In exercise of powers conferred under Para 2.4 of the Foreign Trade Policy, 2009-14, the Director General of Foreign Trade hereby makes the following amendments in the Handbook of Procedures (Vol.1), 2009-14.
In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (2) of section 610B of the Companies Act, 1956, the Central Government hereby makes the following Scheme to amend the Scheme for Filing of Statutory Documents and other Transactions by Companies in Electronic Mode, namely:-
This article summarizes recent ruling of the Madras High Court (HC) in the case of CIT v M/s Hi Tech Arai Limited (Taxpayer) [Tax Case (Appeal) Nos. 670 and 671 of 2009] on the issue of allowability of additional depreciation on newly set-up windmills, under the Indian Tax Law (ITL),
The Taxpayer incurred interest expenditure on the funds borrowed for investing in shares of a company, with a view to acquire controlling interest. The ITAT held that the interest expenditure incurred is not allowable under Section 57(iii)(Section) of the Indian Tax Law (ITL), since it is not incurred ‘wholly and exclusively’ for the purpose of earning dividend income.
This Tax Alert summarizes a recent ruling of the Special Bench (SB) of Kolkata Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) in the case of Shree Capital Services Ltd. (Taxpayer) vs. ACIT (ITA No. 1294 (Kol) of 2008) in which the SB held that, prior to financial year 2005-06 (assessment year 2006-07), derivative transactions in shares were covered by the definition of speculative transactions (ST). The SB further held that the exception to the definition of ST, from tax year 2005-06, in respect of eligible derivative transactions carried out on recognized stock exchanges, is not clarificatory in nature and does not have a retrospective effect for earlier years.
This article summarizes a recent ruling of the Supreme Court (SC) [2009-TIOL100-SC-IT] in the case M/s Liberty India (Taxpayer), in which the SC held that the receipts, by way of Duty Drawback and sale of Duty Entitlement Pass Book (DEPB) licence by the Taxpayer, do not form part of the profits ‘derived from’ the industrial undertaking (IU), eligible for tax holiday under the Indian Tax Law (ITL). The SC further held that the Duty Drawback and sale of DEPB licence are incentives which flow from the schemes framed by the Government of India (G01) and do not have any direct nexus with the profits derived from the eligible IU of the Taxpayer.
Taxpayers in the infrastructure sector are often engaged in the execution of construction activities, which form a minor portion of a contract for the development of an infrastructure facility. This ruling provides guidance on whether a contactor simplicitor would be entitled to tax holiday under the ITL, in respect of the construction activities carried out by it. This ruling makes it clear that tax holiday would be denied to a person who merely executes any works contract/construction activity but does not own the infrastructure developed by it. The ruling also holds that the person who does not undertake development of the entire facility but develops only part of it would not be entitled to tax holiday benefit.
The matter regarding assignment of the tax audit work to one of the SCAs and fee payable to SCA so selected was reviewed and it has been decided that PSBs may appoint at the Head office level also any chartered accountant firm as their tax auditor at a reasonable fee with the approval of their Board /ACB.
The government has decided to shelve the introduction of the unique transaction number, which tax payers need to quote along with permanent account number when tax is deducted/collected at source.The scheme was to have come into force from the new year. However, the finance ministry has not ruled out the possibility of introducing a new identity number like UTN from the next fiscal, in addition to the permanent account number to ensure prompt verification and granting of tax credits to tax payers.
The forthcoming Union budget may have an anti-avoidance provision, which can effectively check convoluted transactions devised exclusively for the purpose of evading paying taxes in India. The finance ministry, said revenue department officials, is contemplating the idea of vesting powers with the commissioners of Income-tax (I-T) to declare a transaction a sham, if there is a reason to believe that its purpose is to avoid tax in this country.
