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Board Tightens Norms Shuts Backdoor Entry of Promoters ?INSOLVENCY CURBS Bankruptcy board has empowered the committee of creditors to conduct a due diligence on bidders' background and viability of resolution plans to prevent frivolous bids and thwart attempts at backdoor entry of promoters who ran the enterprise aground The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board Tuesday tightened disclosure norms for insolvency professionals, and empowered the committee of creditors to conduct thorough due diligence on the bidders' background and viability of resolution plans. The latest move is likely to prevent any frivolous bids and also thwart attempts at backdoor entry of promoters who ran the enterprise aground. This would help realise the objective of the code that was enacted to protect the value of assets. “A key objective of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code is insolvency resolution of corporate persons in a time bound manner for maximisation of value of their assets,“ IBBI said ...

Over 20000 Returns Picked For Probe The Income Tax Department has picked 20,572 tax returns for “detailed scrutiny” suspecting discrepancies in incomes before and after demonetisation, official sources said on Monday. Separately, they said, the department has identified one lakh “high risk” cases of alleged tax evasion for detailed investigation. According to the sources, 20,572 tax returns have been selected for detailed scrutiny after their profiles before and after demonetisation did not match. A scrutiny procedure in the I-T department parlance denotes submission of a volume of records and testimonials, after which the taxman or the assessing officer makes sure that the return filed is correct and the filer has not evaded any tax. The Business Standard, New Delhi, 07th November 2017

Sebi plans further rise in public float The Securities and Exchange Board of India is mulling another increase in minimum public shareholding (MPS) requirements from the current 25 per cent to 30 per cent, or even 35 per cent, said three people in the know.The discussions at the market regulator´s end are, however,anascent stage, clarified one of India has traditionally been driven market and increasing the threshold will ensure wider through institutional investors, more market depth and better corporate governance standards. “A wider ownership will improve liquidity and reduce the scope for price manipulation, besides bettering corporate governance standards,” said Pranav Haldea, managing director, PRIME Database.“Thus far, most private sector firms have complied with the Sebi requirement for a 25 per cent public float and raising it to 30 per cent or even 35 per cent should not pose a major challenge to most.” An email to Sebi did not receive a response. At present, 110 of t...

Over 39 percent PANs linked with Aadhaar Over 13.28 crore Permanent Account Numbers (PANs) have been linked with the Aadhaar till now, official sources today said. With this, 39.5 per cent of PANs are now linked with Aadhaar numbers. There are about 33 crore PAN cards, while Aadhaar has been issued to about 115 crore people. The government had made the PAN-Aadhaar linking mandatory for filing ITR (Income Tax Return) and obtaining a new Permanent Account Number (PAN) from July 1. The Supreme Court had in June upheld the validity of an Income Tax Act provision making Aadhaar mandatory for allotment of PAN cards and ITR filing, but had put a partial stay on its implementation till a Constitution bench addressed the issue of right to privacy. The Business Standard, New Delhi, 07th November 2017

Tired of monthly GST return filing Govt may review process The government may review the requirement of filing at least three returns every month under the GST regime with a view to easing compliance burden of taxpayers, officials said.Presently, businesses have to file returns in GSTR-1, GSTR-2 and GSTR-3 forms for every month. These forms detail outward supplies of taxable goods and/or services, inward supplies for claiming input tax credit and monthly return The review follows businesses complaining problems in matching invoices while filing July returns."There will be a review of the norms to file GSTR-1, 2 and 3. Businesses have complained of trouble in invoice matching while filing GSTR-2. It would be reviewed whether matching of invoices would be pursued in the coming months," a senior government official told PTI. Under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime rolled out from July 1, the government has allowed businesses to file initial returns and pay taxes by...

FMs of Cong States Seek Changes in GST Regime With the GST Council likely to offer some relief in the goods and services tax to small businesses and traders when it meets in Guwahati on November 9-10 ­ exactly a month before the first phase of the Gujarat assembly polls ­ the Congress party is looking to project itself as the original advocate of a realistic tweaking of the regime's norms. The GST Council must agree to a rationalisation of tax slabs and a lowering of the 28% rate cap, among other demands, the Congress finance ministers of Punjab, Karnataka and Puducherry Manpreet Badal, Krishna Gowda and Kamalakaran ­ said at a joint press confe rence in New Delhi on Monday . While the Centre had “arrogantly“ overlooked their de mands earli er, “the na tionwide resentment and the upcoming Gujarat polls have, finally, made the government to look at our constant demands with accommodation now,“ they said. The Congress party's other demands related to GST, which was impl...

Modi hints at GST relief for small medium sized firms Micro, small and medium enterprises, crucial to Modi’s plans to create a million jobs a month, have been hurt by the massive tax overhaul that added layers of extra bureaucracy for firms and hit exports. Thousands of Indian small firms and traders hurting from higher cost of doing business under a new multi-rate tax regime might receive some relief next week.Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday that if there is consensus at the next Goods and Services Tax (GST) council meeting on November 9 and 10 then necessary measures could be taken to help small and medium-sized businesses and traders Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), crucial to Modi’s plans to create a million jobs a month and many of whose promoters are traditional voters of his Bharatiya Janata Party, have been hurt by the massive tax overhaul that added layers of extra bureaucracy for firms and hit exports.India has about 56 million small and medium-s...

GST on common use goods may be cut The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council may consider lowering tax rates on a host of goods such as hand made furniture, plastic products and daily use items like shampoo, and simplify return filing rules in its meeting this week.The Council, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, is scheduled to meet on Friday to consider lowering of the 28 per cent GST rate on certain common use items, government officials said. In further relief to small and medium enterprises, the panel is likely to rationalise tax rate in sectors where the total incidence of taxation has gone up because the goods were earlier either exempt from excise or was attracted lower value added tax rates in the previous indirect tax regime. The Council has been meeting every month since the GST regime, which amalgamated overadozen central and state taxes, was introduced on July 1. The meetings have resulted in an array of changes to ease compliance burden on businesses as well a...

Profiteering check now picking up Kerala panel seeks action against 335 merchants The antiprofiteering mechanism under the goods and services tax (GST) has picked up, with Kerala proposing action against 335 traders for not passing on to consumers a reduction in price under the new set of levies.The screening committee of the state has written to the standing committee at the Centre, providing a list of these merchants and evidence, demanding action. Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Bihar, among others, say they´ve started with awareness campaigns, price information collection and investigation.“We collected information and found some were collecting GST while not being registered.Some others were additionally collecting value added tax (VAT) from consumers. Some were charging GST above the MRP (printed Maximum Retail Price).We have demanded strict action against these entities, to discourage others from these malpractices,” said a Kerala official, on condition of anonymity.Kerala´s sc...

Shell companies deposited, withdrew Rs 17,000 crore after demonetisation  As the government nears completion ofayear after demonetisation, the data shows suspected ´shell´ companies deposited and withdrew Rs 17,000 crore in the days after the note ban.The data, issued by the government, is from 56 banks for 35,000 companies, which had around 58,000 bank accounts. One company had a negative balance before demonetisation but deposited and withdrew Rs2,484 crore after November 8, 2016, the government said.These companies´ bank accounts have been frozen.And, state governments told to restrict sales and transfers of real estate assets owned by these entities. The statement issued by the Centre gives a summary of recent decisions to check the suspected money laundering via such companies —such keeping a check on ´dummy´ directors by connecting the director identification number with Aadhaar, the citizen identification number, and the permanent account number.Existing directors an...

GST Overhaul on Cards to Make it Less Taxing Changes may be with regard to input credit, place of supply and valuation provisions The goods and services tax could be in for a revamp that's more comprehensive than the tweaks that have been made thus far to iron out kinks to make compliance less on erous. The GST Council has set up a new advisory group that includes industry representatives to look into such changes. Experts said these may apply to input credit apart from place of supply and valuation provisions. The group will give its report to the law committee of the council by November 30. This will be reviewed by the committee and forwarded to the council for speedy action. “A group has been set up to give feedback about the issues faced by industry with regard to laws, rules and procedures,“ said a government official. This is in addition to changes proposed to the composition scheme to bring relief to small businesses and traders that could be taken up by the GST Coun...