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Officials may issue notices, carry out surveys in some big cases where no response has come Income Tax officials could soon be at your doorstep if you have deposited a huge amount during the note-swapping exercise last year, and have not yet explained the source of the cash. “We have tried to keep the exercise non-intrusive. But if people have not come forward, then some kind of verification is needed especially in cases that involve deposits of large sums,“ a senior income-tax department official told ET. Under the `Operation Clean Money', the I-T department had sent out SMSes and e-mails to about 18 lakh people who deposited over `5 lakh each during the 50-day window from November 10 to December 30, because the desposits did not tally with their income. The depositors were asked by the I-T department to explain the source of the money by logging in to its portal. By February 15, about 7.3 lakh people responded to the emails and ex plained their deposits. According to th

Making A Monetary Difference The upcoming payments bank by IndiaPost will make it possible to send and receive money only on the basis of the Aadhaar number Your 12-digit Aadhaar number could soon become your single-point payment address. With the upcoming payments bank by IndiaPost, over 112 crore Indians will be able to send and receive money only on the basis of the Aadhaar number; it won't not matter whether it is linked to a bank account or not. IndiaPost CEO AP Singh told ET that currently, Aadhaar is not a payment address in itself, but the payments bank, which plans to start operations from September 2017, will change that. The bank, which hopes to cover at least 650 districts of the country in the initial stage, aims to “simplify and universalise“ payments systems. “We will bring out a solution to make Aadhaar a payment address, which will work with or without a bank account.That means that people who already have an Aadhaar should be able to receive payment from a

Existing mutual fund (MF) schemes will not require approval ofamajority of unitholders to invest in the derivatives segment provided the investors are given the exit option, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said on Monday. Among other conditions, the relaxation, effective immediately, would be in place only if the MF scheme concerned provides the investors 30 days´ time to exit the scheme without any charges. It would be applicable for existing mutual funds, whose scheme information documents (SIDs) do not envisage investments in derivatives. The latest decision has been taken in view of the challenges involved in seeking the consent ofamajority of unitholders due to their vast geographical spread, according to the regulator. Business Standard New Delhi,21st February 2017

The income tax( IT) department is likely to launch the second phase of Operation Clean Money next month to close in on unaccounted money making its way into banks but may ignore standalone deposits below Rs.5 lakh for now. The IT department will appoint two data analytics firms in the next 10 days to analyse the deposits in bank accounts before and after November 8 last year— the day the government decided to junk 86 percent of thecurrency in circulation. Theexercisewill attempttolinkindividuals withmultipleaccountsor permanentaccount numbers, officialssaid. Business Standard New Delhi,21st February 2017

GST Council should expedite the rest of it The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council has done well to clear a Bill that guarantees to fully compensate states for five years for any revenue loss during transition to the new tax regime. A legal backing provides comfort, but there should be ways to prevent states from slacking off on revenue collections. GST subsumes all indirect levies and avoids cascading of taxes, leading to potential revenue loss for states, but they will gain from being able to tax services. A precise estimate of gain or loss is not possible at this stage. Sensibly , states will be compensated on the basis of revenue projections from 2015-16 -when growth and revenue collections were buoyant. A protracted slowdown due to demonetisation would hurt their revenues next year. In any case, the Centre will have to bear an extra fiscal burden if states have to be compensated for revenue shortfall. So, the need is to change the approach to sharing taxes with states. There

Tax department has asked officials to start an outreach programme with stakeholders and make systemic changes to implement proposed modifications in Customs Act aimed at de-cluttering ports and enhancing revenue.The Finance Bill 2017 proposes to modify the Customs Act for filing of bill of entry the same day on which the vessel, aircraft or vehicle carrying the goods arrives at a customs station.Changes have also been proposed relating to the payment of duty and interest. The Economic Times New Delhi,20th February 2017

Cash purchases of jewellery will attract 1per cent tax collecte dat source from April 1 if the amount exceeds Rs.2lakh, against thecurrent threshold of Rs.5 lakh. OncetheFinance Bill, 2017, ispassed, jewellery willbetreatedonaparwith generalgoodswhichattract1 percentTCSoncashpurchase ofaboveRs.2lakh. TheBillseeks todoawaywiththethreshold ofRs.5lakhonjewellery purchases for applicability of TCS because the Union Budget 2017-18 has proposed to ban cash dealings of over Rs. 3 lakh and make violations punishable with a penalty of an equivalent amount to be paid by the person receiving the cash. However, as there is no special provision  for TCS on its purchase, jewellery is now being clubbed in general ´goods´ on which 1 percent TCS is triggered  if as ingletrans action exceeds  Rs.2 lakh in cash. Business Standard New Delhi,20th February 2017