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The labour ministry is considering a pension scheme for high-income working group as the BJP-led NDA government gears up its drive to create a pensioned society. A senior labour ministry official, who is part of the conceptualisation process, told ET that the initial idea is to roll out the scheme under the retirement fund body Employees Provident Fund Organisation so as to get exempt-exempt-exempt (EEE) status even for pension fund. This would also make the scheme more attractive than the National Pension System (NPS) that does not enjoy this kind of tax benefit. Under the EPF & MP Act, out of the employers' 12% contribution to provident fund for its employees, 8.33% goes to the Employee Pension Scheme.While this contribution from employer is mandatory for workers earning up to `. 15000, the employee does not have to cont ribute. The new scheme, if approved, will be available to the high earning EPFO members on a contributory basis. “We are thinking of coming up with an all-n

The Congress party will support the Goods and Services Tax ( GST) Bill in the Rajya Sabha if there is acap on the tax. Not necessarily in the Constitution amendment legislation, which will be hard to amend but at least in the main GST Bill, which can be changed by simple majority. This is the party’s bottom line but so far nobody from the government has contacted it to take this discussion forward. The current 200- page GST draft Bill mentioned a rate but does not describe how this can be changed — no formula or any other method. Nor does it term this a cap, implying it can be revised upwards whenever the government wants, without restriction. This is the Congress’ argument. Praveen Chakravarty, senior fellow at IDFC Institute, a Mumbai think tank, puts it this way. He says there has been a 127 per cent increase in petrol taxes and a 386 per cent increase in diesel taxes, both indirect levies, from 2014 to February 2016. The Central Excise Act gives the government the untrammelled pow

Faced with resistance in disclosures by those named in the Panama Papers, the Income Tax department has made references to about a dozen countries in order to obtain actionable evidence against such Indian entities. Officials said a special wing under the Central Board of Direct Taxes ( CBDT) has made multiple requests to their counterparts in foreign nations as part of the I- T departments tax evasion probe against those named in these leaks. They said that the taxman was faced with non- cooperation and and non- acceptance of their accounts as revealed in the Panama papers and hence the department had to approach the foreign jurisdictions, including Switzerland, British Virgin Island and the UK . In many cases, the department has reported, that those named on the list are refusing to be the beneficial owners. Business Standard, New Delhi, 11 July 2016  

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has issued a consultation paper on financial disclosures and valuation of the units of the newly introduced Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs). Sebi has proposed mandatory disclosure in the valuation report including adequate information about the valuation and other aspects of the underlying assets of InvITs. Also, historical valuations of assets of the past three financial years should be disclosed. Information on the assumed factors while calculating the valuation such as discounting rate, tenure etc should also be given. Specific InvIT assets must have the list of one-time sanctions obtained or pending; list of clearances; statement of assets; and estimated time of completion of projects. These apart, it has to disclose the revenue pendencies and compounding charges, if any. The regulator has also proposed detailed financial statements “to be prepared in accordance with the Indian Accounting Standards, converged with the Int

Income Tax Department has asked its top officers to closely scrutinise high-value transactions and investments in penny stocks to identify potential black money holders who can avail the four-month compliance window ending September 30 to come clean. In a communication to Principal Chief Commissioners in 18 regions across the country, the department has asked officers to look into Annual Information Returns (AIR), which do not contain valid PANs. The database for 'Non-PAN AIR transactions' has already been disseminated to Principal Chief Commissioners based on the regions.It has also made available list of cases related to penny stock transactions for Assessment Year 2009-10 to 2013-14 for identifying potential black money holders. The department has also asked the officials to share data on penny stock transactions with field formations. Principal Chief Commissioners have also been asked to scrutinise "non-filers" and those who have not submitted their response to

Corporation tax collections up just 4%; indirect tax kitty up 31% The Centres tax kitty swelled 28.4 per cent in the first quarter of the financial year, but corporation tax yielded only 4.4 per cent more than what was collected in the first three months of 2015- 16, indicating lukewarm growth in the profitability of India Inc. Much of the growth in indirect tax collections was due to an increase in excise duty on petroleum and other measures, showed official figures released on Friday. The 28 per cent growth in collection is significantly higher than the annual growth of 12 per cent budgeted for gross tax collections in the current year. The government collected Rs.3.24 lakh crore in April- June, 2016- 17 against Rs.2.52 lakh crore in the corresponding period of the last year. While indirect tax collections jumped 30.8 per cent to Rs.1.98 lakh crore against Rs.1.53 lakh crore earlier, direct taxes yielded Rs.1.24 lakh crore ( growth of 24.79 per cent), figures released by the financ

New Minister of State for Finance Arjun Meghwal seems to be on the same page as his immediate boss, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, when it comes to the passage of the constitutional amendment to the goods and service tax (GST) Bill in the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament. “If the Opposition has some suggestions or reservations (regarding GST), we are ready to discuss those, except putting the rate in the Constitution. That is not a practical suggestion. If in the future the government decides that the rates need to be changed, then we will have to amend the Constitution again,”  Meghwal told Business Standard on Friday, days after assuming his new post. “We want the passage of the constitutional amendment to GST in the monsoon session.” Meghwal is also the new minister of state for corporate affairs. Over the past many months, the differences between the government and the principal Opposition, the Congress, had reduced. The Congress has been demanding that the GST rate be made