CA Online

Wants CBDT To Find Out If Small Traders Are Unhappy Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday ticked off the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), pointing out that the number of taxpayer complaints have gone up and wanted the agency to find out who was unhappy with its service. During his monthly Pragati meeting with secretaries at the Centre and state chief secretaries, he also asked the direct taxes wing of the government to ready a roadmap to address complaints, which has been a key thrust of the Modi administration since it came to power nearly twoand-a-half years ago. Sources said the PM asked the department to examine if the number of complaints have increased due to more people coming forward to register grievances or if small shopkeepers and businessmen were unhappy . CBDT has also been asked to probe if the re are more complaints from a region and what is the “exact cause“ for rising grievances. This is the second time since revenue service officials protested against “interfer

Expects disclosures worth Rs 25,000-30,000 cr by Sept 30 The government's Income Declaration Scheme (IDS) has seen a revenue of Rs 6,750 crore for the Income Tax department, as unaccounted money to the tune of Rs 15,000 crore has been disclosed as on September 28, said an official. The government had opened a four-month window for declaring unaccounted money, which would attract 45 per cent tax, penalty and cess. The tax department is expecting the number to touch between Rs 25,000 crore and Rs 30,000 crore in the next two days. The four-month window for disclosing domestic black money deposits will close on September 30. The informal target for the scheme was a tax collection of Rs 40,000-50,000 crore on black money declaration of Rs 1 lakh crore. On Wednesday, Mumbai topped the 18 income-tax circles in the country with disclosures in the range of Rs 6,000-7,000 crore. New Delhi and Gujarat circles followed at second and third positions, respectively, said the source. A tax exper

A panel tasked with drafting a bankruptcy code for financial service providers such as banks, insurance companies and payment systems has proposed classifying companies into five categories based on their vulnerability and also suggested setting up a Resolution Corporation. The panel's report was made public on Wednesday for comments. It has also recommended that some of the bigger firms be classified as systemically important financial firms (SIFIs). "These are financial institutions whose failure might pose a risk to not just their consumers or the sector they operate in, but rather to the overall financial stability of the country itself," the panel said it in its reportIn the report, the panel said the proposed resolution corporation would contribute to the stability and resilience of the financial system by carrying out speedy and efficient resolution of financial firms in distress, providing deposit insurance to consumers of certain categories of financial services

The new indirect tax network (systems integration) called Project Saksham will be developed with the help of Wipro In a swift progress towards the goods and services (GST) tax roll-out from April 1, 2017, a Cabinet committee cleared the Rs 2,256 crore back-end information technology (IT) project for the indirect tax department on Wednesday. The new indirect tax network (systems integration) called Project Saksham will be developed with the help of Wipro. "The implementation strategy for the project will be to ensure the readiness of the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) IT framework by April 1, 2017, when GST is to be introduced," an official statement read. Project Saksham, cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, will facilitate implementation of GST, extension of the Indian Customs single window interface for facilitating trade (SWIFT) and other taxpayer-friendly initiatives under Digital India and ease of doing business of CBEC. GST will subsume ex

Detailed guidelines to be issued by the regulator later The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has allowed commodity exchanges to introduce trading in options. The regulator on Wednesday said in a circular sent to exchanges that would require its approval, which will be subject to guidelines that would be announced later. Sebi has refrained from introducing index-based futures as of now. Leading commodity exchanges have their indices, but Sebi wants to finalise a standard methodology.  “Traders need to hedge against price change in a particular commodity and not the overall market and, hence, index futures are not given a priority,” explained a person connected with the development. Samir Shah, managing director and chief executive officer, National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange said, “For farmers, it will be a game changer. It would help them sell their produce in the derivatives market and, thereby, get the benefit of price protection in case price falls below their

The final decision on the Budget date will be a political one and will be taken by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs The finance ministry is said to be pitching for the Union Budget 2017-18 to be presented on January 31, an event which would give Parliament exactly three months to  approve the Finance Bill before April 1. The final decision on the Budget date will be a political one and will be taken by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA). Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said last week that while the government was in favour of advancing the Budget to enable the passage of the Finance Bill before the start of the next financial year, a final call on the matter will be taken after studying the state election schedule. Uttarakhand, Manipur, Goa, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh are slated to go to the polls early next calendar year. The Budget planners and policymakers in North Block are pushing for a January 31 Budget. It will be a Tuesday, which also raises the likeli

Restrictions on Algo, colocations, PMS continued Tuesday issued several circulars, replacing those of the erstwhile commodity market regulator Forward Markets Commission (FMC). Last year, FMC ceased to exist after being merged with Sebi. While warehousing norms have been tightened significantly, other circulars include algo trading and co-location facilities for commodity exchanges. According to one of the circulars, portfolio management services would not be permissible in the commodity derivative market. Under the norms, warehouse service providers (WSP) will be corporate bodies with subscribed share capital of Rs 10 crore. An accredited WSP would have a minimum net worth of Rs 25 crore for multi-commodities and Rs 10 crore for a single commodity. The commodity exchange would have to ensure that the WSP, its promoters and key management personnel are “fit and proper” to carry out the business. All WSPs should also be approved by the Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority a