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The Centre on Thursday said it had made no final recommendations on auctioning benami properties to fund houses for the poor amid reports that a Group of Secretaries had suggested it to the government. In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA) Rao Inderjit Singh said various Groups of Secretaries had been constituted to suggest new initiatives in the sector and make recommendations for job creation, harnessing the demographic dividend and meeting rising aspirations of weaker sections. 10TH FEBRUARY, 2017, BUSINESS STANDARD, NEW-DELHI

Capital markets regulator Sebi is planning to initiate a public consultation process for changes to the Debenture Trustee regulations, wherein an entity will not be prohibited from acting as a trustee if the government provides guarantees for the debenture issued. Capital markets regulator Sebi is planning to initiate a public consultation process for changes to the Debenture Trustee regulations, wherein an entity will not be prohibited from acting as a trustee if the government provides guarantees for the debenture issued. The proposed changes follow recommendations from a Sebi - appointed task force for examining the “challenges in performing the obligations and duties as Debenture Trustees (DTs) to protect the interests of the debenture holders”. The amendments seek to fortify the existing provisions to enable the DTs to perform the task of securing the interest of investors and also harmonise the existing provisions with those of the Companies Act, 2013. Several existing provision

Capital markets regulator Sebi is planning to initiate a public consultation process for changes to the Debenture Trustee regulations, wherein an entity will not be prohibited from acting as a trustee if the government provides guarantees for the debenture issued. Capital markets regulator Sebi is planning to initiate a public consultation process for changes to the Debenture Trustee regulations, wherein an entity will not be prohibited from acting as a trustee if the government provides guarantees for the debenture issued. The proposed changes follow recommendations from a Sebi - appointed task force for examining the “challenges in performing the obligations and duties as Debenture Trustees (DTs) to protect the interests of the debenture holders”. The amendments seek to fortify the existing provisions to enable the DTs to perform the task of securing the interest of investors and also harmonise the existing provisions with those of the Companies Act, 2013. Several existing provision

Rejecting arguments that fiscal deficit target of 3.2% is optimistic, economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das said it is realistic and there is all possibility that revenues will exceed the target as Budget has not taken into account the demonetisation windfall. “Revenue, if at all, can exceed because people are pointing out that you have not taken into account windfall you will get from RBI because of demonetisation,“ he said in an interview. Besides, he said, there would be collection taxes next fiscal from those who fail to avail Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY). “Excess cash which has come into the banking system, income tax department has already analysed those data and there are large number of bank accounts where deposits made are totally disproportionate to the income of the individuals. It does not tally with their income tax returns. “So it is far in excess of what income tax re turns reflect for the previous years. So there is a strong po tential in those cases

Chandra says authorities will need to submit before HC `satisfaction note' defending search  Income tax authorities will need to submit `satisfaction note' before a high court on why a search was carried out, CBDT chairman Sushil Chandra has said, allaying fears that income-tax officers have been given arbitrary powers to conduct raids. “There will be no arbitrary searches...no additional powers have been given for searches or seizure,“ Chandra told ET, refuting reports that the budget proposal to allow I-T authorities to initiate a search without disclosing the “reason to believe“ will lead to more intrusive tax administration. A proper procedure including permission from principal director general has been laid out for a search and no junior officer has powers to conduct one on his own, he said. Satisfaction note prepared for the search is shown in the court and it is provided to the court whenever it seeks it in a sealed cover, Chandra said. The note provides the justificat

The RBI has constituted an inter-department Standing Committee on Cyber Security to continuously review security and analyse emerging threats to protect the Indian banking system from cyber attacks, the RBI stated in its sixth bi-monthly policy statement for 2016-17 announced on Wednesday . “With the need to be continuously vigilant in the area of cyber security , it has now been decided to constitute a standing committee on cyber security. It will be cross functional and have industry experts as well as the government representative (as members),“ said SS Mundra, deputy governor, RBI. The committee's main functions would be to review threats inherent in upcoming and existing innovations in the financial technology space, adoption of security protocols, checking interface with various stakeholders and suggest possible policy interventions to strengthen cyber security . The standing committee was constituted following the recommendations of the Expert Panel on Information Technolog

The income tax (I-T) department is considering a proposal to further cut the instances of scrutiny of taxpayers’ returns as it looks to sharpen focus on tax evaders and provide respite to honest taxpayers. The department is looking to make the process completely based on information of possible tax evasion, said a tax department official, who did not wish to be identified. Less than 1% of around 40 million taxpayers are selected for scrutiny every year to determine whether all the income earned is reflected in their tax return. Taxpayers are at present selected for scrutiny based on a computer-assisted selection system or CASS. Typically those who have made high-value transactions are chosen for scrutiny. “The tax department has set up a committee to look into how we can reduce the number of scrutiny cases further. We want to reduce the number of notices that are sent out and ensure that scrutiny is absolutely informationbased,” said the tax official cited earlier. Currently, the tax