Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), Government of India has on 26 May 2010 introduced Easy Exit Scheme, 2010 (EES) under the Companies Act, 1956 (the Act) to provide a fast track exit for “defunct companies” to get their names struck off from the records of the Register of Companies (ROC). The salient features of the scheme are as under:
The Hon?ble Delhi High Court in case of Home Solution Retail India Ltd. Vs. Union of India and Others (2009- TIOL-196-HC-DEL-ST) had held that renting per se is not a taxable service under the provisions of Section 65(105)(zzzz) of the Finance Act, 1994 („Act?). The Court also held that service tax is a tax on value addition provided by the service provider in the course of renting and insofar as mere renting of immovable property for use in the course of business or commerce is concerned, no value addition is discernible.
The Mahindra group and the various enforcement agencies appear to have different viewpoints on the treatment of the Rs 1,230-crore, which Mr Ramalinga Raju had personally invested in the erstwhile Satyam Computer Services between 2007 and 2009.
The provisions of Companies Act, 1956 makes it very clear that every company should maintain proper books of accounts and should record all the transactions of the Company pertaining to sales, purchases, expenses, receipts, liabilities and Assets. Not only recording the transactions, every Company is also supposed to maintain the documentary proof in support of the transactions as per law.
21st June is observed as the World Music Day (WMD) to commemorate contribution of music to human life. It coincides with the longest day of the year. Idea of celebrating this day first occurred to American musician Joel Cohen in 1976. Cohen proposed an all-night music jamboree on the summer solstice.
Revised Discussion Paper on the Direct Taxes Code: The draft Direct Taxes Code (DTC) along with a Discussion Paper was released in August 2009 for public comments. Based on the Feedback, the Revised Discussion Paper has now been released for public comments, before Finalizing the Bill for introduction in Parliament.
The revised proposal differentiates between religious, mixed and wholly charitable institutions. The term “religious” is not defined in the code. It is suggested that the term “religious” be defined in the code itself for the purposes of the DTC.
It is true that the Board of directors in a Company is supposed to act in the best interest of the Company as they are answerable to the Share-holders and submits a report in the Annual General Body Meeting (AGM). In every Company, normally, the majority in the Board consists of the representatives of the majority shareholders though it is a best corporate practice to give proportionate representation to the minority and also to have some independent and expert directors on the Board.
It was observed that issuance of the NCDs with original maturity of less than 1 year was unregulated either by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) or Government of India (GOI). Further, these instruments were issued with call / put options embedded in it, which imparted a ‘demand-liability’ like character to these instruments.
Guiding instructions for availability of names:-The procedure for scrutinizing the availability of names of new companies has recently been re-examined carefully in this Department, having taken into account the difficulties experienced by some Registrars in the following the instruction given to them vide Department’s Letter No 10/(19)-RS/61, dated 15-03-1962.
