Already drawing flak for South Africa’s early exit from the World Cup, outgoing cricket captain Graeme Smith has drawn more criticism for staying back in India even after the quarterfinal defeat to avoid paying income tax back home. Smith, currently in Ireland to visit his girlfriend pop star Morgan Deane, reportedly asked to stay on in India instead of facing the music with the rest of the side when it returned home last week.
Foreign investment in India rose by USD 22.7 billion in the quarter ending December 2010 to USD 628 billion, mainly on account of increase in portfolio investment and FDI. Total foreign fund inflows, including FDI, portfolio investment and external commercial borrowings (ECB), rose to USD 628.6 billion on December 31 from 605.9 billion during the end of September, according to RBI data.
The CBI on Saturday filed its first chargesheet in the 2G spectrum probe against former Telecom Minister A Raja and some of his close aides. The 80,000-page charge sheet alleges a loss of over Rs 30,000 crore rupees because of Raja’s lapses. Charges have been framed against former Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura, Raja’s former private secretary R K Chandolia and Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Balwa. Balwa’s partner Vinod Goenka, Sanjay Chandra of Unitech and Gautam Doshi of the Anil Dhirubai Ambani group have also been named.
The post of Income ‘Tax Ombudsman is in the HAG Pay Scale of Rs. 75500-80000/-. Therefore, it is requested that names of suitable officers fulfilling the eligibility criteria mentioned in the Income Tax Ombudsman Guidelines, 2010 (copy enclosed) indicating their preferred locations may be sent by 29.04.2011 to enable selection of Income ‘fax Ombudsmen. In case no preference of locations is indicated, it would be presumed that he/she is willing to be posted in any of the locations, The applications received after the clue dale will not be considered and ate liable to be rejected. The nominations should be accompanied with Cadre clearance, History of postings, Vigilance clearance and ACR dossiers.
Acting on a specific intelligence, the DRI officers of Siliguri under Kolkata Zonal Unit had effected a seizure of Red sanders wood weighing 6110 kg. valued at Rs. 61.10 lakhs from a truck bearing registration no. HR-55F-4435 on 03.04.2011 at Ghoshpukur, Dist-Darjeeling, W.B. The logs of 6110 kg of red sanders wood, recovered from the truck were kept concealed under 272 pcs. of Indian style sanitary pans & 960 pcs. of small pipes. The 6110 kg. of red sanders wood, 272 pcs. of Indian style sanitary pan, 960 pcs. of small pipes and the carrier truck were seized under section 110 of the Customs Act, 1962 on reasonable belief that the said goods were meant for illegal export to Nepal through unauthorised route. Total seizure value of the case is Rs. 69.94 lakh. Two drivers of the said truck involved in carrying the red sanders wood knowingly, were arrested. Further investigation is in progress.
The Government of Maharashtra has issued Notification No. VAT 1510/CR-165/Taxation-1 dated 20 December 2010 in pursuance of the powers conferred under rule 45A of the Maharashtra Value Added Tax Rules, 2005. As per the said notification, the dealers liable to file six-monthly returns under Maharashtra Value Added Tax (‘MVAT’) laws shall make payments electronically with effect from 31 March 2011 of any amount under Maharashtra Value Added Tax Act, 2002.
If the owner of a motor vehicle has shown due diligence while appointing a driver and examined his licence, the insurance company cannot deny the insured amount on the ground that the licence was fake. The ruling of the National Consumer Commission to the contrary in the case, Mrs Rubi Dutta vs United India Insurance Co, was set aside by the Supreme Court and the company was asked to pay Rs 2.70 lakh as compensation for the damage to a bus in an accident. The insurer argued that the driver’s licence was fake. But it was a duplicate issued after following the legal procedure. The court stated that at the time of giving employment to the driver, “the owner of the bus must have examined the licence issued to him and after satisfaction thereof, he must have been given employment. Nothing more was required to have been done by the owner. After all, at the time of giving employment to a driver, owner is required to be satisfied with regard to correctness and genuineness of the licence he was holding. After taking the test, if the owner is satisfied with the driving skills of the driver then, obviously, he may be given an appointment.”
Glodyne Technoserve Ltd. Vs. State of M.P. & Ors. (Supreme Court) – The Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal of Glodyne Technoserve Ltd, which had bid for a project for issuing identity cards for the public distribution system in Madhya Pradesh. The government rejected it offer as it did not produce the latest ‘quality certificate’ with the bid document. The firm argued that it did have the latest certificate and therefore it was eligible to be considered. It also contended that the requirement for producing the latest certificate was added later by the government in a corrigendum to the bidder check list. Rejecting these arguments, the Supreme Court stated that in such circumstances, the authority inviting bids has the discretionary power to accept the bid or not. The decision can be quashed only if it was proved to be arbitrary or perverse. In this case, it was neither, the court declared.
The Supreme Court last week directed Glaxo India Ltd to deposit Rs 71.21 crore in the Drug Prices Equilisation Account, asking it to comply with the demand of the government. The central government had issued drug price control orders under the Essential Commodities Act fixing the maximum selling price of bulk drugs. Those notifications were challenged by the pharma company as arbitrary and illegal. The Supreme Court allowed the appeal of the government and stated that several drug companies were overcharging the consumers and the notifications were meant to control prices to benefit consumers.
The Supreme Court has stated that the debt recovery appellate tribunal has no power to exempt a defaulter from making a pre-deposit before entertaining his appeal under the Securitisation & Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act. In this case, Narayan Chandra vs UCO Bank, the tribunal granted exemption. The Calcutta high court set aside the order. He appealed to the Supreme Court which upheld the high court ruling.
