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Companies can have only two layers of subsidiaries Corporates can have only two layers of subsidiaries under the companies law, with the government putting in place stricter norms as it continues with the clampdown on illicit fund flows. While the rules would be applicable prospectively, companies that already have more than two layers of subsidiaries have to furnish details about them to the government. Banking and non-banking financial companies as well as insurance firms and government companies have been exempted from the restrictions, according to notification issued by the corporate affairs ministry. The rules, notified after public consultation, came into effect from Wednesday. It assumes significance against the back drop of concerns that shell companies are being floated to act as conduits for illicit funding activities. The Business Standard, New Delhi, 23th September 2017

Council decides manner to distribute assessees After deciding the basic principle of division of assessess between central and state tax authorities, the goods and services tax (GST) council has stated how this  would be done. Earlier, the GST council had decided a state would have control over 90 % of  GST  payer where turnover of businesses was up to Rs 1.5 crore a year. over t hat figure, the state and central officials were to have 50:50 control.The division to be done by computer at the state level,by random choice.   Now,it has been decided that for those registered under value-added tax(VAT) or both VAT and central excise, their state turnover,including interstate transactions,  will be taken into account.for those registeresd only under central excise and not VAT,the annual turnover given in central excise returns will be taken into account.   Those registered under VAT and sevice tax will be considered on the turnover given  in the...

Sebi allows bourses to conduct forensic audit The logo of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is pictured on the premises of its headquarters in Mumbai.  The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has empowered stock exchanges to conduct forensic audits on listed companies which seem dubious, being suspected of  use as conduits for illicit fund flow. An authorisation letter in this regard has been issued to the bourses. The latter may take action in this regard on their own initiative. Sources say this is a sequel  to the discussion between Sebi's surveillance department and the exchanges, on ways to curb such manipulation. The regulator wants exchanges to review suspect companies on a weekly basis and select those for forensic audit. Till now, the exchanges did not have the authority to  order this type of audit on their own. A forensic audit is similar to a regular audit of a company's financial statement. However, the mode of exami...

GST : Centre, states to divide taxpayer base The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council has put in place an elaborate framework for division of taxpayers between the state and central tax authorities, in a move  aimed at bringing clarity and effectiveness in the administration of the new indirect tax regime. The guidelines for the division of the taxpayer base between the Centre and states will ensure that a taxpayer faces only one GST authority – either the Centre or the  state. "The list of taxpayers will be made public," said an official, adding that this would clear the air for not just the taxpayers but also the tax authorities. The division will also clearly fix the responsibility for raising awareness about GST, with bulk of small traders falling within the jurisdiction of states. According to the rules issued, 90 per cent of the assesses with a turnover of less than Rs 1.5 crore will be under the administrative control of states and the balance  10 per cen...

Nearly 3 million GST returns filed in August As many as 2.97 million assessees have filed the summary input-output return under the new goods and services tax (GST) for the month of August (‘GSTR 3B’), much less than the 4.6 million that came for the month of July. As many as 46 per cent of filers — 1.37 million — submitted returns on Wednesday, the deadline for doing so. However, the July returns had risen after an extension of five to eight days was given to assessees, depending on whether they wanted to claim input tax credit for pre-GST stocks or not. The GST Network (GSTN), the entity handling the information technology backbone for the new structure, is hopeful that return filing would equal the tally of July. Even if the same number of filers are there for the month of August as in July, proportionately it would be much less. This is so because there were only 5.95 million registrations under the GST in July, excluding those opting for the composition sch...

Trading in bitcoins under taxmen, Enforcement Directorate lens Investments in cryptocurrency have come under the radar of tax authorities and investigation agencies amid concerns that they could have become conduits for illicit flows and the movement of black money. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) on black money appointed by the Supreme Court has expressed worries about cryptocurrency and suggested curbs on their trading in its draft report. “There are concerns on the way it operates.Some unaccounted money could be flowing into these,” said an official aware of the matter. The team is likely to submit its final report in a month, the person said. Policy makers are looking at the issue closely and are expected to take a call shortly, another government official said. Income-tax authorities and the Enforcement Directorate are also examining investments in cryptocurrency after the Indian government demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in November last year. “There are is...

5,000 companies face queries on GST transition credit  Tax officials have asked about 5,000 companies, including some big manufacturers that figure in the BSE 500 list, to provide explanation on transition credit they claimed in July under goods and services tax (GST), two people familiar with the development said. The move is part of an investigation the indirect tax department has launched after the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) in a letter dated September 11 asked chief indirect tax commissioners to verify all transitional credit claims beyond Rs 1crore.  Thousands of companies across the country received calls from indirect tax officials last week, the sources told ET. “Tax officers want chief finance officer (CFO) or some senior finance department executive to come to the department and explain how we arrived at the input tax credit we claimed,” said a senior executive at a Haryana-based manufacturer of automobile components. The executive said the offi...

Sebi diktat may change essence of balanced funds The Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (Sebi’s) proposed move to simplify category classifications of mutual fund schemes may lead to a change in the definition of balanced funds. The capital markets regulator has been going slow on approving balanced funds in the past few years and unofficially insisting on a 50:50 equity-to-debt mix for new scheme approvals. Currently, there is no standard definition of balanced funds. Several fund houses already offer balanced schemes that have an equity allocation of 65 per cent or higher. This allows them to be classified as equity schemes, which enjoy a tax advantage over debt funds as capital gains become tax free after a year. Since most diversified equity funds offer a 70-100 per cent equity exposure, the regulator believes a balanced fund offering 65-75 per cent does not offer much differentiation, according to sector officials. Fund houses, on the other hand, have been reluctant ...

RBI seeks to regulate peer-to-peer lending The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday came up with a discussion paper on peer-topeer lending (P2P), seeking to regulate the fast emerging crowd funding platforms as the new financing model has assumed importance too significant to be ignored. Interestingly, the platform owners and investors welcomed the development as regulation gives RBI’s stamp of approval to a business that is completely banned in countries like Japan and Israel. “Any space where money changes hand should be regulated. Regulation is good for the industry, but it should be light regulation” said Mohandas Pai, former board member of Infosys and investor in Faircent.com, a P2P lending platform. “Regulation will help us in our business and we can approach the court of law as legal entities for our needs and even for recovery,” said Bhavin Patel, co-founder of LenDen Club, a P2P platform. In fact, RBI itself is aware of this and sounded a little hesitant in giving this...

2.2 million GST returns filed till 6 pm, deadline ends midnight Nearly 2.2 million goods and services tax (GST) returns have been filed so far for August as businesses flocked the GSTN portal to submit their returns on Wednesday —the last day for tax filing. Over 2.2 million returns were filed till 6 pm,a source said. Return filing would continue till midnight. This is the second month of return filing under the GST regime. Similar to last month, businesses thronged the GST Network portal on the last day to pay taxes. Nearly 4.5 million businesses had filed returns in July, fetching a revenue of Rs 95,000 crore to the exchequer. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had earlier in the day said that GSTN has the capacity to handle 100,000 returns per hour, which translates to 2.4 million returns in a day. But if majority of the taxpayers decide to pay taxes on the last day, then the system would have some trouble. “Therefore I would appeal to everybody, it is in their interest (to file retu...

Debarred firm directors may approach courts The government´s move to debar directors of companies that have not filled annual returns for three successive years is likely to be challenged in courts citing retrospective application of the Companies Act, 2013. Asageneral rule, the law is always applicable prospectively unless any prior date is mentioned specifically, says Sumit Naib, associate director, Companies Act, 2013, that pertains to disqualification of directors due to nonfiling of financials and annual returns for three years, is applicable to all types of companies, including private ones, with effect from April 1, 2014. Prior to enactment of this new section under Companies Act, 2013, the corresponding section under the Companies Act, 1956, was applicable only to public companies. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs earlier this month struck off the names of around from the records, found to be without any business activity or had not filed financial statements for three yea...