At the Seoul Summit last November, the leaders of G-20 tasked us to formulate indicative guidelines for the identification of persistently large imbalances requiring corrective action, including their root causes and impediments to adjustment. Earlier this year at Paris, we decided to break up the exercise into an integrated two step process. For the first step, while agreeing on a set of indicators, we resolved to firm up indicative guidelines against which each of these indicators will be assessed to identify persistently large imbalances by our next meeting in April. We now need to finalize these guidelines and move on to the second step of the exercise. Presumably, this would focus on root causes, impediments to adjustment and corrective policies and actions.
Open to extending Aug 15 deadline if he finds the govt on the right path. In an apparent softening of stand, Anna Hazare today said Parliament was supreme and he would accept its decision if it rejected the Lok Pal Bill. Hazare also showed some flexibility on the August 15 deadline he had set for the passage of the Bill by Parliament, saying he was open to extending it if he found the government was on the right path.
With inflation showing no signs of moderation, economists expect the Reserve Bank to hike key policy rates by at least 25 basis points in its annual monetary policy to be unveiled on May 3. The headline inflation (WPI) stood at 8.98 per cent for March, much above the RBI’s projection of 8 per cent, fuelling speculation that the central bank may go in for another hike in the repo (lending) and reverse repo (borrowing) rates.
The Minister appreciated the Revenue Department for exceeding even the revised targets of direct and indirect tax collections for fiscal year 2010-11. The Budget estimates for 2010-11 for direct and indirect taxes were Rs.7,45,000 crore which were revised to Rs.7,80,000 crore and actual collection at the end of financial year was Rs.7,92,000 crore, said the Finance Minister. The project is expected to be completed in next 24 to 30 months time, the Minister added.
The Supreme Court last week ruled that an arbitration clause in a contract would not exclude the power of the high courts or the Supreme Court to decide disputes between the parties. The court thus dismissed the appeal of East Central Railway in the case, Union of India vs Tantia Construction Ltd. In this case, the railway awarded a project to the construction firm. Later, additional work had to be done and the firm was asked to undertake that too, at the cost dictated by the railway. This was resisted by the firm which moved the Patna high court. It stated that the entire work could not be thrust on the firm at its risk and cost. The government appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that it could vary the nature of the work according to the terms of the contract. The government also argued that the courts could not interfere in the dispute as there was an arbitration clause.
Shri P. Chidambaram recommended an excise duty of 2 per cent on such branded jewellery and clarified that there was no levy on unbranded jewellery, including unbranded gold jewellery. Accordingly an exemption notification 05/2006 CE dated 1-03-2006 was issued which exempted full duty in excess of 2% on article of jewellery on which brand name or trade name was indelibly affixed or embossed on the articles of jewellery itself.
At a time when the Central Board of Direct Taxes is asking taxpayers to use online platform to file returns, there is a problem that might haunt the assessees. “The data in the online system directly goes to the Central Processing Centre in Bangalore and the entire work is to done by them. Hence, say there is any delay in refund the local IT officer has nothing to do and for the ombudsman it is an issue of jurisdiction,” Income Tax Ombudsman (East) Manoj Mishra told PTI.
Circular No.21 / 2011-Customs, The Central Board of Excise and Customs has made declaration of IEC branch code and AD code as non-mandatory in case low value dutiable import consignments (i.e. consignment other than documents, gifts and samples of an invoice value upto Rs. one lakh) under Courier Imports and Exports (Electronic Declaration and Processing) Regulations, 2010. The disclosure of IEC code will continue to be mandatory.
It has now been decided that in order to reduce the cost to exporters (i.e. interest cost on overdue export bills), exporters with overdue export bills may also extinguish their overdue post shipment rupee export credit from their rupee resources. However, the corresponding GR form will remain outstanding and the amount will be shown outstanding in XOS statement. The exporter’s liability for realisation would continue till the export bill is realised. DBOD.Dir.BC.No. 85 /04.02.001/2010-11
The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) in the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India has vide Circular no. 1 of 2011 dated 31 March 2011 issued a consolidated Foreign Direct Investment (‘FDI’) Policy. This policy becomes effective from 1 April 2011 and shall subsume all the press notes, press releases, circulars and clarifications issued by the DIPP which were in force till 31 March 2011.
