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Co wins contract with a bid of Rs 1,380 cr; GST IT system will provide a standard interface for the taxpayer including registration, filing of returns & more Infosys has secured the high-profile contract to develop and operate the technology platform for the proposed goods and services tax (GST), beating the biggest names in Indian IT and US tech giant Microsoft. “Infosys has bagged the contract...The company will develop the system and operate it for five years,“ Navin Kumar, chairman of the Goods and Services Tax Network, told ET. The GST IT system will provide a standard interface for the taxpayer including registration, filing of returns and payment of tax and a common and shared IT infrastruc ture between the Centre, the states and other bodies such as the Reserve Bank of India. Bengaluru-based Infosys, India's second-largest software exporter, declined to comment on the development. “We are not offering comments as we are yet to receive an official communication

The Minimum Alternate Tax ( MAT) could be phased out after some years, if and when all corporate tax exemptions and deductions are phased out. This could take at least seven or eight years. If it happens, experts agree, it would reduce tax litigation. A finance ministry official said MAT might become redundant in seven years or more and could be removed. "For now, it will remain in the Income Tax Act, even if it does not affect people. If there are no substantial deductions that reduce the income to below 18.5 per cent, MAT will not be applicable. In seven to 10 years, as MAT becomes redundant, it will be removed," he said. The government is also looking at setting a sunset date for most open- ended tax concession schemes, alongside a five percentage point reduction in the corporate tax rate in four years. The rate is 30 per cent, but is close to 23 per cent, on account of a large number of exemptions and deductions. The revenue forgone in 2012- 13 on account of ded

Updates Of the Day 1.BOS of ICAI is organising Four Weeks Residential Programme on Professional Skills Development at CoE, Hyderabad fee Rs. 40,000/- date 26th November, 2015 to 23rd December, 2015 for students and newly qualified CAs. 2.ICAI Election 2015: The Members who are unable to physically vote, may apply for vote by post - Last Date 1st October, 2015. Visit www.icai.org 3.ICAI has issued detailed guidelines on audit of internal financial controls over financial reporting as required under the new Companies law. 4.SEBI issued Revised Disclosure Formats under SEBI (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations 2015. 5.MCA has decided to relax the additional fees payable on forms AOC-4, AOC-4 XBRL and MGT-7 up to 31/10/2015. 6.Gold deposits over 500gm, not explained by known source of income, will attract income tax under the gold monetization scheme. 7.CIT cannot revoke section 263 when assessing officer adopts one view out of two possible views : Bombay High court: Vijay

Newly coded listing regulations make disclosure of acquisition by a listed company mandatory The terms on which companies get listed on Indian stock exchanges just got codified into regulations. The Securities and Exchange Board of India ( Sebi) has notified the Securities and Exchange Board of India ( Listing obligations and disclosure requirements) Regulations, 2015, ( Listing Regulations). They will take effect on December 1, 2015. For far too long, the terms of listing have been governed by an unhelpful legal construct —the listing agreement, an agreement between the stock exchange and the listed company. Typically, an agreement is “private law” and governs only the parties to the agreement. However, the listing agreement has been wrongly treated like an instrument of “ public law” that would bind the world at large. One did not even need to sign it — it was modified at will by an agency that was not even a party to the agreement, viz Sebi. Fortuitously, this legally infi

In welcome news for taxpayers, the income-tax department has decided to launch a new system of issuing email notices to which an assessee can respond electronically, obviating the need for a physical interface with the taxman, which often led to complaints about harassment. Hindustan Times, New Delhi, 21st Sept. 201

Lack of enthusiasm on the part of banks may prompt govt to push for mergers as it looks to create stronger and specialized public sector lenders The consolidation of state-run banks is very much on the government's mind even though ministers have said it would be up to the public sector institutions to come up with merger proposals. The finance ministry has sought the Reserve Bank of India's views on the matter, suggesting that lack of enthusiasm on the part of banks may prompt the government to push for mergers as it looks to create stronger and specialized public sector lenders. “The idea is to ascertain the benefits of merger within PSBs (public sector banks) in the current scenario,“ a senior government official said. “A perspective from the RBI will help chalk out the strategy and road map for PSBs going forward.“ The query is a broad one and doesn't refer to any specific cases, the official said. An RBI spokesperson said it had nothing more to add to the dis

FM says govt committed to GST rollout, reforms and containing fiscal deficit Pitching for more foreign investments, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Sunday India would give better returns than many other countries. He also assured the government was working to expeditiously resolve tax disputes involving three overseas companies. Jaitley, who was in Hong Kong to meet foreign investors and fund houses, emphasised that the government wanted to resolve expeditiously the entire instability on taxation matters, as “ tax uncertainty does not help the investment environment”. Noting that the government was putting special focus on improving ease of doing business, the finance minister said foreign investments could give great additional resources and the country’s infrastructure sector needed huge investments. “ India will give better returns than many other countries.” On the second leg of his visit to Singapore and Hong Kong, he said the government was keen on early resolution