CA Online

1.  CBDT has directed that Add Commissioner and Joint Commissioner of Income-tax shall perform the functions of AO under the Black Money Act, 2015. 2.  Addition cannot be made if no statement is recorded at the time of search. [Delhi ITAT: Smt. Rutu Jindal vs. ACIT] 3.  The finance ministry is in touch with the Empowered Committee of state finance ministers and state government to get the key legislations passed on GST by Sept 15. 4.  Date of service of order to be excluded while calculating time limit to file appeal. [Honorable Allahabad High Court: Rotomac Global (P.) Ltd. vs. CCE.] 5.  SEBI notifies norms for listing of start-ups on Institutional trading platform through the SEBI (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) (Fourth Amendment) Regulations, 2015. 6.  ICAI takes back its decision on mechanism to monitor tendering in the council at its 345th meeting held from 14th to 16th August, 2015. 7.  WTO committee of ICAI is organis...

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India ( Irdai) has asked insurers to give at least two months’ notice to customers before closure or relocation of their places of business. In its places of business regulations, Irdai said closure or relocation of the places of business within India by insurers would be after due consideration of all the factors, including possible inconvenience to policy holders. Business Standard, New Delhi, 26th August 2015

RBI feels Inflation Indexed Bonds are no longer the most vital measure of price; such bonds worth Rs 6,500 cr issued since launch The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has suggested to the finance ministry that the government buy back Inflation Indexed Bonds (IIBs) linked to the wholesale price index (WPI), reasoning that this is no longer the most important measure of prices. Such bonds worth . 6,500 crore have been issued since ` their 2013 launch. “We are studying the matter and will look at various options on how this can be done, either through the secondary market or some other mechanism,“ a government official said, confirming the central bank's suggestion. The central bank adopted the consumer price index (CPI) as the key measure of inflation last year and WPIbased securities haven't been reissued since then. Besides, wholesale inflation has been negative for the last nine months, reducing the attractiveness of the instrument. “There is a lot of pressure from some marke...

The government on Tuesday indicated it might go in for promulgation of the land ordinance for a record fourth time to maintain its “continunity”, as there was no possibility of passage of a Bill in Parliament to replace it before August 31, when the executive measure would expire. Business Standard, New Delhi, 26th August 2015

The Union Cabinet is expected to take up the proposal of promulgating an ordinance to amend the Negotiable Instruments Act on Wednesday. a move that would help fasttrack resolutions of cases of bouncing cheques and remove the ambiguities on judicial issues. It would allow filing of cases against the issuer of these cheques. The credibility of cheque as a financial instrument is expected to go up with this move which would also help trade and commerce in general and allow the lending institutions to continue to extend loans, without fear of default on account of bouncing of a cheque. Hindustan Times, New Delhi, 26th August 2015

Committee may have three government nominees and four from the RBI, with the governor as chairman The government has moved a cabinet note on the creation of a monetary policy committee (MPC) as part of plans to reset a framework for this in line with international best practices. The committee is likely to have three government nominees and four from the Reserve Bank of India, with the governor as chairman.There may not be any veto for the governor but the person will have a casting vote in case of a tie. A government official confirmed that the note had been moved by the finance ministry after it completed inter-ministerial consultations on the proposal. The establishment of the committee will mark a radical shift in how monetary policy is decided in India, making it transparent than it is now. Currently, the RBI governor de cides monetary policy and the board only has an advisory role. Finance minister Arun Jaitley had, in his February budget speech, announced the new m...

The Reserve Bank of India ( RBI) has said while attempting to define the financial regulator’s responsibilities, the revised draft Indian Financial Code (IFC) leaves various issues unaddressed. “The policymakers are expected to carry out this responsibility within a broad set of principles and an understanding shaped by various adaptive learning processes. It is difficult to codify this into a set of simple rules/ laws. The draft Indian Financial Code, though an ambitious attempt in this direction, leaves large gaps unaddressed,” RBI Deputy Governor H R Khan said at the 16th FIMMDA- PDAI annual conference at Prague on August 17. “Any exercise to reshape the legislative architecture of the financial sector should evolve organically, starting with an objective reassessment of where the current system has failed. This is particularly important when many open- ended policy issues are being debated internationally,” he said. In the last week of July, the government had placed the re...

Concerned over low service tax realisation, Revenue Secretary Shaktikanta Das on Monday asked the Central Board of Excise and Customs to analyse revenue mop- up sectorally and ensure that it grows 20- 22 per cent this financial year. “ We need to analyse why service tax growth hovers around 16 per cent.... I would expect growth at least 20- 22 per cent.” Business Standard, New Delhi, 25th August 2015

The Securities and Exchange Board of India ( Sebi) on Monday paved the way for the merger of the markets regulator with the Forward Markets Commission ( FMC). According to a press release issued by Sebi, its board has cleared the norms for commodity exchanges and brokers. “Major compliances include norms related to net worth, shareholding, composition of the board, corporatisation and demutualisation and setting up various committees, turnover and infrastructure,” Sebi said. To ensure a non- disruptive transition, Sebi has prescribed atimeline for aligning with the different provisions of the Securities Exchanges and Clearing Corporations ( SECC) regulations. Regional commodity exchanges would have to be corporatised and demutualised within three years of the merger. Currently, commodity exchanges don’t have a separate clearing corporation for contracts, a requirement under the Sebi Act. The markets regulator will give commodity exchanges up to three years to comply in this reg...

1.  Provision for doubtful debts not required to be add back to arrive at book profit u/s 115JA [CIT vs. Salgaonkar Mining Industries Pvt. Ltd, (Goa High Court)] 2.  The revenue could not assail the finding returned by the CIT(A) in favour of the assessee in an appeal preferred by the assessee before the tribunal, limited to the issue decided by the CIT(A) against the assessee. [CIT vs. Divine Infracon P. Ltd, Delhi High Court] 3.  CBDT Instruction No. 5 of 2014 revising monetary limit to Rs. 4 lakhs for filing appeal before tribunal shall apply to pending appeals also. Since monetary limit of appeal filed by revenue was less than Rs. 4 lakhs, same was to be dismissed [ Gurudayal Sontosh Kumar [2015] 60  taxmann.com  24 (Kolkata - Tribunal)] 4.  Today 25.08.2015 is the last date for filing of DVAT return for the 1st quarter ending on 30.06.2015, both online and hard copy return. 5.  CBEC has made Custom Duty Free Allowance to Rs. 45000 for Pas...

The Supreme Court last week dismissed a large number of appeals moved by the excise authorities and allowed the appeals of construction companies, ruling that service tax could not be levied on indivisible works contracts prior to the introduction, on June 1, 2007, of the Finance Act, 2007 which expressly made such works contracts liable to service tax. All these cases, led by Commissioner of Central Excise vs L & T, arose before the 2007 amendment was made, which introduced the concept of “works contract” as being a separate subject matter of taxation. Works contracts which were indivisible and composite were split so that only labour and service elements of such contracts would be taxed under service tax. The revenue authorities assailed the judgments of various tribunals and high courts which had decided against them. According to them, the various components of works contracts were already split and taxed since 1994. On the other hand, the companies argued that not only was t...