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The commerce & industry ministry is working on a structured programme, with an aim to raise awareness about intellectual property rights ( IPRs) in schools and industry, and society, in general. The department of industrial policy & promotion, under the ministry, recently released the new national IPR policy with seven objectives, including creation of public awareness about economic. Business Standard New Delhi,07th June 2016

The statistics department will shortly release the supply use table ( SUT) to clear GDP data discrepancies, blamed for pushing up economic growth to close to eight per cent in the March quarter of 2015- 16, by this month- end. However, the provisional estimates of GDP data, like the one which was released in May for 2015- 16, would always show discrepancies in the expenditure side of the data. “ There are ways to eliminate discrepancies as well. We are working on it. We will probably release SUT once it is finalised,” Chief Statistician TCA Anant said. The supply use tables are like input output matrix but cover larger data than the latter. It would cover both services as well as manufacturing, unlike input output matrix which cover only factory production. The supply table describes the supply of goods and services, which are either produced in the domestic industry or imported. The use table shows where and how goods and services are used in the economy. Sources said a couple o...

Noting that Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation’s ( EPFO) investments in exchange traded funds ( ETFs) have given good returns during March and April this year, Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said these investments would be increased and the quantum for the coming year would be decided soon. Observing that good investments should dispel apprehensions about EPFO funds being invested in ETFs, he said the labour ministry would deliberate on it after his return from the International Labour Conference in Geneva, three days from today. The corpus fund available with EPFO presently is Rs.7,53,000 crore. Replying to a query, he expressed hope the EPF interest rate of 8.8 per cent ( for 2015- 16) would not come down next year. Business Standard New Delhi, 07th June 2016

India jumped 13 positions and was placed second in retail potential in the 2016 Global Retail Development Index ( GRDI), released by AT Kearney, a Chicago- based consultancy. The country was ranked 15 in the previous year. The report profiled 30 developing countries. However, a Geofin Comtrade spokesperson said, “ GCL is not aware of the proposed forensic audit. It has not received such intimation. Since GCL did not have any code modifications whatsoever in its back- office, besides all records standing reconciled with exchange trade files and neither having acted as a C& F agent, it is not possible for GCL to thereby comment on unsubstantiated news. GCL had filed a summary suit at the Bombay High Court against NSEL in July 2015, for its claim of margin and membership deposits. In that suit too, GCL relied upon the exchange acknowledged obligations.” Business Standard has reviewed a copy of Sebi’s letter to auditors. It has asked them to audit brokerages with respect to a sle...

There is near unanimity that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) won’t touch its key policy rate on Tuesday. However, the market would still examine the central bank’s guidance on a few key issues, including any hint of further accommodation at a time when the US Federal Reserve is set to tighten its monetary policy further and Britain is to decide whether it would be a good idea to stick with the European Union. All the 10 economis  polled by Business Standard last week expected RBI to keep its policy repo rate unchanged at 6.5 per cent. Even as not expected in the policy statement, the market would still want to get a hint of whether RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan would get a second term in the central bank. If not clarified, the post- policy press conference and the analysts call would be monitored closely, say bond and currency market participants. Rupee has been choppy in the past few weeks after news about powerful leaders in the government rooting for Rajan’s ouster started flo...

www.caonline.in News... 1.Service Tax Department Cannot Conduct Audits of Assessees: High Court via ( (Mega Cabs Pvt. Ltd. Vs. Union of India & Ors. (Delhi High Court)) 2.Mere AIR Information not sufficient to believe Income escapement via (Sh. Amrik Singh, vs. Income Tax Officer [ITAT Amritsar (SMC)]) 3.Coaching Class Income of ICAI is exempt via (Dy. Director of Income Tax (E) vs. ICAI (ITAT Delhi)) 4.  MCA has notified 29 sections pertaining to NCLT which is applicable with effect from 1/6/2016. Via Notification  SO1934 (E). 5. Statement of TDS for sale of property u/s 194-IA to be filed within 30 days with effect from 1/6/16, due date aligned with due date of deposit of TDS. CBDT Notification No. 39/2016.

A May tax department circular giving tax officers freedom to determine whether buyout transactions are liable for higher tax is giving sleepless nights to the country's bulge bracket buyout funds. A Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) circular on May 2, which deals with sale of shares of unlisted companies, provides three exceptions to the general exemption of having your profits classified as business income under the provisions of the revised treaty with Mauritius. While generally, sale of unlisted shares is to be treated as capital gains, the circular says that local tax officials could have freedom to determine whether it can be treated as business income in three categories. One such category is when a private equity holding a majority or controlling stake in a company sells its entire stake to a third party along with control of the underlying business. Tax experts and private equity funds worry that income-tax officers could categorise the profits or gains from exit...

The Income Tax Department’s ( ITD’s) new tax statistics may be classified into two categories, macro economy and micro taxpayer levels. Accordingly I will analyse them in two parts, today’s being macro, for 2000- 01 to 2014- 15. Reported 2015- 16 numbers are provisional or incomplete. The GDP series used by ITD coincides with the Reserve Bank of India ( RBI) series except for the initial four years. Conclusions from the statistics are a mix of bad and good: ( 1) growth in tax buoyancy ( percentage response in tax revenue to one per cent increase in GDP) is not too impressive; ( 2) initial gain in direct tax collection has been challenged by indirect tax and the difference is closing; ( 3) pendency in completing assessment of taxpayers by the tax administration has relatively improved; ( 4) ITD has suffered severe relative decline in its own budget; and ( 5) the number of assesses has grown. First, Figure 1 plots annual buoyancy of the tax system and shows its changes ( arrows). B...

Despite the shadow of uncertainty lurking over the rollout of the goods and services tax (GST), state governments have already embarked upon wide-ranging reforms to ensure a seamless rollout of the new indirect tax regime. Several states have brought out amnesty schemes to shore up their tax revenues. The additional revenue garnered through such schemes would come in handy for bargaining with the centre for a higher compensation after GST implementation. Significant progress is also being made on creating the information technology infrastructure to ensure minimum disruptions during the transition. Amnesty Schemes In their 2016-17 Budgets, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled states such as Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan as well as non-BJP ruled states like Bihar and Himachal Pradesh came out with amnesty schemes for cases related to value added tax (VAT), central sales tax and sales tax. Most of these amnesty schemes revolve around waiver of interest and penalty on payment o...

Government needs to speed up implementation of GST, address the issue of cheap imports and improve investment climate as majority of sectors are witnessing moderate growth, says a CII survey. The survey, which tracks the growth of economic sectors on a quarterly basis, also stressed on the quick implementation of the announcements in the budget especially in the infrastructure space, boosting export competitiveness and addressing the issue of delayed payments. Overall, the current trends reveal that majority of the sectors are continuing to witness moderate growth trends with excellent and high growth limited to some sectors, it said. However, a decline in the share of sectors registering low growth is clearly an indication towards the bottoming out of growth trends in the majority of sectors. "Going forward, on the back of the various measures and structural reforms taken by the government, it is expected that the current momentum would be supportive of the revival becomi...

The government is mulling Indradhanush- II, expanding the scope of banking reforms, to get rid of bad loans, manage risks better, bring millions of un- banked and under- banked people into the fold as well as create a holding company for the public sector banks ( PSBs). Indradhanush — a sevenpronged strategy to revamp functioning of PSBs through professional appointments, creation of Banks Board Bureau ( BBB), re- capitalisation, destressing, empowerment, accountability, and governance reforms — was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi- led government in August last year. Amid rising stress levels among the PSBs, some of the ideas for Indradhanush- II were discussed during the second edition of Gyan Sangam, a bankers’ retreat held in March. “There is a thinking within the government that we should have an Indradhanush- II. In all fairness, we have done appointments, formed a Banks Board Bureau, gone ahead with recapitalisation and initiated consolidation process with the St...