The Inccome Tax Department has constituted a special cell to deal with the recovery of arrears where the assessee is not traceable or has gone bankrupt. Stating this in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, Finance Minister P.Chidambaram said the IT department has made recoveries of over 16 thousand crore rupees in the nine months from April to December last year. He said, a sum of over four lakh crore rupees is outstanding as Income Tax arrears. Major defaulters include Hassan Ali Khan with over one lakh crore rupees tax dues, Chandrika Tapuriah and the late Harshad Mehta.
Tax exemption on agri income grounds claimed by more than 11 lakh people
More than 11,68,000 people claimed exemption from Income Tax on grounds of agricultural income in the assessment year 2011-12. Stating this in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Finance S.S.Palanimanickam said this amounted to an exemption of over 18,000 crore rupees taxable income. Top claimants of exemption were Pinoneer Overseas corporation with an agricultural income of 69 crore rupees, Vibha Agrotech Limited, PHI Seeds Private Limited, Plantation Corporation of Kerala Limited and Monsanto India Limited.
Steps in place to gather info on illegal accounts opened by Indians abroad : MoS Finance
The government has taken various steps to find out concrete information about the illegal bank account opened by Indians in foreign banks. This was informed by Minister of State for Finance S.S. Palanimanickam in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today. He said multi-pronged strategy is being implemented to check these accounts, which includes creating an appropriate legislative framework and setting up institutions to a deal with illicit funds. The minister said various legislative measures have also been taken by the Finance Act, 2012 in this regard which include reporting of assets held outside the country and reopening of assessments upto 16 years for taxing on undisclosed assets kept outside the country.
Revised DTAA is win-win situation for India & Mauritius: Prez Pranab Mukherjee
President Pranab Mukherjee has said that the Revised Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement or DTAA is a win-win situation for India and Mauritius. He said, India and Mauritius are jointly working to find out a mutually acceptable and beneficial outcome on the DTAA.
Mukherjee, who is Port Louis on a three-day visit, said the Double Taxation Avoidance Convention (DTAC) cannot be seen in isolation, separate from the many strands that weave the tapestry of India-Mauritius relationship and efforts, and it should remain focused on realisation of the full potential of the bilateral ties. He said this in an interview to Mauritius newspaper ‘Le Matinal’.
Commenting on the economic relations between India and Mauritius, Mr.Mukherjee said the bilateral cooperation in the economic and commercial areas has grown but needs to be further reinvigorated.
Asked whether Mauritius can serve as a springboard into Africa for India, Mukherjee said Indian overseas investments to Africa are beginning to be channelled through Mauritius.
He said Mauritius, with its preferential and trading arrangements as well as export zones could attract Indian SMEs engaged in the field of pharmaceuticals, light engineering, consumer goods, textiles, seafood processing, etc.
How come commercial Agri Business industries making profits by selling worthless seeds to farmers claim such huge Tax exemption on Agri income? Income tax on agriculture should be limited to small / co-operative farmers only.
Government is able to recover only rs16000crores in preriod of nine months out of total outstanding of rs400000crores(rupees four lacs crores) which work out to only 5% recovery annually. It shows that most of demands are highly inflated and beyond means of assessees . Government will give powers of settlements to CIT (APPEALS) and to tribunals. Goverment should also officers answerable for passing wrong orders. WHY only in very limited cases settlements take place?