Admitting that many Income Tax refunds were still pending, the I-T Department decided to “clean up the mismatched TDS database” due to which the refunds were held up. An I-T Department release said, “The Income Tax Department has taken the initiative to clean up the mismatched TDS data base. Many refunds are pending with the IT Department due to the mismatch of tax paid by the assessee, but the same is not being reflected in the computer software of the department.”
Taxing the banks for future bailouts is only a compromise formula, as a section of G-20 members, including India, is against any such levy, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has said. That was the compromise formula, because a section of the meeting that felt that there is no need of having any taxation as such, Mukherjee said in an interview.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today rejected criticism of the revised draft Direct Taxes Code over the proposal to restore exemptions in income tax, saying the tax rates are indicative and not final. Changes (made in the revised draft Code) cannot be presumed as “progressive or regressive”, he told PTI in an interview making it clear that final tax rates are the prerogative of Parliament to decide.
There is no specific provision in the income tax law to deal with the migration situation and hence the tax authorities at the ground level could take any view — either allow the migrated unit to enjoy tax holiday for the unexpired period or deny the tax holiday for the remaining period, sources in the Finance Ministry said.
It may kindly be recalled that as part of the proposals contained in the Budget for 2010-11, Finance Minister had announced the imposition of Clean Energy Cess as a duty of excise on coal, lignite and peat. This cess is to come into force on a date to be notified by the Central Government after the enactment of the Finance Bill, 2010.
It has been represented to the Board that certain units are undertaking the process of pickling and oiling in addition to process of de-coiling, cutting and slitting and whereas by circular No 811/08/2005-CX dated 02.03.2005 it has been clarified that processes of de-coiling, cutting and slitting do not amount to manufacture.
The rules have been amended to make the time limits prescribed for making various applications/claims of drawback under the Rules more exporter friendly, to liberalize granting of extensions in case of delays and to delegate greater powers in that regard to the field officers at the level of the Assistant/Deputy Commissioner of Customs. These are trade facilitation measures. The notifications are available on CBEC website and may be perused for details. The important changes that have been made in the Rules are as discussed below.
Draft Provisions of DTC: DTC proposed to do away with the exemption available in respect of Leave encashment received at the time of retirement (presently Rs 3 lakh in specified cases and fully exempt in case of government employees).
Audit firms may be asked to financially compensate investors for losses resulting from their lapses, with the government planning to strengthen the mechanism for fixing responsibility for corporate frauds and protecting investors from their ill-effects. To make this feasible, an audit firm would be held accountable for its actions regardless of whether the firm itself or its affiliate was the official auditor,
The New Pension Scheme (NPS) for the unorganised sector got a much-needed fillip with the revised discussion paper on the Direct Taxes Code proposing that the end proceeds under this scheme be exempt from tax. Under the existing tax structure, the maturity proceeds under the NPS are taxed. That is, an EET (exempt-exempt-tax) method is followed. This put the scheme at a disadvantage vis-a-vis other savings instruments where the exempt-exempt-exempt (EEE) method was followed.
