This Tax Alert summarizes a recent ruling of the Special Bench (SB) of Kolkata Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) in the case of Shree Capital Services Ltd. (Taxpayer) vs. ACIT (ITA No. 1294 (Kol) of 2008) in which the SB held that, prior to financial year 2005-06 (assessment year 2006-07), derivative transactions in shares were covered by the definition of speculative transactions (ST). The SB further held that the exception to the definition of ST, from tax year 2005-06, in respect of eligible derivative transactions carried out on recognized stock exchanges, is not clarificatory in nature and does not have a retrospective effect for earlier years.
This article summarizes a recent ruling of the Supreme Court (SC) [2009-TIOL100-SC-IT] in the case M/s Liberty India (Taxpayer), in which the SC held that the receipts, by way of Duty Drawback and sale of Duty Entitlement Pass Book (DEPB) licence by the Taxpayer, do not form part of the profits ‘derived from’ the industrial undertaking (IU), eligible for tax holiday under the Indian Tax Law (ITL). The SC further held that the Duty Drawback and sale of DEPB licence are incentives which flow from the schemes framed by the Government of India (G01) and do not have any direct nexus with the profits derived from the eligible IU of the Taxpayer.
Taxpayers in the infrastructure sector are often engaged in the execution of construction activities, which form a minor portion of a contract for the development of an infrastructure facility. This ruling provides guidance on whether a contactor simplicitor would be entitled to tax holiday under the ITL, in respect of the construction activities carried out by it. This ruling makes it clear that tax holiday would be denied to a person who merely executes any works contract/construction activity but does not own the infrastructure developed by it. The ruling also holds that the person who does not undertake development of the entire facility but develops only part of it would not be entitled to tax holiday benefit.
The matter regarding assignment of the tax audit work to one of the SCAs and fee payable to SCA so selected was reviewed and it has been decided that PSBs may appoint at the Head office level also any chartered accountant firm as their tax auditor at a reasonable fee with the approval of their Board /ACB.
The government has decided to shelve the introduction of the unique transaction number, which tax payers need to quote along with permanent account number when tax is deducted/collected at source.The scheme was to have come into force from the new year. However, the finance ministry has not ruled out the possibility of introducing a new identity number like UTN from the next fiscal, in addition to the permanent account number to ensure prompt verification and granting of tax credits to tax payers.
The forthcoming Union budget may have an anti-avoidance provision, which can effectively check convoluted transactions devised exclusively for the purpose of evading paying taxes in India. The finance ministry, said revenue department officials, is contemplating the idea of vesting powers with the commissioners of Income-tax (I-T) to declare a transaction a sham, if there is a reason to believe that its purpose is to avoid tax in this country.
Now, habitual absence from work without taking leave amounts to misconduct on the part of an employee. According to the ruling by the Mumbai High Court, a person in the habit of being absent without prior sanction, is somebody who is not devoted to duty. “We are of the view that an employee who is in habit of remaining absent without prior sanction of leave, irrespective of the number of days, is guilty of misconduct under the rules,” observed a division bench recently while upholding dismissal of a Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) employee, Pandurang Kevne, who filed a petition challenging his removal.
The second proviso to section 10B(1) cannot be construed to be a qualifying condition for claiming deduction. It just permits additional benefit which may be allowed provided domestic profit is within the limit prescribed in the proviso. On the panoply of this proviso deduction cannot be denied. The assessee would be entitled to partial deduction proportionately on export turnover in view of the provisions of sub-section(4) of section 10B of the Income-tax Act, 1961.
NOTIFICATION No. 187/2009-CUSTOMS (N.T.) In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 5 of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 (51 of 1975), the Central Government hereby makes the following rules, namely:-1. Short title and commencement.- (1) These rules may be called the Customs Tariff (Determination of Origin of Goods under the Preferential Trade Agreement between the Governments of the Republic of India and the Republic of Korea) Rules, 2009.
