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I-T dept to appoint 7600 more TRPs to cover entire country Every district of the country will soon have at least one trained personnel to assist small taxpayers in filing ITRs, with the Income Tax Department proposing to appoint 7,600 additional experts whose services will also be available on mobile application. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the apex policy-making body of the tax department, has decided to enlarge the ambit of the 2006 Tax Return Preparer Scheme (TRPS) by making the service "digital" and covering all the 708 districts of the country. "It is proposed to provide sufficient number of Tax Return Preparers (TRPs) in every district by scaling up of number of TRPs from a total 5,400 to 13,000 in the country," according to an I-T department blueprint, accessed by PTI. "It is proposed that every district in the country should have at least three TRPs," it added. A senior official working on the project said the aim was to ensure ha

Sebi advisory panel to discuss extension of trading hours An advisory committee of market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is likely to discuss a proposal for extending stock market trading hours, even as several brokers feel any such move would increase costs and logistics burden for them. Currently, the stock market in India opens at 9 am and closes at 3.30 pm, but there is a view — including among stock exchanges — that the trade hours could be extended till up to 7.30 pm to better align domestic trading with global markets. The proponents of this proposal feel extended hours can help boost trade volumes, thus generating greater revenue for exchanges, and help deepen the equity markets in the country. The proposal is likely to be discussed by Sebi’s Secondary Market Advisory Committee. The Business Standard , New Delhi, 11th September 2017

Now, taxmen to snoop on social networking sites to trace black money A photo of your shiny new luxury car on Instagram or a costly watch on Facebook may lead the taxman to your door as the tax department from next month will begin amassing virtual information to trace black money. 'Project Insight', likely to be launched next month, will use big data analytics to match information from social media sites to deduce mismatches+ between spending pattern and income declaration. The tax department will analyse mismatches in income declarations and spending patterns to trace tax evasions and black money, an official said. The government has also made the linking of PAN with Aadhaar mandatory to get a 360 degree view of a person's income and assets. The tax department had last year signed a pact with L&T Infotech for the implementation of Project Insight, which is designed to strengthen the non-intrusive information driven approach for improving tax compliance. "Curre

FinMin to initiate Budget exercise nextweek This might be this govt's last Budget before 2019 general elections Work on India's first post-goods and services tax (GST) Budget will start next week, with the finance ministry issuing time lines for different processes that will culminate with its presentation in February. It may also be the current government's last full-fledged Budget, as general elections are due in 2019. Even though independent India's biggest tax reform of GST was implemented from July 1, the Budget for 2017-18 (April-March), had followed the practice of tax revenue projections under the heads of customs duty, central excise and service tax, alongside direct tax numbers. With excise duty and service tax being subsumed in the GST, the classifications will undergo change, an official said. While a new classification for revenues to be accrued from GST will be included in the Budget for next fiscal year, for the current year two sets of accounting may

Next set of NPAs must have credit rating: RBI Tough to comply with the norm, say bankers Aresolution plan finalised for the next set of stressed assets identified by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will be subject to a rating requirement if the plan for resolving their bad debts falls outside the scope of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). The central bank has conveyed to the banks that if any resolution plan is finalised outside the ambit of the IBC, the residual debt would have to be rated as investment grade by two external credit rating agencies for bank loan rating. In case the plan fails to get the rating, the accounts would be referred for resolution under the IBC before December 31. Though there has been no official communication to the companies regarding this rating requirement, they have been informally informed about this by the lenders, who would appoint credit rating agencies for this. The RBI, in its letter dated August 28, reminded banks about the resolution

Car Cos Relieved After Crossing Cess Bump But luxury automakers, which will be impacted the most, criticise new rates India’s popular and compact-car companies sounded relieved after the GST Council on Saturday raised the vehicle cess by less than the maximum possible, although luxury automakers were more circumspect in their assessment of the new rates. After the increase, Honda City and Hyundai Verna should be costlier by about .? 20,000. Mid-market SUVs such as the Creta and Duster will likely see their prices rise by as much as .? 90,000. The increases are expected to be higher in the C and D segments. The Jeep Compass, Mahindra XUV, Tata Hexa and Toyota Innova will likely be costlier by as much as .? 1.2 lakh. Bigger SUVs such as the Toyota Fortuner, Ford Endeavour, Audi Q3 and BMW X1 will be pricier by up to .? 2 lakh while Luxury SUVs such as the Audi Q7 may cost up to .? 4 lakh more. The revised rates mean a partial reversal of the price benefits buyers initially enjoyed in

Sebi scraps ´ brightline´ control test proposal The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Friday said it has dropped the proposal of  adopting the “brightline test” to determine acquisition of “control”. In March 2016, the market regulator had floatedadiscussion paper on “brightline tests for acquisition  of ´control´ under Sebi Takeover Regulations”. The brightline test isadifferent approach to defining control, which prescribesalist of protective  rights which do not amount to acquisition of control. The current framework, is largely formulaebased, with one of the criterion being acquisition of 25 per  cent stake or voting rights. Determining change of control is critical as it triggers an open offer to the public shareholders. “The relevant issues have been examined intensively and in view of the aforesaid comments received and  considering the current regulatory environment, it has been decided to continue with the practice of  ascertaining acquisition of ´co