The Union Cabinet today approved the proposal to introduce a Bill to amend the Copyright Act, 1957. The Ministry of Human Resource Development has proposed the amendments in order to gain clarity, remove operational difficulties and to address the newer issues that have emerged in the context of digital technology and the internet.
Shri Anand Sharma, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, has released the first draft consolidation of all the aspects of FDI Policy and FDI Framework, here today, and also launched the same in the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion’s website (http://dipp./nic.in). Briefing the media on the occasion, Shri Sharma said that such consolidation would ensure the availability of all information on FDI policy at one place, and is expected to lead to: simplification of the policy; greater clarity of understanding of foreign investment rules among foreign investors and sectoral regulators, as also predictability of policy and added that having a single policy platform would also ease the regulatory burden for Government.
The Chairman of a Branch, after demitting office, should not seek re-election for or hold the said or any other post at Branch level in subsequent years. The Committee also decided that no member should hold two posts simultaneously and that in case, as a result, any difficulty was faced, the matter may be brought before the Institute for its consideration.
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 has been enacted by the Parliament to provide for free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years. After receiving the assent of the President, the aforesaid Act was published in the Gazette of India on 27th August, 2009.
When it comes to social security measures, India is still considered to be an evolving country even after more than sixty years of independence. Central Government has announced a new pension scheme (NPS) w.e.f. 1st May, 2009 established under Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority. The scheme has been in operation for government employees since 2004 but has been only now opened to Indian citizens which will benefit all citizens, particularly those in private sector employment and those who are self employed.
Savings are generally made from taxable income, which has already been subjected to tax provisions. There are certain savings which, if made enjoy exemption from taxation. Not only this, the income or returns arising from such savings or investments are also exempt from tax and when such savings are redeemed on maturity, they are not subjected to any income tax. Thus, such amounts of savings are never taxed at any pint of time. Such a situation works on a model of exempt- exempt-exempt (EEE). An investment in provident fund or public provident fund or national savings certificate are typical examples of EEE model, at present.
The Supreme Court has upheld a Bombay High Court ruling saying that the Government cannot levy service tax on services provided outside the country. The order pertains to service tax for the period from March 1, 2002 to April 17, 2006.
The Law Commission is in favour of amending the country’s archaic Indian Stamp Act 1899 and the Court-fees Act 1870, which entail payment of stamp duty on instruments and court-fee on documents to be filed in courts only in the form of adhesive stamps or stamped papers.Taking up the obsolete statutes suo motu for a thorough study, the Law Commission headed by Dr Justice A.R. Lakshmanan in its latest report tabled in Parliament, said in the recent past there have been scandals on stamp papers.
The single-most important regulation in India, governing the acquisition of shares or control in an Indian listed company is the SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeover) Regulations, 1997, or the Takeover Code. In the backdrop of changing needs of a dynamic Indian economy surging at a growth pace of more than 7 per cent over the last few years, this code has been tested during many a corporate takeover battle in India, observes Girish Vanvari, Executive Director, M&A Tax Head and Member of the Tax Executive Committee, KPMG India, Mumbai.
In a recent ruling Delhi Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) in the case of Growth Avenue Securities Pvt. Ltd. (Taxpayer) v DCIT [ITA No. 3912/Del/2005] on the issue of inclusion of capital gains in book profits while computing Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) under the provisions of the Indian Tax Law (ITL), where such capital gains are not chargeable to tax under the normal provisions of the ITL. The ITAT held that any adjustments outside the scope of the MAT computation mechanism, under the ITL, is not permissible and since the exclusion of capital gains is not specifically provided therein, a taxpayer is not entitled to such an adjustment while computing book profits for the purpose of MAT.
