This tax treaty controversy is snowballing. First it was just the India Mauritius Double Tax Avoidance Treaty that was under a shadow and has been that way for a couple of years then the proposed Direct Tax Code released in August this year proposed a Treaty of Override Clause. Tax experts and India Inc are up in arms because if the code becomes the law, that law would override any existing treaty and its provisions, creating confusion and uncertainty for tax payers. And, then last week came the bombshell.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued guidelines on ‘Fair Practice Code for Lenders’ which are required to be framed by Banks/Financial Institutions/ Non Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) duly adopted by their respective Boards. These guidelines which are revised periodically, inter-alia, stipulate that loan application forms in respect of all categories of loans irrespective of the amount of loan sought by the borrower should be comprehensive.
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has established Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) to act as the capacity building support for the officers / officials of the Ministry on issues relating to effective corporate functioning and regulation. The Institute can also design and deliver training programmes on such areas relating to corporate laws and regulations on specific requests from concerned Ministry / Department / Organisation. Giving this information in the Rajya Sabha, Shri Salman Khurshid, Minister of Corporate Affairs, said in a written reply that an elaborate regulatory framework is in place to deal with cases like Satyam scam.
Attention : Candidates and Voters for the forthcoming elections.It has been brought to my notice that the Election Code of Conduct evolved by the Council is being violated by organizing parties and other programmes under one pretext or the other.
PROMOTION on performance is a positive signal every organisation whether in private or public sectors intends to send to all stakeholders. This is what the Selection Panel headed by the Supreme Court Judge has also tried to do in the case of ITAT. It has overlooked as many as four senior Members and promoted deserving candidates. Besides, Vice-President at Ahmedabad Mr R V Easwar has been promoted as Senior V-P and posted to Mumbai.
Acting chairman of Company Law Board R Vasudevan was arrested by CBI for allegedly taking bribe of Rs seven lakh from a company secretary to give a favourable verdict to a media house. Mr. Vasudevan was arrested from his official residence at HUDCO Palace in south Delhi late last night while he was allegedly accepting the bribe from Manoj Banthia, who was also nabbed.
Central Board of Direct Taxes has notified rules to regulate the procedure of the Dispute Resolution Panel (DRP) constituted under section 144C of the Income Tax Act, 1961 inserted by the Finance Act 2009. The rules came into effect from 20th November 2009. DRPs will be constituted at Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Pune.
Circular No. 8/2009-Income Tax payments made by Third Party Administrators (TPAs) to hospitals on behalf of insurance companies for settling medical/insurance claims etc. with the hospitals. 2. The matter was examined by the Board. As per provisions of section 194J(1) ‘Any person, not being an individual or a Hindu undivided family, who is responsible for paying to a resident any sum by way of—
Attention is invited to erstwhile scheme for setting up private/public bonded warehouse in SEZ/DTA for import and re-exports of cut & polished diamonds, cut & polished colored gems stones, uncut & unset precious & semi precious gemstones, subject to achievement of minimum value addition of 5% under paragraph 4A.18 of the Foreign Trade Policy 2004-09. This scheme has now been deleted from the Foreign Trade Policy 2009-14 announced on 27.08.2009 by DGFT.
The income-tax department last week sent notices to six Mumbai-based third party administrators (TPAs), who process insurance claims, askingthem to cough up Rs 117 crore for two consecutive financial years, beginning 2008-09.
