All party resolution on Lokpal Bill – This meeting of all parties in Parliament requests Shri Anna Hazare to end his fast. The meeting was also of the view that due consideration should be given to the Jan Lokpal Bill so that the Final Draft of the Lokpal Bill provides for a strong and effective Lokpal which is supported by a broad national consensus.
The government on Tuesday said it has issued notices to operators of Delhi and Mumbai airports to recover service tax dues amounting to about Rs 200 crore. A Showcause-cum-demand notice has been issued to Mumbai International Airport Pvt Ltd…demanding service tax of Rs 54.68 crore for the period April 2009 to January 2011. Showcause-cum-demand notice has been issued to Delhi International Airport Ltd … demanding service tax of Rs 145.47 crore (for the same period), Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.
The Revenue Department is trying to locate 9 lakh business entities which have stopped filing service tax returns, with a view to improving collections, meeting Rs 82,000-crore target in 2011-12 and to ascertain whether there is any tax evasion. There are 15 lakh registered service tax payers in the country. According to the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) Chairman SD Majumdar, only six lakh service tax payers are filing returns.
Expressing hope that the Companies Bill, 2009, will be passed by Parliament in 2011, the Corporate Affairs Minister, Veerappa Moily, today said his ministry was ready with the Cabinet note for the legislation. Companies Bill will be passed, if not in this (monsoon) session, (then) definitely in the winter session, Moily told reporters on the sidelines of a FICCI meet here.
Financial inclusion is necessary for inclusive growth. To extend the reach of banking to those outside the formal banking system, the Union Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee in his Budget Speech 2010-11 had stated that the Government has decided to provide appropriate banking facilities to habitations having population in excess of 2000 (as per 2001 census) by March, 2012. Accordingly, 73,000 such habitations across the country have been identified and allocated to Public Sector Banks, Regional Rural Banks, Private Sector Banks and Cooperative Banks for extending banking services by using the services of Business Correspondents and other models, with appropriate technology back up by March, 2012.
In order to clarify the doubt raised by majority of members in respect of inclusion of audits conducted under sections 44AD, 44AE and 44AF of the Income-tax Act, 1961 in the specified number of tax audit assignments, the extracts of Para 6 of Chapter VI ‘Tax Audit assignments under section 44AB of the Income-tax Act, 1961’ of the Council General Guidelines No.1-CA(7)/025/2008 dated 8th August, 2008 have been reproduced below:
Why is Corporate Governance Important? 4. Before going into corporate governance of banks in particular, let us recall, just for the sake of context, why corporate governance is important in general. At its most basic level, corporate governance sets up the “rules of the game” to deal with issues arising from separation of ownership and management so that the interests of all stakeholders are protected. Empirical evidence shows that businesses with superior governance practices generate bigger profits, higher returns on equity and larger dividend yields. Importantly, good corporate governance also shows up in such soft areas as employee motivation, work culture, corporate value system and corporate image. Conversely, the failure of high profile companies such as BCCI, Enron, WorldCom and Parmalat was a clear lesson of the damage bad corporate governance can inflict.
As reported by Reserve Bank of India (RBI), there are 28,921 rural centers, where Scheduled Commercial Banks are functioning as on 31st March, 2011. RBI defines a rural population group as those centres which have population of less than 10,000.
The Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers gave its in-principle approval for creation of a portal, ‘Goods and Service Tax Network’ (GSTN), which is expected to provide an interface to all stakeholders, and avoid evasion in indirect taxation systems. A special purpose vehicle (SPV) will be set up for introducing the information technology infrastructure (GSTN), which is based on recommendations made by a group chaired by Nandan Nilekani.
Pakistan maintains a ‘Positive List’ of 1945 items which are allowed to be imported from India. Under SAFTA, Pakistan operates a sensitive list (negative list) of 1169 items. This issue is being discussed at the ongoing rounds of bi-lateral trade talks between India and Pakistan. At the Commerce Secretary level talks in April 2011, Pakistan side has in-principle agreed to move from ‘Positive List’ to ‘Negative List’ trade regime. Pakistan has also recognized that grant of MFN status to India would help in expanding the bilateral trade relations.
