According to Rule 5 of Service Tax Rules, 1994, records include computerized data and means the record as maintained by an assessee in accordance with the various laws in force from time to time. Records maintained as such shall be acceptable to Central Excise Officer.
A service is taxable only when, inter alia, it is provided (or agreed to be provided) in the taxable territory. Thus, the taxability of a service will be determined based on the place of its provision. For determining the taxability of a service, therefore, one needs to ask the following questions sequentially:—
None of the provisions provided for personal penalty on partners / proprietor of the firm. However, section 77 talks of any person but such expression ‘any person’ does not imply more than one person or ‘firm as well as partner’ for the same offence. If it is meant to be such, it may result in double penalty or even more.
Section 86 provides a second stage appellate platform for making appeal against the orders under section 73, 83A or 85.
Section 128 of the Companies Act, 2013 provides for Maintenance of books of accounts under the new Companies Act. The erstwhile corresponding section 209 on Books of accounts to be kept by company of Companies Act, 1956 dealt with the books of accounts required to be maintained to give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the company or branch office and to explain its transactions and also specify the place of keeping and period for which such books to be kept by the company.
Section 91 provide for power to arrest. It empowers the Commissioner of Central Excise, to authorize any officer of Central Excise not below the rank of Superintendent of Central Excise, to arrest a person for the offences specified in clause (i) or clause (ii) of sub-section 89.
The concept of having a body such as National Financial Reporting Authority is not new as such. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India already has many of these powers. In the Companies (Amendment) Act, 1999, new sub-sections (3A), (3B) and (3C) were inserted in section 211
Stock markets are once again buoyant, more so after the historic price fall in bullion a fortnight back. Investments, however, continue to be a major risk prone activity, whatsoever invested in and one therefore, needs to invest only after assessing his or her risk appetite.
While Service Tax is levied on almost services, barring few listed in negative list and exempted services, there are certain sectors which enjoy the special privileges. Education is one such sector which enjoy privilege under Service Tax and rightly so.
The new law is going to change the life of auditors as well as auditee. While the new role of auditors make them more responsible and accountable, the auditee’s financial statements shall have to be more explicit, self explanatory, transparent and fair.
