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Income Tax department said that the one-time Income Disclosure Scheme, which closes this month, has generated "a good interest" and the response of the taxpayers has been steadily growing. Under the IDS, launched by the government on June 1, black money holders can come clean by paying tax, penalty and cess totalling 45% of the undisclosed income. Hindustan Times New Delhi,16th Septeber 2016

Eyeing an April 1 roll out of the goods and services tax, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged that all steps be completed before then. Modi held a meeting to review the preparedness for roll out of GST on Wednesday. He said the GST Council would need to have intensive meetings to be able to make timely recommendations, including those relating to the model GST Bill, rates, and the goods and services that may be subjected to or exempted from the law. The meeting was attended by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and senior officials of the Prime Ministers Office and finance ministry. “The Prime Minister reviewed the progress made on GST such as rules to be framed, establishment of IT infrastructure for both Centre and states, training of central and state officers and awareness outreach for trade and industry,” said a statement issued by the PMO on Thursday “The Prime Minister directed that all steps must be completed much before April 1, 2017,” it said. The first meeting of the...

The government is all set to overhaul the union budget from 2017. With this mission in mind finance ministry is likely to present the proposal to the Cabinet, when it meets next week. The proposal is to advance the budget presentation by a month to the last week of January from next year, move to “outcome-based budgeting” and merge the rail budget with it. “The PM has given a go-ahead to the proposals and finance ministry will get it cleared by the Cabinet at the earliest,” said an official in the finance ministry who did not wish to be quoted. He added that the urgency is keeping in mind that there are barely four months to go if the budget has to be presented in January. Though the budget is presented in February, several tax proposals kick-in only from June after Parliament passes the annual finance bill in May. Income tax changes come into force only after the finance bill is passed, but these are retroactively implemented from April 1. “By advancing the budget all the co...

Some smaller firms missed deadline citing practical difficulties Most listed companies that are part of the BSE 500 index managed to file results for the quarter ended June under the new Indian Accounting Standard or Ind- AS, the extended deadline for which ended on Thursday. However, some outside the top 500 failed to file their numbers within the stipulated deadline citing “ practical difficulties”. Starting with the June quarter, all listed companies, with the exception of some in the banking, financial services and insurance ( BFSI) space, had to provide financial statements under the Ind- AS format. Ind- AS, a fair valuationbased method, is in consonance with the globally adopted International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) format. Ind- AS changes the way companies report revenue, valuation of financial instruments and joint ventures, among others. Companies have to file their quarterly results within 45 days. However, the Securities and Exchange Board of India ( S...

The Securities and Exchange Board of India ( Sebi) has been facing issues in recovering the amount invested by people in unauthorised collective investment schemes ( CIS). Special courts were to be set up for swift adjudication in such cases. So far, only four have been constituted According to sources, these courts have received 700 cases from various other criminal courts, all pending. One of the primary reasons for such a delay is that a majority of unauthorised CIS schemes have deployed the money in purchasing land or property in various parts. As land is a state subject, it comes under state and local laws. For instance, laws on land ceiling, agricultural and tenancy rules, town planning laws and development regulations are administered by various state executive bodies. “Initiation of enforcement proceedings by Sebi for disposal of land/ properties and realisation of monies is marred by operation of local laws and the bureaucratic approaches that come with it,” said Tejas...

www.caonline.in News... 1. NIRC of ICAI is organizing workshop on CARO 2016 & e-filing of tax audit report on 20 Sept at 5PM at ICAI Bhawan, Vishwas Nagar, Delhi.Register at www.nircseminars.org. 2. Kindly pay ICAI membership/COP fee for the year 2016-17 by 30th September, 2016. 3. The CBDT on monday said assessees taking advantage of direct tax dispute resolution scheme, 2016 will be required to pay taxes within the stipulated period to avail the relief under the scheme. 4. CBDT clarifies due date extension also applicable to Accounts audited under Sec 44AB vide notification no 225/195/2016-ITA II. 5. Direct cash deposit in supplier’s bank a/c not attracts disallowance u/s 40A (3) [Bolkunda Pachwai & (S) C.S. Shop vs. Income-tax Officer (ITAT Kolkata)]. 6. Under GST late returns would attract fee @ 100 per day subject to maximum of Rs 5,000/- maximum fee in case of annual return is 0.25% of aggregate turnover.

MARKET REGULATOR rejects requests from state-owned banks to sell to small investors citing potential risks of mis-selling Public sector banks will not be able to issue perpetual bonds to retail investors. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has struck down requests of state-owned banks, such as State Bank of India, to sell these securities to smaller investors citing potential risks of mis-selling. Instruments like perpetual bonds have no maturity date and pay interest forever. They fetch a higher coupon than normal bonds since they could skip interest payments in case of deterioration of financials at the issuer. Sebi is not in favour of allowing banks to sell the product to retail in vestors because they do not understand the complexities, said a senior regulatory official.“There is an investor protection issue here,“ the Sebi official said. “In any bond, whether you make loss or profit, you have to pay an interest. But here, if the bank incurs loss or its profits...

The finance ministry has clarified that the Jan Dhan accounts can be opened with zero balance and there is no requirement of maintaining a minimum balance. The government would, however, look into a media report that said Rs.1 was deposited in many accounts to reduce the number of zero balance accounts. The Economic Times New Delhi,15th September 2016

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday set up a working group committee to review the guidelines on hedging of commodity price risk by residents in the overseas markets, drawing members from the central bank, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), commercial banks and corporates. The working group will be headed by Chandan Sinha, RBI's executive director, and will assess the risks faced by resident entities and their hedging requirements, identify gaps in the existing regulatory framework in relation to the hedging requirements, suggest the broad principles for guiding the regulatory regime for overseas hedging of commodity risks and recommend a modified framework for residents hedging commodity risk overseas, RBI said in a statement on its website. The central bank also invited for suggestions over email from anyone exposed to commodity price risks. The group will submit its report by February 28, 2017. Business Standard New Delhi,15th September 2016

Neutality and juridiction in international trade need to be discussed threadbare before GST is implemented in India This is a question too difficult for a mathematician. It should be asked of a philosopher.” Albert Einstein famously responded thus, to his tax returns. I am afraid his response would have been the same today. It has been a long and slow walk for the renewed integrated taxation system in the country. In a sphere that has faced obstacles of multiple hues in the past — exports — it becomes all the more important. Let us keep in mind that the export share of India has fallen to $ 262 million in 2016 from $ 302 million in 2012. With that bit of mathematics alone, let us meander into the realm of philosophy of the goods and services tax ( GST). GST aka value- added tax in some regions has already been implemented in more than 130 countries. The Mirrlees Review of the UK tax system, touted to be the best- researched document on modern tax systems, lays down a road map for...

The labour ministry will seek Cabinet approval for the Wage Code Bill, which seeks to empower the Centre to set a minimum wage across all sectors in the country, in the next few weeks and will try to have it passed in Parliament’s coming winter session. Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya on Wednesday said discussions over the Bill between the government, trade unions and industry bodies had concluded. A group of ministers will meet on Thursday to decide the final shape of the Bill. Apart from Dattatreya, the group consists of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Power Minister Piyush Goyal and Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The Bill provides for a floor rate of national wage that will be mandatory for all states. This will provide a boost to the Centre’s recent initiative of increasing the minimum wage of central government employees by 42 per cent. “We are trying to create a mechanism for a minimum wage for all sectors,” Dattatreya said. The Centre and states now s...