The United Commercial Bank has moved the Delhi High Court challenging an Income Tax notice that slapped a penalty of over Rs 54 lakh on its branch for not making tax deduction at source on a fixed deposit account worth Rs 7.7 crore opened by the HC. A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna, before whom the bank’s plea came up for hearing recently, has referred the matter to a larger bench and fixed July 15 for further hearing.
The Supreme Court will tomorrow hear Sahara Group’s petition against the orders of the Allahabad High Court, which directed the company to share with market regulator Sebi details of investors participating in its fund raising exercise. The matter will be heard by a 3-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia.
The chartered accountant, cost accountants and company secretaries enjoyed exemption from levy of service tax on representational services and lawyers were not taxed on such services. Now with legal fraternity coming into tax net, exemption to representational services (ie, appearing before any statutory authority in pursuance of any notice) has been withdrawn from May 1, 2011. Thus, both CAs etc and legal consultants have a similar scope of taxation except that in case of legal services, representation for individuals is not yet taxable.
No. 13-CA (EXAM)/M/2011/III: – In continuation to the Institute’s Notification No. 13-CA (EXAM)/M/2011 dated 12th January, 2011, it is notified for the general information that Group – 1, Paper – 3 – Law, Ethics and Communication of Professional Competence Examination and Group – 1, Paper – 2 – Business Laws, Ethics and Communications of Integrated Professional Competence Examination held on 5th May-2011 in respect of candidates who had opted for Hindi medium stands cancelled. The said examination for the candidates who had opted for Hindi medium will now be held again on 17th May – 2011 (Tuesday) from 2.00 PM to 5.00 PM. The venues of the examinations will remain unchanged. Admit Cards already issued would remain valid.
Effective May 1, 2011, service tax @ 5 percent shall be levied on all hotel rooms where the tariff of hotel rooms is @ Rs 1000 per day or more so much so that hotel rooms will become costlier by 5 percent. The rate of tax is 10 percent but 50 percent abetment has been provided which makes the effective rate of tax to 5 percent. Service tax would not be payable by hotels where room tariff is less than Rs 1000 a day. In hotels where rooms are provided with different tariffs, say a set of rooms having tariff of less than Rs 1000 and another set of rooms with tariff of more than Rs 1000, service tax will be attached on rooms with higher tariff only. For the purpose of service tax, declared tariff (published rates) shall be considered and not the discounted or negotiated tariff. It would cover all charges payable for amenities such as air conditioner, furniture, refrigerator etc and any electronic gadgets installed in the room(eg, internet connection). However, cost of extra bed will not be taxed. Also, if cost of meals is included in tariff, it will be taxable but rooms service charges may not be taxed.
Sahara Group of companies are under CBI and Enforcement Directorate’s scanner not only in relation to 2G spectrum scam but also in at least three other cases including monely laundering scam allegedly involving former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda and Jet Airways’ takeover of Sahara Airlines, the Supreme Court was told today.
The Supreme Court will tomorrow hear a petition seeking directions to market regulator Sebi to take action on the report of a high-powered committee, which had probed the IPO scam of 2006 and NSDL’s role in it. The matter would be heard by a bench comprising justices RV Raveendran and AK Patnaik.
Market regulator Sebi is still to recover monetary penalties of over Rs 103 crore imposed on individuals and entities till December, 2010. According to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), the defaulters list covers 864 cases with a total penalty of Rs 1,03,55,34,765. Sebi issued adjudication orders on these cases between 2002 and 2010 and the concerned individuals and entities were asked to fork out monetary penalties. However, they had defaulted on furnishing the amount till December 31, 2010.
Sebi has put the ball in the government’s court on implementing new rules proposed by a market regulator-appointed panel on how stock exchanges should be owned and run. Sources said that Sebi is awaiting the final word from the finance ministry on the issue before taking up the case at its board for implementation of the new rules.
Bank account holders’ cheers after the RBI hiked the rates on saving accounts could be short-lived, as the banks are likely to make them pay for a slew of services to offset the costs, bankers and analysts have said. Earlier, the regulated interest rate of 3.5 per cent per annum — unchanged since 1993 — helped banks garner low- cost deposits and maintain good margins, due to which many services came free.
