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Income tax authorities have been keeping a close tab on reports in this regard The income tax department launched a multi-city crackdown on those taking demonetised currency at a discount, selling gold at premium in exchange of old notes and hawala operators offering foreign currency at a premium. Raids were carried out in Delhi, Mumbai and some cities of Punjab after reports surfaced of traders taking ` . 1000 notes, selling gold . 500 and ` at as much as ` . 50,000 per 10 gram and dollar touching as high as 100 rupees in the hawala market. Traders on the radar have been asked to furnish details of cash in hand as on November 8, when the government announced the scrapping of . 500 and ` ` . 1000 notes. “Raids have been carried out based on specific intelligence,“ a senior government official told ET. Tax authorities have been keeping a close tab on reports in this regard and have been di rected to be alert as people attempt to get rid of large amounts of unaccounted for cash in the d...

Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday reiterated the government’s assurance that people need not fear harassment from the income tax department if they have deposited small amounts in banks following the demonetisation of the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes. The minister also spoke on a number of other issues at the Economic Editors’ Conference in New Delhi. Edited excerpts: Small depositors need not worry about demonetisation: Small deposits which are made, nobody will face any questions or harassment of any kind. So people who have small amounts of cash, there has been an Indian tradition to keep some cash always at home for exigencies and emergencies, which is required, they can exchange that; they can deposit that in their accounts. The revenue departments are not going to take notice of small depositors. In any case, deposits which are within  .. Worry for some: It's only those who have large amounts of undisclosed monies who will have to face the consequences under th...

It has given lenders additional time up to 180 days for hammering out a restructuring package under the scheme In a step to address corporate stress, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday made sweeping changes to existing loan recast schemes like S4A, 5/25 and SDR. It has given lenders additional time up to 180 days for hammering out a restructuring package under the scheme for sustainable structuring of stressed asset (S4A). Previously, the time limit was 90 days. There was a need to provide reasonable time to the overseeing committee to review the processes involved in the resolution plan, RBI said in a late night notification. This is step also intended to harmonise rules across various recast schemes, as time given in other schemes such as joint lenders’ forum (JLF) is 180 days. One of the significant changes made to the strategic debt restructuring (SDR) scheme is that the new promoter should have acquired at least 26 per cent of the paid-up equity capital of the borrower compa...

Penalty for unaccounted income could range from 50% to 200% of evaded tax If you are one with a hoard of cash in your hand, you should deposit that in banks only if you are able to account for the source of income, says tax experts. Depositing unaccounted money into banks would open up one to scrutiny by the income-tax (I-T) department, though some consultants said it might be worth a chance.  “One should be in a position to match the cash in hand with income from business operations,” said Pallav Pradyumn Narang, partner, Arkay & Arkay, a Delhi-based chartered accountancy firm. Businesses would have barely four months in the current financial year to justify the cash hoard as business income. Alternatively, they should be in a position to establish that the cash was withdrawn for business purpose.  If the amount is unaccounted for, various provisions of Income-Tax Act, 1961, will come into effect. “If the sources of income are unaccounted for, these would be deemed to be...

MUMBAI: Banks are putting in place a backend network to obtain details of people using the window open till December 31 for exchange of high-value notes, and share them with enforcement agencies like the Income Tax department, said two people working on such systems.  “The tax department will get a lot of information,” a banker said on condition of anonymity. “Bankers will have a lot of administrative work to do as they have to collect the Aadhaar and PAN details of people depositing money for exchange.”  We are asking customers to furnish PAN details for deposits of over Rs 10,000 during the demonetisation process,” another banker said on condition of anonymity. “A copy of Aadhaar or PAN will be required if customers want to exchange currency notes.”  The government’s latest announcement is a follow through of its measures against black money post the September 30 deadline for the Income Declaration Scheme, which unearthed Rs 65,000 crore.  There are reporting requ...

Banks to remain open this weekend Black money holders will not get any relief from the existing provision of up to 90 per cent tax on unaccounted income for cash deposits above Rs 2.5 lakh. The finance ministry on Wednesday warned that any mismatch between the deposited sum and income declared would attract up to 30 per cent income tax and 200 per cent of tax liability as penalty. Also, jewellers not furnishing the permanent account number (PAN) of buyers would face action, the ministry cautioned, even as there was rush to buy gold on Wednesday. “It should be clear that it’s no immunity scheme. This (deposit) does not provide any relief from taxation. The law of the land will apply (on source of fund),” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said.  Explaining it further, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia tweeted: “We would be getting reports of all cash deposited during the period of November 10 to December 30, 2016, above a threshold of Rs 2.5 lakh in every account. The (tax) department wou...

Robust collections in personal income tax and excise duty The government’s revenue collection in April to October saw indirect tax-mop up growing at an impressive 26.7 per cent while that of direct tax came in at 10.6 per cent.   The total direct and indirect tax collections at the end of October stood at Rs 8.62 lakh crore, more than half the Rs 16.26 lakh crore target for 2016-17. The government is eyeing 12.64 per cent growth in direct tax at Rs 8.47 lakh crore for the current fiscal and 10.8 per cent in indirect tax at Rs 7.79 lakh crore. Direct tax mop-up touched Rs 3.77 lakh crore and indirect tax revenue stood at Rs 4.85 lakh crore during April-October, led by robust collections in personal income tax and excise duty, respectively.   Direct tax revenue includes corporate and personal income tax. Indirect tax takes into account mobilisation from excise, service tax and Customs duty. The gross collection of corporate income tax (CIT) grew at 11.6 per cent while under per...

Pure play e-commerce ,which implies sale of products by an online retailer directly to consumers,would be permitted to have up to 100 percent foreign direct investment(FDI),if a latest proposal of NITI Aayog is accepted by the Union government.But a rider,that products sold through e-commerce must be manufactured in India to gain from the liberalised regime,could play a spoil sport,said analysts.The idea behind such a condition is promoting Make In India,a signature campaign of the Narendra Modi government. At present,FDI is not allowed in ecommerce,but there’s no baron foreign investment in the online market place format.There striction forced American major Amazon totweak its inventory-ledglobal business model and operate a market place platform instead in India.Even home-grown Flipkart,funded by marquee foreign investors,switched from inventory model to market place format to comply with the policy guidelines. In case FDIine-commerce is permitted,as visualised by Niti Aayog and dis...

People with unaccounted cash in Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes will find it difficult to exchange them at the banks and post offices even though it is allowed, because they would require a valid identity proof and would be caught on camera. “Valid ID would be required to deposit money in bank accounts.Banks would also have video recording of those making deposits,” department of economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das said on Tuesday at a joint press conference with RBI governor Urjit Patel. There is a limt of Rs 4,000 on conversion of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes till November 24. Das said this measure was needed for integrity of the economy. “For long, shadow of ghost economy has been a problem. If you want the real economy to grow then the shadow economy has to be wiped out,” he said. “This decision of the government is very bold and decisive,” Das said, adding that the measure was necessary both in medium and long-term. Urjit Patel said the government had observed use of hi...

With demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes, the government has directed Income-Tax Department to coordinate with all banks and furnish details of individuals who exchange cash amount of Rs 2 lakh and above. “A key reason for scrapping these two currency denominations is to curb the huge menace of fake currency, tackle black money and make India a cashless economy,” said a senior I-T department official. The object was also to make Indians tax complaint, which will eventually lead to higher revenues for government, he added. The tax department has been asked to keep record of every individual along with his/her PAN card details and tally it with the tax filing. Accordingly, the department will impose penalty, which could be between 30 per cent and 120 per cent, depending on the source of income. India has physical cash circulation of Rs 17 lakh crore, of which 88 per cent is Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. Official data suggest that 40 per cent of black money is genera...

Currency notes of Rs.500and Rs.1,000 denomination that are currently in circulation will no longer be legal money and cannot be used as medium of exchange from Tuesday midnight,as Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a surprisemoveclampeddownonblackmoney as well as counterfeit notes in circulation.Instead,the Reserve Bank of India(RBI)will issue new Rs.500 and Rs.2,000 currency notes on Thursday.“The arrangement of buying and selling through existing Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 notes will not be available.These will be just worthless piece of paper,”Modi said in his hurriedly announced address to the nation on Tuesday evening. Existing currency notes of Rs.1,2,5,10 and 100 denomination as well as coinscontinue to be legal and could be used for buying and selling. Economists said the move would immediately press a pause button on transactions that were planned in black money.On the other hand,ordinary transactions such as buying of vegetables from the local market might be hit for a month, the...