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Over 6.83 lakh companies have a permanent account number (PAN) but did not file income tax returns for  assessment year 2016-17, Parliament was informed on Tuesday. The number of companies which have PAN but do not file income tax returns have increased over the past  five years from 4.09 lakh in assessment year 2012-13, to 4.60 lakh (AY 2013-14), Minister of State for  Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha. The number was 5.19 lakh in AY 2014-15, 5.73 lakh (AY 2015-16) and 6.83 lakh (AY 2016-17). The bUsiness Standard, New Delhi, 26th July 2017

The proposed anti-profiteering authority under the GST will bolster consumer confidence and ensure  that the intended benefits of the new indirect tax regime reach the common man, the finance ministry  said today.  A selection committee under the chairmanship of the cabinet secretary has been set up to select  eligible persons for appointment as the chairman and members of the National Anti-Profiteering  Authority under the Goods and Services Tax.  The proposed authority will have the responsibility to ensure that the full benefits of a reduction in  tax on supply of goods or services flow to the consumers.  "The constitution of the National Anti-profiteering Authority is expected to bolster consumer  confidence and ensure all stakeholders reap the intended benefits of the GST," the finance ministry  said in a statement.  The authority shall be responsible for applying anti- profiteering measures in the event of a  reduction in rate of the GST on supply of goods o

The government has started a drive to bring all active workers of the National Rural Employment  Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) under the Aadhaar framework to bring down duplication under the scheme and  prevent leakage of funds. The rural development ministry, in consultation with the department of financial services, will  organise camps in villages to seek consent of the beneficiaries for seeding their bank accounts to  their Aadhaar numbers.“Linking with Aadhaar will help us reduce leakages in the transfer of funds to  the beneficiary’s account... The biometric verification ensures that money is reaching the right  person,” a senior official told ET. Rural development ministry has roped in Indian Banks’ Association  along with 13 private sector banks for the exercise.  So far 50% of the 10.7 crore active workers under NREGS have linked their bank accounts with the 12- digit Aadhaar identity. “While we had gathered Aadhaar information of over 85% workers, banks want to  receive th

To make it easier to do business, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said on Monday it  has introduced an online registration system for REITs and InvITs. The new system would help REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) and InvITs to complete registration and  other regulatory filings with Sebi much faster and inacosteffective manner. The Business Standard, New Delhi, 25th July 2017

A Bill amending the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 has been tabled in the Parliament today. Once enacted into law, the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2017 is  expected to replace the ordinance issued by the centre in May 2018. The following are the highlights of the Bill. The following are the highlights of the Bill. The ordinance inserts provisions for recovery of outstanding loans as per which, the central government may authorise the  Reserve Bank of India to direct banks to initiate recovery proceedings against loan defaulters. These recovery proceedings will be under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy  Code, 2016.  The Code provides for a time-bound process to resolve defaults by either (i) restructuring a loan (such as changing the repayment schedule), or (ii)  liquidating the defaulter’s assets. The RBI may from time to time issue directions to banks for resolving stressed assets.  Stressed assets are loans where the borrower has defaulted on repayment, or  loans which hav

A proposal to refund central goods and services tax (GST) on items made in formerly excise-free zones in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and the North-East is set to be  presented to cabinet. The move will benefit companies such as Cipla, Dabur, Dr Reddy’s and TVS Motor that invested in those areas because of the tax break. Such  exemptions have largely been scrapped under GST as part of efforts to create a common market across India with as few interstate variations as possible. The  Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) has approved the scheme, which is likely to benefit a number of automobile, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and pharmaceutical  companies that have invested in these zones. “EFC has cleared the scheme,” a senior finance ministry official told ET. It will shortly be introduced in the cabinet, he said. Hundreds of pharmaceutical companies  including high-profile ones such as Cipla, Dabur, Dr Reddy’s, Johnson & Johnson and Wockhardt have plants in such zones in H

The GST Network (GSTN), the entity responsible for the information technology backbone of the goods and services tax (GST), opened its system on Monday for invoice  uploading. It is not mandatory to start the uploading but “it´s live”, said Prakash Kumar, chief executive officer (CEO) of GSTN. This was earlier permitted but only foraselect few such as Suvidha providers, tax consultants and some officials. Kumar said invoices could be uploaded through Suvidha providers or by assessees themselves. For this purpose, GSTN had launched an Excel template on June 30, beside offline tools. Archit Gupta, CEO of ClearTax, one of the Suvidha providers, said taxpayers might find it difficult to locate the page where invoices have to be uploaded. “We also observed that only JSON files are supported. Businesses maintaining Excel sheets for invoices need to convert these to JSON format,” he said. Praveen Khandelwal, secretary general of the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT