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PAN-Aadhaar linkage does not help curb scams A lawyer today opposed the seeding of Aadhaar with the Permanent Account Number (PAN) for income tax in the Supreme Court, saying in no way does it help in preventing financial frauds or curb black money. Arguing before a five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, which is hearing a clutch of petitions challenging Aadhaar and its enabling 2016 law, the lawyer referred to various recent financial frauds including the Nirav Modi scam and said none of these could have been avoided by using PAN-Aadhaar linkage. “Firstly, giant corporates, rather than individua l players, have been the main actors in these scams. Secondly, black money is widely known to be stored by the corrupt in foreign banks which are beyond the reach of Aadhaar,” lawyer Gopal Sankaranarayanan, representing NGO ‘Centre for Civil Society’, said The Business Standard, New Delhi, 27th April 2018

Revenue from online ads signals promising start to digital taxation The receipts peg the size of online advertisements worth above Rs1 lakh a year at Rs10,000 crore a year The first full year of taxing digital services has thrown up promising results with the government collecting Rs600 crore as tax from online advertisements. Policymakers are now busy planning to scale proceeds from this new area, including through tax treaty changes.The tax that took effect on 1 June, 2016 had brought in Rs500 crore in the 10 months of FY17. Online advertisements are the first digital service to come under ‘equalisation levy’, a tax deducted at source. The receipts peg the size of online advertisements worth above Rs1 lakh a year at Rs10,000 crore a year. The 6% tax is to be deducted at source on the payments made to the advertisement platform such as social networking and other sites as  well as search engines and paid to the government.The government is now planning industry-wide consultati

I-T department targets cash hoarders, seizes Rs15 crore in 2 days The tax department started its crackdown on cash hoarders  amid a cash crunch reported in several states earlier this month Continuing its drive against cash hoarders, the income tax (I-T) department has seized nearly Rs15 crore in the last two days across Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Punjab.The tax department started its crackdown on cash hoarders amid a cash crunch reported in several states earlier this month. The searches in Bengaluru targeted a few big contractors and led to the seizure of Rs6.76 crore in cash—in Rs2,000 and    Rs500 denominations—from benami lockers, said a tax department official. These contractors were awarded contracts between January and March this year, followed by bank transfers and then withdrawals. There were also no books of accounts maintained by the contractors, the official added. In Hyderabad, the searches were on t wo realtors and led to the seizure of Rs5.10 crore in unaccounte

EPFO, ESIC, PFRDA Payroll Data an Eye Opener: Niti Niti Aayog said the payroll data released by three organisations on Wednesday are an eye opener and put an end to all speculations and conjectures regarding job creation in the economy as it  asked other organisations to release similar data.Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) and the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) for the first time released age-wise payroll data for six months to February. The EPFO data showed 3.1 million new additions  across all age groups while the PFRDA numbers showed 0.42 million new accounts under the New Pension System (NPS), taking the total to 3.52 million for the six months.“Hopefully this would also end the debate regarding and criticisms about jobless growth in the economy,” the Aayog said.The numbers for recent months are provisional and the finally tally could well be higher. This data would be released every month

Jaitley to chair GST Council on May 4, simplifying return form on agenda The 27th GST Council meet will also mull over the proposal of converting GSTN into a government company Finance Minister Arun Jaitley-chaired GST Council will meet on May 4 to discuss a simpler return form and the amendments required in the indirect tax regime rules. The 27th meeting of the Council, comprising state finance ministers, will meet through video conferencing and will also mull over the proposal of converting GSTN into a government company. A decision on return simplification could be on the cards with the Sushil Modi-led Group of Ministers putting before the Council the three models of new return form for discussion, an official said. With Jaitley been advised by doctors to stay in isolation to avoid contracting infection, the meeting has been planned through video conferencing. The Council had in March discussed on two models of GST returns and suggested that the GoM would work further simpli

How can you mandate Aadhaar-mobile linking without our order? SC asks govt The lawyer referred to control being enjoyed by UIDAI over entities, private, government which seek Aadhaar authentication for providing services The Supreme Court on Wednesday raised questions over the government's decision ordering mandatory seeding of mobile numbers with Aadhaar and said its earlier order on mandatory authentication of the users was used as a "tool". A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, hearing a clutch of petitions challenging Aadhaar and its enabling 2016 law, said its order on a PIL filed by 'Lokniti Foundation' had said that mobile users needed to be verified in the interest of national security. "In fact, there was no such direction from the Supreme Court, but you took it and used it as a toll to make Aadhaar mandatory for mobile users," the bench, also comprising Justices A K Sikri, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud a

3.11 million jobs added in 6 months, first EPFO payroll count shows The payroll count is essentially the difference between the number of workers who joined and exited from the EPFO's fold and as such is the net addition to jobs The Union government’s first-ever estimate of payroll count based on Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) subscription database showed that 3.11 million jobs were added in the formal economy in six months, even as there was a fall of 22 per cent in incremental employment in February 2018, compared to January to a four-month low of 472,075 persons. The payroll count is essentially the difference between the number of workers who joined and exited from the EPFO’s fold and as such is the net addition to jobs. The provisional figures released by the EPFO for six months showed 3.11 million workers joined the workforce in the formal sector during September 2017-February 2018. On a pro-rata basis, this would mean that 6.22 million additional jobs