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Jammu and Kashmir will have to pass special laws to be able to implement the goods and services tax (GST), as its current Constitutional status does not mandate the applicability of the new indirect tax reform in the state. The Central GST (CGST) and Integrated GST (IGST) Bills, introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday, as part of the last legislative exercise in Parliament, before the tax regime is rolled out from July 1, extend to the whole of India expect Jammu and Kashmir. Business Standard New Delhi,29th March 2017

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley (pictured) on Tuesday said the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bills were based on the principle of “shared sovereignty” and the government wants to pass these landmark tax reforms throughaJaitley was briefing the party MPs after the Bharatiya Janata Party´s (BJP´s) parliamentary party meeting in New Delhi, which was also attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “The finance minister in detail briefed the party MPs about all the four GST Bills and said these are based on the principle of shared sovereignty,” Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said, adding these were drafted after detailed discussions in the GST Council. Business Standard New Delhi,29th March 2017

The Finance Bill 2017 has inserted an explanation that does away with the ambiguity regarding the discretionary powers of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) in deciding the quantum of penalty levied against companies. This will provide relief to several companies reeling under heavy penalties post the Supreme Court’s Roofit judgment in 2015. The SC had, in its ruling in the matter of Roofit Industries in November 2015, said that Sebi had no discretionary power under Section 15J of the SEBI Act, 1992 to reduce penalties imposed on companies. Following the judgment, penalty of crores of rupees was levied by Sebi in different matters. This led to the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) remanding several matters back to Sebi and quite a few appeals being withdrawn by the appellants fearing higher penalties.  “The inclusion of the explanation has finally settled the position and done away with the conflict in the minds of the regulator and the appellate body as to ...

SAPAN GUPTA National Practice Head Banking & Finance, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas Implementation of the existing legal provisions is crucial to pun ishing errant promoters, who had defaulted on bank loans, said Sapan Gupta, National Practice Head, Banking & Finance, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, a large legal firm. The Bankruptcy Act is going to be the most effective recovery tool in a time-bound manner for banks grappling with bad loans, Gupta told Saikat Das. Edited excerpts: What needs to be done to punish errant promoters who defaulted on bank loans? It has long been articulated that a swift legal process will go a long way, both as a resolution tool and a deterrent, when it comes to errant promoters. However, even the existing provisions are fairly adequate to deal with a many such instances. For instance, the wilful defaulters' provisions of RBI limit the capacity of such promoters and their other companies to do business. Enactments such as SARFAESI attempt t...

Come July 1, leasing of land, renting of buildings as well as equated monthly instalments (EMIs) paid for purchase of underconstruction houses will start attracting the goods and services tax (GST). Sale of land and buildings will be, however, out of the purview of the GST. Such transactions will continue to attract stamp duty, according to the legislations Finance Minister Arun Jaitley introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday. Electricity has also been kept out of the GST´s ambit. The GST, which the government intends to roll out from July 1, will subsume central excise, service tax and state valueadded tax among other indirect levies on manufactured goods and services. The Central GST (CGST) Bill —one of the four legislations introduced —states that any lease, tenancy, easement or licence to occupy land will be considered as supply of service. Also, any lease or letting out of buildings, includingacommercial, industrial or residential complex, for business or commerce, either wh...

If you’re looking to buy a luxury or a premium car, you may like to wait until the goods and services tax is implemented. The potential benefit: Taxes will be about four to 12 percentage points lower. That’s because indirect taxes such as excise duty, value added tax, state level taxes such as Octroi, local body tax and cesses get subsumed into the goods and services tax (GST), and cess on luxury cars get capped. Yet, a cheaper car is not a given, since firms may raise prices and states could impose a new cess, tax experts at consulting firms said. Cars longer than four metres and an engine size above 1,500cc are classified as luxury cars. Such models currently attract a basic excise duty of 27%. It’s not only locally assembled models of luxury carmakers, including Mercedes Benz India Pvt Ltd, Audi India Pvt Ltd and BMW India Pvt Ltd, that are set to get a boost under the new tax regime, but premium models will also benefit from the new tax structure. For small cars, the GST is g...

The passage of the Finance Bill, 2017, by the Lok Sabha on March 22 has rekindled the widespread debate over using a Money Bill to amend other pieces of legislation in the financial and general sphere. First introduced on February 1, the Bill has come under the scanner with critics voicing opinions on its all-pervasive nature and attempts by the BJP-led government to muscle changes into the legal framework without the nod of the upper house. Finance Bills are annual features of Indian parliamentary democracy, used to adjust rates of taxation and bring changes in the fiscal structure. However, what makes the Finance Bill, 2017, unique is the sheer extent of the legislative changes proposed. The amendment of around 40 central statutes, many of which would have a tough time being classified as Money Bills if introduced separately, has taken this year’s exercise into highly uncharted territory. Modifications making the Aadhaar mandatory for filing tax returns, capping cash transactio...

10 groups set up under senior taxmen to examine issues and report by April 10 As India gets ready for its biggest tax reform in decades, industries such as ecommerce, banking and insurance, logistics and others will get another chance to resolve any niggles they have with the goods and services tax (GST), which the government wants to put in place by July 1. Ahead of the introduction of GST-related legislation in Parliament this week, the government has set up 10 groups to iron out sectoral issues faced by trade and industry to ensure a smooth transition to the new regime with just a little over three months to go. The President gave his assent to the four GST laws last week, paving the way for their introduction in Parliament. The groups have been set up under senior tax officials to examine the concerns of industry and submit reports by April 10. A senior government official told ET that most issues have been addressed through feedback but it was felt some sectors having sp...

The Aadhaar debate is into its final stages. While the Supreme Court is yet to make it mandatory, the government is flexing its muscles by linking various services to it and forcing citizens to fall in line. The government’s latest salvo comes in the recently-passed Finance Bill -- Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)-backed Aadhaar cards will now be mandatory for filing income tax returns. And if a person does not link his Permanent Account Number or PAN card with Aadhaar, his PAN will be rendered invalid after July 1, 2017. Following this, the Department of Telecom has also made it mandatory to link mobile numbers to Aadhaar. It issued a note saying that all telecom operators will have to ensure that their subscribers link mobile numbers to Aadhaar within a year. If you do not have an Aadhaar number, you will have to submit the enrolment number of your application for Aadhaar. “In case of failure to intimate the Aadhaar number, the PAN allotted to the person shall...

The tax department will waive interest liability if the principal demand of capital gains tax is paid by companies like Cairn India and Vodafone plc. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on March 24 issued a circular for waiver of interest in disputed tax demand in different scenarios. In cases where tax liability arose because of retrospective amendment to the law or a court ruling, the interest payable on the demand will be waived, it said. "However, no reduction or waiver of such interest shall be ordered unless the principal demand... stands fully paid or satisfactory arrangements for payment of the principal demand have been made," CBDT guidelines to Chief Commissioner of Income Tax and Director General of Income Tax said. The guidelines came seven weeks after the Direct Tax Dispute Resolution Scheme, announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on February 28 last year, closed. The scheme, which closed on January 31, provided for waiver of interest and penal...

To encourage more individuals to file returns and widen the tax net, the government is set to introduce a single-page income tax (I-T) return form from April 1. This will be for those with annual salaried income up to Rs 50 lakh, much higher than Rs 5-lakh limit proposed in the Union Budget, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia told Business Standard. He added this would only be for those with salaried and one house rent income. There are 290 million PAN card holders (the I-T dept identification) but only 60 mn return filers. Currently, the I-T form is three pages. It was simplified two years ago, when a controversial provision for mandatory disclosure of foreign trips and dormant bank accounts was removed. “To expand the tax net, I also plan to have a simple one-page form to be filed as I-T Return for the category of individuals having taxable income up to Rs 5 lakh, other than business income,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced in the 2017-18 Budget. Of the 7.6 mil...