CA Online

Draft schedule released by CBDT says sunset clause may not be extended The finance ministry has proposed a road map on making tax rates more competitive and proposed phase- out of most of the exemptions from the 2017- 18 financial year. This is in tune with this year’s Budget announcement that the corporate tax rates would be reduced to 25 per cent over the next four years from 30 per cent at present but would be accompanied by a corresponding phase- out of exemptions and deductions. The draft schedule for phasing out these exemptions was put in the public domain by the Central Board of Direct Taxes on Friday. It has invited comments within the next 15 days. The road map says profit- linked, investmentlinked and area- based deductions would be done away with for corporate and non- corporate tax payers. Provisions with a sunset date would not be extended or advanced. For incentives with no terminal date, a sunset date of March 31, 2017, would be provided for commencement of th...

Updates Of the Day 1.SEBI has issued circular for Investor Grievance Redressal System and Arbitration Mechanism. 2.Updated version of MCA XBRL validation tool-V3.0 available on MCA. 3.Use modified version of Form MGT-7 (Form for filing annual return by a company) w.e.f. 17th Nov 2015. 4.Delhi VAT- Form to be submitted by dealers conducting online sales and other amendments. 5.VAT Input Tax Credit is to be allowed till the date of publication of cancellation of registration in the official gazette. Appellate Tribunal, VAT in the case of M/s Shree Sidhi Vinayak Traders. 6.Today (20.11.2015) is last date to file DVAT-16, DVAT-17 & DVAT-48 for Quarter 2 of 2015-2016.Circular No.29 of 2015-2016. 7.Payment made in excess of Rs 20000/- should be allowed if made in business exigency. [ITAT Hyderabad held in Manikanta Concerns vs DCIT] 8.Adjustment of seized cash before completion of assessment permitted against self assessment/ advance tax subject to specific request made by asses...

Jaitley stresses need to implement labour reforms Calling upon state governments to simplify tax laws and ensure corruption-free processes for doing business, finance minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said that those adopting such policies would substantially gain in a climate, in which different states were competing with one another to attract investments. “States that ensure that a project is taken to the execution stage at a rapid pace after the signing of an MoU or agreement will attract private investments”, Jaitley said in his inauguration speech at the Resurgent Rajasthan Partnership Summit – an investor conclave jointly organised by the Rajasthan government and the Confederation of Indian Industry. “Ease of doing business is not merely a slogan, but the need of the hour”, he said. Speaking in context of Rajasthan, the FM estimated that approximately 55% of the state government’s expenditure was “tied up” — largely on account of legacy issues. The state’s financial posi...

The new rate of service tax plus Swachh Bharat cess will be 14.5%. The recently imposed `Swachh Bharat' cess will not be levied on services that are exempted from tax or are in the negative list, the Central Board of Excise and Customs has said. The CBEC has issued clarifications in form of frequently asked questions to clear the air about the cess, which was announced in this year's Budget but levied only from November 15. “It is also proposed to have an enabling provision to levy `Swachh Bharat' cess at a rate of 2% or less on all or certain services if the need arises. This cess will be effective from a date to be notified,“ finance minister Arun Jaitley had said in his budget speech, adding that “resources generated from this cess will be utilised for financing and promoting initiatives towards Swachh Bharat“. Although the government has Parliament's nod to levy up to 2% as Swachh Bharat cess, it notified the rate at 0.5%. An official said the tax was noti...

The government is considering raising import duty on aluminium products by as much as five per cent, among other policy measures, to tackle unabated import of cheap products adversely impacting the sector. "Domestic industry is going through tough a time. Some firms have approached the Directorate General of Safeguards for a hike in safeguard duty. " If it doesnt happen, we in our pre- budget consultation with finance ministry will propose," Balvinder Kumar, mines secretary, told PTI. He said the government was aware of the situation the industry is going through and would take appropriate measures. When asked on the duty hike, he said, " We will propose to raise it to 7.5 or 10 per cent from the present five per cent." Sources said mining conglomerate Vedanta has approached the Directorate General of Safeguards, while Hindalco, flagship firm of the Aditya Birla Group, is going to. Last month, industry officials met Hasmukh Adhia in this regard. Domes...

A new scheme launched by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion under the National Manufacturing Policy aims to make acquisition of energy efficient technologies by Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises easier. Business Standard, New Delhi, 20th Nov. 2015

In the fortnight since the gold monetisation scheme was launched, only 400 gm gold has been deposited and with only one bank, as no other bank had tripartite agreements with hallmarking centres and gold refiners. Now, the finance ministry and the Bureau of Indian Standards ( BIS) are simplifying the administration of the scheme to get it moving. In contrast, the response to gold bonds and coins has been much better. A government source said retail investors had applied for Rs.100 crore worth of bonds and 6,000 gold coins had been sold. The gold monetisation scheme, bonds and coins were launched on November 5 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to reduce bullion imports and mobilise 22,000 tonnes of idle gold in the country. In a meeting with gold refiners and hallmarking centres on Thursday, finance ministry and BIS officials allowed refiners with only one year’s track record to sign up for the scheme. There were 18 gold refiners in the country in 2014 and their numbers have climb...

Falling exports likely to get a leg-up as CCEA clears Interest Equalisation Scheme on preand postshipment rupee export credit with effect from April 1 India's falling exports got a booster shot on Wednesday with the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approving a scheme to provide cheaper credit to exporters for five years. Prime Minister Narendra Modi-headed CCEA approved the Interest Equalisation Scheme (earlier called Interest Subvention Scheme) on preand postshipment rupee export credit with effect from April 1, 2015, for five years. The scheme will be evaluated after three years. This is the third major announcement for exports in the last fortnight. On October 30, the government expanded support to various products under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS), followed by a revision of the duty drawback rates for exporters two days ago. “The rate of interest equalisation would be 3%. The scheme would be available to all exports of MSME and 416 tar...

"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...