The finance ministry may put on hold the final phase of its two-year-old road map that was meant to give complete freedom to public sector banks (PSB) to choose their statutory central auditors. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), the audit standard setting and regulatory body, has been opposing the `autonomy’ move from the very beginning, as it felt that by giving the banks the powers to choose their auditors, the government was weakening the auditor’s powers to make critical observations against the PSBs.
The Institute is pleased to inform that the Certified Filing Scheme of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs for practicing Company Secretaries will be officially opened from the 1st of July, 2010. To facilitate the registration process, the Company Secretaries in Practice who are interested in associating themselves with this scheme may make an online submission through the relevant link on our portal http://www.icsi.edu .
Mumbai: A 40-year-old man was nabbed by the suburban crime branch for robbing a chartered accountant (CA) at Goregaon (W) recently.Mehul Vora (47) was at work when Rafiq Shaikh and his three aides barged into his office at Jawahar Nagar on June 1. They gagged Vora and threatened him with choppers and revolvers. When his employees tried to intervene, they were beaten up. The accused made away with three mobiles and Rs 1,000. A case was registered at the Goregaon police station.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) is trying hard to get more professionals into practise. At present more than 80 per cent of chartered accountants are employed with some company or the other. Very few opt to take up practice. But the opportunities are opening up and we foresee a huge shortage of practising professionals, Mr G. Ramasamy, Vice-President, ICAI said.
Domestic companies routing their investments through Mauritius may soon have to pay capital gains tax as the tax authorities are pressing for checking the misuse of the tax treaty with the island nation. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) suspects that the government is losing large amount of revenue due to routing of investments by domestic firms through Mauritius.
Indians, staying in the US, could in next three months avail tax concession on the money they will spend on social welfare projects at their native places in India. Under the ‘India Development Foundation for Overseas Indians’, an initiative of Ministry of Overseas Indians, they will get tax exemption if they want to build schools, primary health centres and other infrastructure in their villages and places of origin in India.
The Finance Ministry indicated that the revised Direct Taxes Code draft may stick to denying tax sops to special economic zones (SEZs), even as Commerce Minister Anand Sharma assured that the interests of investors will be protected.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said the Reserve Bank will decide on a further hike in its lending and borrowing rates at the quarterly review meeting on July 27. “The RBI Board will come up with its policy on July 27. Let us wait till then,” Mukherjee told newspersons here when asked whether there would be any further hike in the repo and reverse repo rates of the RBI.
The Finance (No.2) Act of 2009 introduced section 206AA under the Income Tax Act, 1961 (the ITA) to provide that any person who is entitled to receive any sum or income or amount, on which tax is to be withheld under the ITA shall furnish PAN to the person responsible for withholding of tax. In case PAN is not furnished, minimum withholding tax rate of 20% will have to be applied. This provision is now effective from1 April 2010.
The government is set to fast track the process of updating and finalising accounts of public sector units in order to get a correct picture of their financial health before it decides a roadmap for them. The department of public enterprises is considering a proposal to reduce the period of audit pendency for public sector undertakings (PSUs) to seven years, before their accounts are taken up for an finalisation.
