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The Income Tax department on Thursday published names of five entities owing over Rs 10 crore in taxes, as part of its strategy to name and shame big defaulters. In an advertisement issued in leading national dailies, the department brought out the list of defaulters of income tax and corporate tax even as it advised them to pay their "tax arrears immediately". The department has begun this exercise of naming and shaming I-T defaulters since the last few years and had named at least 96 such entities which have huge tax liabilities on them and have either gone non-traceable or have shown no assets for recovery. The latest list has names of five such alleged defaulters, based in Delhi.A senior official said the public list, with details of the individual or entity like their PAN card number (in certain cases), last known address and assessment range and defaulted amount of tax, is also aimed to make aware the people at large so that they can inform the department in case

The “2011 vintage“ manufacturing policy is being modified to align it with initiatives like 'Make in India' as also Industrial Revolution 4.0, which refers to high end automation, industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said. The national manufacturing policy (NMP) “is of 2011 vintage“, which envisaged that manufacturing should contribute 25 per cent in India's GDP by 2022, she said.Currently, the sector contributes about 16-17 per cent to India's economic growth. The NMP, formulated in 2011, provides certain tax and other benefits to boost the sector's growth besides creating 100 million additional jobs.“Yes, we have initiated the process (to revamp the policy). I have instructed the secretary in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) to get into the details of that,“ the commerce and industry minister told PTI in an interview. The Economic Times New Delhi, 19th May 2017

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday relaxed the branch authorization policy, bringing all branches and fixed business correspondent outlets under the definition of banking outlets and removing restrictions on opening branches in Tier 1 centres. According to the revised policy, RBI has defined “a banking outlet” for a scheduled commercial, a payments bank or a small finance bank as a fixed point service delivery unit, manned by either the bank’s staff or its business correspondent, where services of acceptance of deposits, encashment of cheques, cash withdrawal or lending of money are provided for a minimum of 4 hours per day for at least five days a week”. Those outlets which do not meet this criteria will be called “part-time banking outlet.” While the policy has removed restrictions on opening banking outlets in Tier 1 to Tier 6 centres without taking RBI’s permission in each case, the regulator has mandated that banks open 25% of these outlets in unbanked rural centres (

The Narendra Modi government plans to enact a law under which any property owned by fugitive economic offenders involving amounts in excess of Rs 100 crore can be confiscated and vested with the government for expeditious disposal. The law is expected to deter economic offenders from fleeing the country like Vijay Mallya did.The draft Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill 2017 has been put in the public domain by the finance ministry, which is seeking public feedback until 3 June. The Central Bureau of Investigation has been investigating a case against Mallya and the companies he controlled over allegations of money laundering since early last year and secured a non-bailable warrant against the businessman in a case related to money laundering and wilful default of loans. Mallya, who fled to UK in March 2016, was briefly arrested by the Scotland Yard in London on 18 April on India’s request for his extradition on fraud charges. He was released on bail a few hours later after he appeare

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, at its meeting in Srinagar on Thursday, approved rates for about 1,200 items, boosting the chances of a July 1 roll-out and also sending a signal to the industry to be ready for the indirect tax regime. Inabid to ensure that the GST was noninflationary, the Council, chaired by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and comprising representatives of other states, kept more than 81 per cent of the items in the tax bracket of 18 per cent orlower. “We have approved rates for 1,211 items… Six categories are yet to be finalised.This will be taken up tomorrow (Friday), along with services,” said Jaitley. The complete list of the rates for these items was released late at night.Friday will be the second day of the 14th meeting of the Council.On Thursday, it also approved eight of nine GST rules, sending one to the legal committee for vetting. Taking into consideration food consumed by the poor, food grain and milk have been exempted from taxes.Cereals

Markets regulator Sebi today fixed position limit for brokers and institutional investors, operating in international financial services centres (IFSCs), for cross-currency futures and options contracts. Position limit refers to the highest number of options or futures contracts an investor is allowed to hold on one underlying security.   In a circular, Sebi said that "gross open position across all contracts not to exceed 15 per cent of the total open interest or USD 1 billion equivalent, whichever is higher", for trading members, institutional investors and eligible foreign investors.   For other clients, open position across all contracts should not exceed 6 per cent of the total open interest or USD 100 million equivalent, whichever is higher.   The stock exchanges would impose penalties for violation of position limits by these market participants.Trading in currency derivatives has been allowed on stock exchanges operating in IFSC.   The cross-curr

The Union cabinet on Wednesday decided to extend the maternity benefit scheme across India, under which pregnant and lactating mothers will get ?6,000 for their first born child. The scheme, which is presently under implementation on a pilot basis in 52 districts, provides financial assistance to pregnant women for the first two live births. It was launched by the women and child development (WCD) ministry in 2010.   The programme, which does not cover women working in state or central government, aims to ensure that beneficiaries are not deprived of nutrition before and after pregnancy, and also get partially compensated for the wage loss, in case they are working.   “Out of this, ?5,000 will be given by the WCD ministry and ?1,000 by the state,” Union power minister Piyush Goyal said at the cabinet briefing.   The scheme was originally called Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana. The programme will cost the government ?12,661 crore for four years till March 2020. Of