The government is considering a proposal to extend Employees Provident Fund Scheme to all companies with over 10 employees, the Parliament was informed today. The proposal is under examination and consideration of the government, Labour and Employment Minister Mallikarjun Kharge said in a written reply.
The long pending issue of opening of multi-brand retail to foreign investment moved one more step, with the top secretaries forwarding 10 recommendations to the commerce and industry ministry on Friday. We have formally received the minutes of the Committee of Secretaries (CoS) meeting held on July 22 and appropriate decision will be taken soon, an official on the condition of anonymity said. The ministry is examining it and would take the proposal before the Cabinet soon, the official added.
Bombay High Court, while disposing a batch of writ petitions filed by The Retailers’ Association of India along with the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India and Multiplex Association of India, upheld the constitutional validity of levy of service tax on renting of immovable property with its retrospective amendment. However, the operation of the order has been stayed for four weeks to enable the petitioners to move the Supreme Court.
The Income tax Department Department has identified the multiple PANs belonging to the same person through an automated Computer System of the Department. Till date 11,69,238 multiple PANs have been detected and deleted.
The Income Tax Department takes several punitive and deterrent steps to unearth unaccounted money and curb tax evasion. These include scrutiny of tax return; surveys, search and seizure actions; imposition of penalty and launching of prosecution in appropriate cases. Information Technology has also been used in a big way in collection, collation and dissemination of taxpayer information. Tax Information Network (TIN) has been set up as a depository of important tax related information which can be accessed by the Department. The basic components of TIN are information relating to Tax Deduction at Source (TDS), payment of taxes and high value transactions reported in Annual Information Returns (AIR).
A Committee headed by the Chairman, CBDT has been constituted to examine ways to strengthen laws to curb generation of black-money in India, its illegal transfer abroad and its recovery. The Committee shall examine the existing legal and administrative framework to deal with the menace of generation of black money through illegal means including inter alia (a) declaring wealth generated illegally as national asset: (b) enacting/amending laws to confiscate and recover such assets; and (c)exemplary punishment against its perpetrators.
Sixteen number of imported luxury cars have been seized in the country during the recent past between April,2011 to July 2011.They are valued at Rs.6.75 crores and involves evasion of duty of Rs.4.87 crores. All Customs field formations have been sensitized and alerted to prevent smuggling of imported cars into the country. Action under the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962 has been initiated against the importers.
The RBI’s monetary policy stance aims to maintain an interest rate environment that moderates inflation and anchors inflationary expectation. While cost of borrowing goes up, on balance lower levels of inflation would provide greater relief to the common man. On an ongoing basis, Government has been providing interest subventions for key sectors of economy and sections of the society.
The Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce, headed by Shri Shanta Kumar, M.P. has taken up the subject of Performance of Plantation Sector – Tea and Coffee Industry for examination and report. For wider consultations, the Committee invites views/suggestions/comments from experts/institutions/organisations interested in the subject matter.
The MAS-GMR Aerospace Engineering has approached the Andhra Pradesh High Court against the Authority for Advance Ruling’s (AAR) order that held that maintenance, repair and overhauling (MRO) activities in the aerospace SEZ attracts service tax. MAS-GMR Aerospace Engineering is a joint venture between GMR Hyderabad International Airport and Malaysian SDN-BHD.
