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CASH CHASE In its fifth report submitted to the Supreme Court, the Special Investigation Team on black money has proposed a cap on cash transactions and restriction on cash holding with individuals as well as industry up to Rs. 15 lakh The Special Investigation Team (SIT) on black money has recommended banning cash transactions of Rs. 3 lakh and above and restricting cash holding with individuals and industry to Rs.15 lakh to curb illegal wealth in the country. The SIT, headed by Justice MB Shah (retired), submitted its fifth report to the Supreme Court on methods to curb black money in the economy, an official statement said on Thursday. The panel said that large amount of unaccounted wealth is stored and used in the form of cash. “Having considered the provisions which exist in this regard in various countries and also having considered various reports and observations of courts regarding cash transactions the SIT felt that there is a need to put an upper limit to cash tran

Searches homes of informer who has contacts with CBDT chief The Income Tax Department, which generally bandies about search and seizure action to unearth undisclosed income, is unusually quiet about an operation it carried out last month. On June 2, the I-T department raided the residential premises of a technology consultant, Pritin Sanyal, in New Delhi and Lucknow. The documents it came across during the searches included one with the names of four senior income tax commissioners and their future postings, including at the investigation wing in Delhi, said tax officials in the know. As the searches were underway, a Russian girl who was present at Sanyal's upmarket Safdarjung Enclave residence, slashed her wrist, prompting the tax officials to lodge a police complaint and inform the Russian Embassy. Three more searches were carried out later at the residences of some accomplices of Sanyal in Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata. The case becomes curious because Sanyal was an inf

Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday indicated corporate tax rate would be brought down further to attract investors. He also assured investors that the government will maintain stability in tax policies. The finance minister has already underlined the need to bring down the corporate tax rate from the current 30% to 25% over the next four years. The corporate tax rate in China is 25%, while in Singapore it is 17%. In the US, it is over 35%. “We have been trying to maintain stability of tax policy…and one of the efforts is that corporate tax must be brought down to globally competitive rates because assesses world-over will be watching. Why should investors invest in jurisdictions where they have to pay higher rates?” Jaitley said while speaking at a Ficci function. The minister also said that quoting t he Permanent Account Number (PAN) for transactions beyond a particular limit would be gradually made mandatory, a move that is expected to reduce generation and circulati

The Central Board of Direct Taxes ( CBDT) on Thursday directed the income- tax department to “ expeditiously” issue refunds worth Rs. 5,000 for past three assessment years to provide immediate relief to taxpayers. The CBDT issued directions in this regard and said pending refunds of Rs. 5,000 in cases that have not been selected for scrutiny for assessment years 2013- 14, 2014- 15 and 2015- 16 should be issued fast and within this financial year. Business Standard New Delhi,15th July 2016

Retirement fund body Employees Provident Fund Organisation ( EPFO) has relaxed the provision that requires furnishing of universal account number ( UAN) for the settlement of claims like provident fund ( PF) withdrawal for all those who left membership before January 1, 2014. The EPFO had made it a must to provide UAN on claims in December last year. " The decision to relax this condition of providing UAN for claim settlement was taken after considering difficulties being faced by those members who were not alloted UAN," an official said. Business Standard New Delhi,15th July 2016

The finance ministry on Thursday extended the deadline for payment of tax and penalty under the scheme to disclose previously unreported money, allowing this to be done in three instalments by September 30 next year. The ministry also clarified that black money declarants using the window cannot pay tax from undisclosed income. Earlier, the declarant had to pay tax, cess and penalty by November 30. Now, the first instalment of 25 per cent under the Income Declaration Scheme- 2016, will have to be paid by November, to be followed by another 25 per cent by March 31, 2017. The remaining amount will have to be paid to the exchequer by September 30, 2017. The extension of time for payment was based on feedback, that it was too short a time to pay tax, cess and penalty The income tax department also came out with a fourth set of clarifications on the scheme. There were earlier reports that payment could be made out of the undisclosed income, without including this in the income dec

Maruti Suzuki, Tata Steel, BPCL, UltraTech and Coal India may report 3-12% increase in earnings after to the implementation of new Indian Accounting Standard (Ind-AS).On the other hand, earnings of ITC, Bharti Infratel, Lupin, and Arvind may fall by 4-10%.Companies each with networth of `500 crore or more will adopt the new standards in FY17. The transition will have a considerable impact on the computation of revenue, operating profit, net profit, and networth of the listed companies. Sectors including metals, telecoms, oil & gas, and real estate are likely to be impacted most. According to analyst estimates, the new norms will increase revenues by 4-5%, while overall EBITDA may drop by 2-3%. Sebi has given publicly-listed companies additional one month to declare results for the June and the September quarters to comply with the new norms. The new standards Every country stipulates a method for companies to report financial data based on rules called accounting standards. Ind