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"The govt has held one preliminary meeting to explore terms of reference of such a conciliation" The government and Vodafone are getting closer to settling their eight- year tax spat over the 2007 Hutch- Vodafone crossborder deal. The British telecom major, which had sought arbitration under the Indo- UK bilateral investment protection treaty in June, has formally approached the finance ministry for conciliation. In a series of tweets on Wednesday, Revenue Secretary Hashmukh Adia said “ Vodafone has in a written communication expressed its desire to go for conciliation for its tax disputes with India” and the government held a preliminary meeting to explore theterms ofreferenceofsuchconciliation on October 10. He, however, was quick to add that more follow- up meetings would be held for finalisation of the terms. Sources familiar with the developments said in their meeting with Vodafone’s global chief executive Vittorio Colao last month, finance ministry officials had...

The Cabinet on Wednesday cleared the sale of a 10 per cent stake in Coal India, restored interest subvention for merchandise exports, directed compensation for stalled road projects, empowered the ministry concerned to clear road projects up to a cap on costing and for the first time gave production subsidy directly to sugar farmers. The slew of measures would revive market sentiments, investments and economic growth. The government had also liberalised the foreign investment regime last week to boost the market. The Cabinet also gave a nod to a marketing margin of Rs.150- 200 per standard cubic metre charged by gas retailers like Reliance Industries and GAIL ( India) for urea and liquefied petroleum gas plants. This was based on recommendations of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board. The government is expected to mop up Rs.20,000 crore from the Coal India disinvestment, power minister Piyush Goyal said at a press briefing. At current prices, the 10 per cent stake sa...

Updates Of the Day 1.DVAT has extended the last date of filing of online / hard copy of return for II Quarter ended 30.09.2015 for the FY 2015-2016, in Form DVAT-16, DVAT-17 and DVAT-48 to 20.11.2015. 2.High Court of Delhi confirms penalty on custom official for clearance of consignment without proper verification. [S.N. Ojha vs. Commisioner of Customs] 3.MCA has revised the versions of Annual Filing Forms, MGT - 7 (Form for filing annual return by a company) w.e.f 17th November, 2015. 4.Adjudicating Authority can reject transaction value if assessee fails to prove that relationship had not influenced price. [The CESTAT Chennai: Ansaldo STS Transportation Systems India Pvt. Ltd vs. Commissioner of Customs] 5.CBEC vide circular 187/6/2015-ST dated 10.11.2015 has issued a scheme for fast track sanctioning of refund of accumulated cenvat credit to Exporters of Service for payment of 80% (eighty percent) of the amount claimed as refund. 6.Depreciation is allowed while calculating ex...

Tight liquidity situation in the system pushes rates higher raising concerns over impact on growth Short-term borrowing rates have risen despite the Reserve Bank of ndia's sharper-than-expected rate cut in September, thanks to the tight liquidity conditions, raising concerns that this could act as a speed breaker for growth. Short-term rates are about 35-45 basis points higher than the benchmark repo rate of 6.75%. These include the inter-bank call money market, collateralised borrow ng and lending and treasury bills. The dif erential was 15-25 bps just a few weeks ago.A basis point is 0.01 percentage point. “The efficacy of monetary policy transmission is facing a challenge due to sustained tight banking system liquidity ,“ said Soumyajit Niyogi, senior interest rate strategist at SBI DFHI Primary Deal ers. “Continuous elevated short-term rates are driv ing corporate borrowing costs higher and providing downward rigidity to bank ing rate specific instru ments...That would ne...

Exporters are not impressed by the Centres' decision to increase duty drawback rates for merchandise exports of certain products. Terming the move a 'temporary measure', exporters have demanded the government should take more concrete measures to stem the fall in exports. Exports stood at $21.35 billion in October 2015 - a 17.53 per cent fall on a year-on-year basis. On Monday, the government had raised the duty drawback rates by two per cent for many sectors including engineering, marine and textiles. Besides, two weeks ago, the government had announced a revamped merchandise exports from India scheme (MEIS) for 110 additional products. Reacting to these developments, Ajay Sahai, director-general, Federation of Indian Exports Organisation, said more should have been done to lift exports. The drawback rates are reimbursement of certain customs and excise duties, and service tax on imports of input materials, which go into the manufacture of goods that are exported. ...

Taxman sends letters to new-age cos such as Foodpanda, Oyo Rooms and Airbnb to check if they are paying tax Aggregators such as Foodpanda, Oyo Rooms and Airbnb have been asked whether they are paying service tax. “Letters were sent to ascertain if these entities are registered with the department and paying due tax,“ said a department official. This seems to be part of a `friendlier' approach to alert service providers of their potential liability, in line with the Centre's desire for a non-adversarial tax regime that's more welcoming to investors. The official said most entities had registered them selves and some had sought fur ther clarifica tions on proceprocesses as the dures and processes as the provision dealing with this particular area is fairly new. While the rapidly expanding sharing economy offers vast potential for tax revenue, the task can be challenging as in some cases there is no brick-and-mortar presence for these firms. Foodpanda, which aggr...

You may soon not need an automatic teller machine (ATM) to withdraw money using a debit card. A retailer would be able to give you your money. Electronic processing platform Payworld has launched Payworld Cash Point — a service that would help a user withdraw cash from selected retail establishments. An authorised shopkeeper (say, a grocer or a pharmacist) would be able to use a Payworld app on his smartphone to swipe a user’s debit card. Up to Rs 2,000 can be withdrawn from an account using this facility. Payworld has tied up with State Bank of India to operate this. Payworld plans to install these cash-out facilities at all retail outlets under its coverage. It would provide the technology and hardware for the retailers. Payworld is targeting Tier-III & -IV cities and rural areas. Praveen Dhabhai, COO of Payworld, said: “Our initial plan is to launch the scheme with 500 retailers and gradually scale it up to over 5,000 by March 2016.” Business Standard, New Delhi, 18t...

Industry experts expect wider adoption of algorithms from April 2016 when new rules come into effect Algorithms, the software programs that are increasingly replacing humans in many complex jobs where precision and speed decide the winner, are becoming an essential tool for auditors as well. Algorithms, or algos, help auditors identify unusual patterns in the books of account for further analysis.While algorithm-based auditing isn't new globally, audit firms have just started introducing these software systems to India, at a time when local regulations are becoming increasingly stringent. Starting April 2016, failing to raise red flags or mentioning the exact problems they found during auditing of companies could even land the auditors in jail. Auditors rely on technology mostly in risk-based auditing. These algorithms could pinpoint the problem ar eas. The Big Four auditors -Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, EY and KPMG -which have invested millions of dollars to build in-...

India’s economic growth is expected to exceed 7.3 per cent in the current financial year and the government would try to convince opposition parties to pass a blocked tax reform, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Monday. “The Indian economy is expected to grow better than 7.3 percent — the level achieved last fiscal year — and even at a higher level next year,” Jaitley told investors at an Arab- India Economic Forum meeting in Dubai. Economic growth, Jaitley said, would come despite weakness in rural demand due to poor rainfall in the last two years. A drought has also caused shortages that have led to a spike in prices of pulses and vegetables. India’s retail inflation surged to a four- month high in October and industrial production grew at a slower- thanexpected pace in September, latest government data shows. In a bid to speed up growth, India last week eased foreign direct investment norms in 15 major sectors, including mining, defence and civil aviation. But foreign...

Lukewarm retail participation in recent public floats of InterGlobe Aviation and Coffee Day Enterprises has caught the eye of the Securities and Exchange Board of India ( Sebi), the stock markets regulator. Retail investors are those who invest less than Rs.2 lakh each. According to sources, it plans to ask investment bankers of the two transactions why this had happened. The retail quotas in both were under- subscribed. The regulator is also likely to take up the issue at the annual conference of the Association of Investment Bankers in India (AIBI) next month. An e- mail to Sebi wasn’t answered. “The regulator wants to know if the issues were marketed properly,” said a source. Sources said Sebi will also raise other issues on primary markets at AIBI conference. Merchant bankers are likely to raise issue of the start- up listing platform. Theyre looking for clarity on how the proposed Institutional Trading Platform for start- ups will be different from the one available for ...

Indicates willingness to discuss opposition- sponsored motions on intolerance; Jaitley shows willingness to accommodate concerns on GST The coming winter session of Parliament would see an opposition bloc, emboldened after the ruling Bharatiya Janata Partys defeat in Bihar, more combative and united in raising the issue of “ intolerance”. The loss, however, has also strengthened the voice of reformers within the government. The session, starting November 26, could see a government more open to discussing contentious issues. And, more purposeful in pushing its reform agenda by reaching out to the principal opposition party, the Congress, to ensure passage of the goods and services tax ( GST) constitutional amendment. Recently, finance minister Arun Jaitley went to the residence of Congress leader and opposition head in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, inviting him to a family wedding. The two also discussed the coming session, sources said. Earlier in the day, the finance mi...