probing complaints against Mukesh P Shah &Co, the entity which audited NSEL in the run- up to its collapse, following a ? 5,600 crore payment crisis in July 2013. The first complaint was in September 2013 by one Uday Punj, followed by two more by investors. All these were combined. The auditor responded to these allegations in November 2013. After waiting for several months, the complainants moved the high court ...

The income tax department has extended the deadline for online filing of returns for the 2015- 16 assessment year by seven days ( till September 7), as e- filing services went slow on the earlier deadline of August 31. However, sources said servers at Bengalurus Central Processing Centre ( CPC), where the e- filing forms are being processed, were working fine that day. An official statement said, “ The Central Board of Direct Taxes ( CBDT) has extended the due date for e- filing of returns of the income tax from August 31 to September 7.” Some of those filing returns on August 31 said “ system error” was showing up on the screen of their computers when they tried to file the returns. The government has received representations from tax payers, saying they had faced difficulties in e- filing of returns due to slowing of certain e- services. Taking these complaints into account, CBDT has extended the deadline. Sources said the system had slowed down due to heavy traffic on the last day ...

1.  CBDT issued criteria for manual selection of scrutiny cases during FY 2015-16.Instruction no.8 Dated 31-08-2015. 2.  Only because an amounting is appearing in 26AS, it cannot be taxed in the hands of assessee unless he is proved to be beneficiary of that amount-[Rajinder Pratap Thareja (Jab.) ITA 137/2014 dated 31-03-2015] 3.  Government accepts the recommendation of the Justice A.P. Shah committee to clarify the in-applicability of MAT to FIIs/FPIs and has decided that an appropriate amendment to the Income Tax Act will be carried out. 4.  Paid up holding value of shares on date of giving special notice by members substituted from not more than Rs. 5 Lakh to not less than Rs 5 Lakh. Notification dated 28.8.2015. 5.  Paid up holding value of shares on date of giving special notice by members substituted from not more than Rs. 5 Lakh to not less than Rs 5 Lakh. Notification dated 28.8.2015. 6.  Amended new form MGT 7 (Annual Return form) notif...

Do you find yourself at the receiving end of the income-tax department’s scrutiny year after year despite being an honest taxpayer, just because you go on multiple foreign trips in a year and make high-value cash deposits? Well, you may soon get some relief, with the income-tax department looking to rationalize the scrutiny process for taxpayers picked out by the computer-assisted selection system, or CASS. In an effort to reduce harassment of taxpayers, the department will soon issue some clarifications to the scrutiny process. “We will clarify that if a taxpayer has been picked up for scrutiny for two consecutive years and no addition has been made, he will not be scrutinized again,” said a senior official of the income-tax department, on condition of anonymity. Addition refers to the practice of the tax department to add to the income of the taxpayer and, therefore, increase the tax liability in case it finds, during scrutiny, that the assessee has under-reported his or he...

The Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks has issued new guidelines for issuance of computer-related inventions, which could make it easier for IT companies in the country to register a patent. The guidelines, issued on August 21, allow companies to show innovation in just software, rather than in both software and hardware as was previously required. They also make it easier to register a patent for technical innovation in a business method--the basis of most patents filed in the BPO industry. “The guidelines help the examiners judge whether a patent should be awarded,“ Bishakha Bhattacharya, senior director of policy at the National Association of Software and Services Companies, told ET. “In the past, they were quite oner ous--requiring novelty in both hardware and software--and if there were terms denoting business process management like supply chain, then they would be rejected. The new guidelines change that.“ But Bhattacharya said there were still some ...

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued draft guidelines on the computation of the base rate of banks, based on marginal costs of funds, to be effective from April 1, 2016. Indian Banks Association (IBA) will finalise the components of the spread over and above the base rate, to ensure uniformity in lending rate calculations. The regulator has asked banks for a clear time frame to adopt the methodology within two months from the issue of the final norms. The components of the spread would include allocable costs, term premium, risk premium reflecting the defaults and the qualitative element of business strategy. The first three components are quantitative; the business strategy would indicate the priority for the product. If the bank wants to expand that portfolio, it would give a discount and may charge more if it wants to exit from that business line, said a senior public sector bank official. IBA is yet to finalise the components. These will be uniform across the bank...

On a day that the 2013 land Act came into effect again with the lapsing of the current government’s land ordinance, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said all that state governments now needed to do was to bring legislations to amend the central law and seek presidential assent for it. He said the Centre would permit the state governments to make state- specific amendments in the 2013 Land Act. Jaitley said acquisition of property was a list III entry 42 in the concurrent list of the Constitution. He said the provisions of Article 254 ( 2) clearly provide that a state government can bring legislation on a concurrent list subject even if it conflicts with the central legislation, provided that presidential assent is given to such legislations. “ The states are thus, fully empowered to amend the 2013 land law and seek presidential assent before the amendment can be effected. This has been precisely agreed to in the meeting convened by the NITI Aayog. One state has already brought the ame...

The finance ministry on Tuesday formally accepted the recommendations of a committee on retrospective cases of Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT), headed by Law Commission chairman A P Shah. With this, the government will withdraw all past cases of MAT on foreign institutional investors ( FIIs). The move came on a day when jittery investors offloaded shares, leading to a fall of about two per cent in the BSE Sensex. The government would modify a contentious provision of the Income Tax Act to make it more transparent and move amendments in this regard in the winter session of Parliament, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said. “ I have accepted the A P Shah panel report submitted on Aug 25, 2015 … It said MAT would not be leviable on FIIs … a necessary amendment in provisions in section 115 JB of the I- T Act would be required and hopefully, we will bring that out in the winter session, or whenever the next Parliament session is held,” he said. “We will issue instructions to field formatio...