In a judgement that will clear the air on the tricky issue of the income-tax department’s power to levy penalties on assessees, the Supreme Court has held that a penalty cannot be levied merely because the I-T authorities and taxpayers hold divergent views on calculation of income.
Parts of the new tax provision came into effect from October 1, ‘09, though subsequently the scope was extended in this year’s budget. But if the government does not spell out the details, it can lead to endless litigation. “For instance, `fair value’ has to be defined… Further, a rights issue is always at a discount to the market price, and in this case is the market price the fair value? In the absence of clarity, corporates should be careful while passing a rights issue, so that they don’t come under the tax ambit,” said senior chartered accountant Dilip V Lakhani of Lakhani & Co.
Shri Salman Khurshid, Minister for Corporate Affairs, here today launched the Hindi website of Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF), which is being administered by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. The address of the website is: www.iepf.gov.in.
Representations have been received from Regional Authorities and Service Providers seeking clarification as to the guidelines for issuance of EPCG Authorization in cases where the Service Provider receives Foreign Exchange in cash from foreign consumers in India; for purpose of fulfillment of EO under EPCG Scheme/as well as for eligibility for SFIS scrips.
Exporters’ body FIEO said on Friday it will approach the government for withdrawal of an order which sought recovery of duty drawback credits from those who failed to realise payments from their buyers.Reversing a concession given by the commerce ministry to the embattled exporters in the midst of recession in the West last year, the Central Board of Excise and Customs has directed chief commissioners of customs and excise to recover the drawbacks from exporters who have not realised their proceeds.
“The new Companies Act is already placed on the table of the House. A committee has been constituted … We are very hopeful that within 3-4 months we will have a new Companies Act,” Ministry of Corporate Affairs Secretary, R Bandyopadhyay, said at a function here.
“The next biggest problem may be a currency crisis. It is a possibility that the next crisis awaiting the world is a currency crisis,” renowned currency expert and Non-Executive Director of Elara Capital, Avinash Persaud, told PTI here.
The government today said it is looking into the report submitted by the expert group set up to suggest steps for monitoring the end-use of IPO funds and would take appropriate action to prevent misuse of IPO money.”The report (of expert group) has been submitted. We will certainly read the report carefully. But we can only tell you the finding after we finish reading it,” Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said when asked about the findings of the report.
The government today said it is planning to allow banks and financial institutions to issue long-term tax-free bonds specifically to fund the crucial infrastructure sector requirements. “What has been proposed is that there will be financial entities and banks, which will be authorised to issue infrastructure bonds to raise money specifically for lending in infrastructure activities,” finance secretary Ashok Chawla told reporters here today.
The Meghalaya budget 2010-11, presented in the Assembly today, proposed to hike the VAT rate on all items, barring wheat and rice, from four per cent to five per cent. Presenting the budget, Finance Minister Mukul Sangma proposed to raise the royalty rate on coal to realise Rs 42 crore. The tax on luxuries will be amended to rationalise the room tariffs, he added.
