We have initiated two major steps in the area of tax reforms. The first pertains to the DTC and the second to the Goods and Services Tax (GST). The DTC Bill was introduced in August, 2011 and has been referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee. I am hopeful that the Committee will submit its report by the Winter Session of the Parliament, and thereafter we would seek to get the legislation passed during the Budget session. By amalgamating several taxes levied by the Centre and the States at different stages of the value chain, the GST would mitigate cascading and make Indian industry competitive in domestic as well as international markets. It would also improve compliance and make the level of taxation transparent to the end consumers.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today hoped that the Direct Taxes Code (DTC), which seeks to replace the Income Tax Act of 1961, would come into force from April 1, 2012.

Large Indian firms may have to adopt international accounting norms, IFRS, from the next fiscal when the new direct tax regime comes into effect, bringing clarity on the tax structure for companies. In a meeting held recently, the Corporate Affairs Ministry and the Finance Ministry is learnt to have found a common ground on how companies would be taxed under the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

An NGO has urged Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to continue tax exemption for them in the proposed Direct Taxes Code in order to encourage non-profit organisations to undertake welfare activities. “Taxes will put a constraint resource generation of charitable bodies and reduce their ability to undertake welfare activities,” Tax Payers Protection & Welfare Society, said in a release.

Major national cooperatives today demanded that they should be kept out of the proposed direct tax code and continued to be given income tax exemption. They sought early approval to the Constitutional Amendment Bill on cooperative that was tabled in Parliament two years back. “Cooperatives should be kept out of the direct tax code that is to be operationalised in 2012 and the income tax exemption that is being provided under section 80 B should be continued,” National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI) President Chandrapal Singh Yadav told reporters on the sidelines of the North Zone Cooperative Conference.

The finance minister retained most of his other proposals, providing only marginal relief to industries such as automobiles, garments, personal computers and printers. On direct taxes, the biggest concession was in the norms for a concessional 15% tax on dividends received from overseas subsidiaries. As against the minimum 50% India holding in such subsidiaries to be eligible for the tax sop, the finance minister has suggested a lower threshold of 26%, benefiting several firms with overseas joint ventures.

In my proposals for the Direct Taxes, for the year 2011-12, I had proposed to provide lower tax rate of 15 per cent on dividends received by Indian companies from foreign subsidiary companies in which the Indian company holds more than 50 per cent share capital. Several representations have been made requesting further relaxation in the ownership pattern of the foreign subsidiaries. I, therefore, propose to lower the holding requirement in the foreign company from 50 per cent to 26 per cent. This will enable overseas joint ventures with Indian partnership, to also avail this benefit.

The government today hoped rollout of Direct Tax Code by April 2012 but things are not on track in case of Goods and Services Tax (GST). “DTC will be rolled out in April 2012 but for GST I think the date seems ‘optimistic’ under the present circumstances,” Revenue Secretary Sunil Mitra said.

Standing Committee on Finance Chairman Yashwant Sinha today suggested raising the income tax exemption limit from Rs 1.6 lakh to Rs 2 lakh in the Budget apparently to provide relief to common man reeling under the impact of high inflation.

The Indian IT industry has sought extension of tax benefits under STPI and simplification of the tax structure to encourage investments in the sector, among others as part of its budget wish-list. The USD 76 billion software industry has requested th