A top Income Tax official has said that the diamond trade has one of the highest prevalence of black money, with investigations revealing that books in the sector are “completely manufactured”. “(In) certain areas like real estate or diamond trade there is a lot of circulation of black money…but in the case of diamond merchants, the books are completely manufactured,” Director General of Income Tax (Investigations) B P Gaur told reporters here late last evening.
Finance Ministry is likely to finalise the proposed changes in the takeover code on mergers and acquisitions after a meeting with industry and other stakeholders tomorrow. The Takeover Regulations Advisory Committee chaired by Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu will discuss the amendments in the code as proposed by the C Achuthan headed Sebi panel, a Finance Ministry official said.
In a significant order, the Bombay High Court has held that the Union Government cannot ban exports of any product with retrospective effect, while allowing a private company to go ahead with exports of milk powder. It also said that such restriction cannot be applied to concluded contracts where letters of credit were opened prior to the imposition of the ban.
The Supreme Court will decide whether the interest paid on overdues to the Department of Telecom (DoT) can be treated as operating expenditure by operators. A three-judge bench has admitted a petition filed by Vodafone Essar Gujarat and decided to adjudicate whether such interest could be treated as operating expenditure.
CIRCULAR NO 135/4/2011-ST – The existing Service Tax Audit Manual has been in use since 2003. With experience gained while conducting audits and rapid change in service tax law over the years, growth in service tax categories, assessee base as well as revenue, a need was felt to update the manual. The Board had set up a Working Group in 2009. The manual prepared by the Working Group was discussed in Board meetings for considering the various amendments and proposals to be included in the manual. The Board has since approved the Service Tax Audit Manual 2011 and will be circulated by the Directorate General of Audit. All Service Tax audits should henceforth be carried out in accordance with the principles laid down in the said Manual and the extant prevalent instructions. This Manual is for the use of departmental officers only.
Terming cooperatives as one of the strongest pillars of Indian agriculture, Farm Minister Sharad Pawar today said he has asked Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to consider income tax exemption to Indian cooperatives. “I have written a letter to the Finance Minister to look into the issue of I-T exemption to cooperative societies,” Pawar said at a national level meeting with the state cooperative ministers here.
The income tax department will soon post 10 of its officers in tax haven nations to collect information about alleged tax evasion by Indians from these countries, an official in the finance ministry said. Concerns have been raised in the recent past over suspicion of round tripping or routing of Indians’ illicit money back into the country through tax havens.
Amid concerns expressed by the Reserve Bank of India, the country’s largest lender State Bank of India on Wednesday announced withdrawal of special home loan schemes, or teaser rates, with effect from May 1. SBI Easy Home Loan and SBI Advantage Home Loan (teaser rate products) will be replaced by floating interest rate schemes on par with other commercial banks.
The Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure today approved the following proposals : Scheme of National Rollout of e-District Mission Mode Project at a cost of Rs 1663.08 crore to be implemented in all 640 districts (including the 41 districts where e-District Pilot Projects have already been initiated) of the country for a period of 4 years. Approval for an outlay of Rs 1663.08 crore spread over years 2011-2012 to 2014-2015 with an expenditure of Rs 541.22 crore in the Eleventh Five Year Plan and of Rs 1121.86 crore in the 12th Five Year Plan.
In Notification No. 33(RE-2007)/2004-2009, dated 08.10.2007, sub para 2.11 was added on 28.02.2011 vide Notification No. 27(RE-2010)/2009-14. Now another sub-para 2.12 is added as under: “2.12 The prohibition imposed by Notification No. 33(RE-2007)/2004-2009, dated 08.10.2007 on export of wheat products shall not be applicable to export of 32,094.70 MT of wheat flour to Maldives through M/s. MMTC Ltd.”
