I am very happy to see the judgment of the Supreme Court on National Company Law Tribunal. I have read the judgment of Justice Jayasimha Babu of Madras High Court regarding the constitution of National Company Law Tribunal and Appellate Tribunal in the Writ Petition preferred by Madras Bar Association many times.
The Circular No. 98/1/2008-ST dated 01-01-2008 issued by the 1st respondent is in challenge. On a true and fair construction of Rule 3(3) of the 2007 Rules, it is clear that where in respect of a works contract service tax has been paid, no option to pay service tax under the composition scheme could be exercised. There is no ambiguity in this provision. The entitlement to avail the benefits of the composition scheme is only after an option is exercised under Rule 3(3) of the 2007 Rules and this provision specifically enjoins a disqualification for exercise of such option where service tax had been paid in respect of a works contract. To put it succinctly, where service tax has been paid in respect of a works contract, the eligibility to exercise an option to avail the benefits of the composition scheme under the 2007 Rules is excluded.
TRENT Ltd and Future Value Retail Ltd have challenged before the AP High Court, the service tax with retrospective effect on renting of immovable property, brought in by the Finance Act, 2010.
The UK’s Vodafone, fighting a tax bill in India from its 2007 purchase of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd’s mobile business there, said authorities had set a June 14 hearing to discuss the size of the tax bill.
Four retailers will be approaching various High Courts across the country to seek a stay order on the service tax on commercial rentals that was imposed in this year’s Budget by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee. According to industry sources, the four retailers are Shopper’s Stop, Lifestyle, More and Reliance Retail Ltd.
The Income Tax department has requested the Finance Ministry to approach the authorities in Switzerland and other tax havens for details of overseas accounts of “non-residents” who invested in the Indian Premier League. The step is part of the ongoing investigations into investment of foreign funds in the IPL.
As demands for thorough scrutiny of spending of public funds grow, Vice President Hamid Ansari today said citizens have every right to know how the tax-payers money is being spent by the government to implement various programmes. He also said that if any funds spent by the government did not come under the scrutiny of Comptroller and Auditor General of India then it was nothing but a “lacuna”.
Idea of national GST was first mooted by Kelkar Task Force in 2004. A task force was formed under Chairmanship of Shri Vijay Kelkar on Implementation of Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act. The Kelkar Committee submitted its report in July 2004. The Committee strongly recommended fully integrated ‘GST’ on national basis. Since then there have been several government documents on this subject of GST. Out of these several government documents following reports were presented were most relevant and important:
VAT/GST provisions in countries other than India are quite streamlined and stable. As the Law in India is still not a reality we might look into the provisions which are in place since quite long and access the structure of rate, exemptions etc.
It would be mandatory for registered dealers to furnish return electronically in Form No. GST-I, which would be a combined monthly payment and return form for all intra-state and inter-state transactions. Periodicity of furnishing this return would be monthly. Electronic filing of any other returns could also be mandatory and forms could be common for both CGST and SGST compliance.
