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Realty developers get notices for inflated credit claims under GST   About 400 real estate developers, including listed companies, have received notices from the indirect tax department for inflated credit claims under the Goods and Services Tax (GST), said two people aware of the development.  The developers have been asked to pay a fine of 100% and interest of about 18% on the wrongly claimed credit, according to the notices. Many developers, especially those with a substantial presence in commercial property and retail malls, have been served with the notices, tax officials said.  “About 20 developers from Mumbai, including some of the listed players, have submitted input credit claims for raw material that had already been used when GST was rolled out. These companies will now face steep fines,” said a tax official.  The companies had claimed credit on input costs such as steel, cement and sand used for under-construction buildings to offset future GST liabilities, tax offi

SEBI board to vet National Stock Exchange colocation probe report The regulator has completed the investigation against 20 brokers, who allegedly gained unfair access to NSE's trading facility The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has completed its investigation of 20 brokers in the National Stock Exchange (NSE) colocation (colo) controversy. The regulator in August last year had ordered a joint forensic audit to probe the brokers, who had allegedly gained unfair access to trading data feed between December 2012 and May 2014. According to sources, the investigation report has a detailed analysis of brokers using the colo facility to churn out thousands of trades and make huge profits. “There is a high probability that some brokerages who were using dark fibre connections received preferential treatment from bourse officials,” said a person privy to the development. However, he refused to give further details of the findings. The report is likely to be tabled in

 Minister arrives today: India to push on huge trade deficit India's import from China was Rs 61.3 bn and exports stood at a much lesser Rs 10.2 bn, leaving in its wake a massive Rs 51.1 bn trade deficit in 2016-17 Chinese Commerce Minister Zhong Shan reaches New Delhi on Monday for official trade talks. In the backdrop of a possible trade war between the United States and China, India is looking to get China to reduce tariffs on our export, senior government officials suggested. The bilateral engagement, under the aegis of the India-China joint economic forum, will be significant for India since Beijing has decided to discuss India’s ballooning trade deficit, commerce and industry minister Suresh Prabhu said. India’s import from China was Rs 61.3 billion and exports stood at a much lesser Rs 10.2 billion, leaving in its wake a massive Rs 51.1 billion trade deficit in 2016-17. The government has been worried by increasing friction between the US — India’s largest export des

Businesses with nil tax liability may get to file GST returns bi-annually Businesses having zero tax liability for six consecutive months under GST may soon get relief once the proposal to allow such entities to file returns only twice a year gets the GST Council's nod. According to recent data, as much as 40 per cent of return filers under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime have nil tax liability and will not have to file monthly returns once the new simplified return filing procedure is finalised. The GST Council, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and comprising his state counterparts, will at its next meeting consider the proposal to simplify the GST return forms. "Taxpayers whose liability is nil for six consecutive months will be required to file six-monthly return," an official told PTI. As per the proposal prepared by the revenue authorities, the return filing date would be spread out. Businesses having annual turnover of up to Rs 1.5 crore wil

 UIDAI set to introduce face authentication feature from July 1 The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is all set to make face authentication available alongside iris or fingerprint scan as means of verifying Aadhaar users from July 1, 2018.  The UIDAI, which is in-charge of the 12-digit identifier Aadhaar, in January had announced that it will introduce face authentication feature to help those who run into problems in biometric authentication due to old age, hardwork or worn-out fingerprints.  It had said that face authentication will be allowed only in fusion mode meaning it would be permitted along with either fingerprint or iris or OTP to verify the details of Aadhaar holders.  In a presentation to the Supreme Court last week where he emphasised the robustness of the Aadhaar encryption system saying breaking it may take "more than the age of the universe for the fastest computer on earth", UIDAI CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey also informed that the propose

Service tax can't be imposed in J&K, says tribunal of pre-GST levy The case was from the earlier service tax regime, prior to rollout of the current goods and services tax A tribunal has rejected indirect tax authorities’ demand to levy service tax for goods transported to Jammu and Kashmir on the reverse charge mechanism. The case was from the earlier service tax regime, prior to rollout of the current goods and services tax (GST). Experts say such a dispute would not arise in the GST regime. A company supplying petroleum products had got a notice for services given by a goods transport agency in J&K between April 2011 and September 2014. The company contended that service tax, imposed since 1994, excluded the state of J&K; hence, no such levy was possible. To which, the authorities said the tax should have been deducted by the company on the reverse charge mechanism. Generally, the seller of a service was liable to pay tax after deducting it from the service

Vehicle scrap policy to go for Cabinet's nod in a month: Nitin Gadkari    The proposed vehicle scrap policy for mandatory disposal of more than 20 years old commercial vehicles will go for the Cabinet nod in a month and once brought in, will result in additional flow of Rs 10,000 crore into government coffers, Union minister Nitin Gadkari said.    The much-awaited policy was given 'in-principle' approval at a high-level inter-ministerial meeting at the PMO to pave way for scrapping of 20 years old commercial vehicles (CVs) from April 1, 2020.    "Old commercial vehicles are responsible for 65 per cent of the vehicular pollution. The policy to scrap these has got nod at a Secretary-level meeting at the PMO. Now stakeholders consultation will be done in a fortnight and it will go to the Cabinet in about a month's time," Road Transport, Highways, Shipping, Water Resources and Ganga Rejuvenation Minister Nitin Gadkari told PTI in an interview.