The new Companies Bill to be adopted by Parliament would simplify the law and equate company secretary (CS) with the chief executive (CEO) and chief financial officer (CFO) of a company, said Vinayak S Khanvalkar, president, Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI), here on Saturday. At least two out of the 10 secretarial standards specified by ICSI would find place in the new legislation, he added.
CBDT on Friday directed its field formation to levy the highest penal rate of tax on TDS (tax deducted at source) defaulters.Following a sharp shortfall in revenue from TDS collection, the Income Tax Department has launched a massive drive across the country to detect and inquire into TDS payments of companies and especially on payments made and salaries disbursed.
Indian companies with a majority foreign shareholding will not get relief from the stringent norms that govern their contributions and donations within the country. A Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs had recommended relaxing the rules that prohibited Indian companies with more than 50 per cent foreign shareholding from donating money or providing hospitality overseas (like paying for travel, boarding, transport and medical treatment abroad) to individuals and companies within the country.
Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee has asked Indian Revenue Service officials to consider tax payers as important stakeholders in nation building and to administer taxes with a human approach. He was addressing the 63rd batch of IRS trainees last evening.
Commodity exchanges MCX, NCDEX and ICEX have reduced trade timings by 25 minutes for non-agricultural commodities to align with the US daylight saving times. According to separate statements issued by the three exchanges, all commodities except agricultural items will be allowed to trade between 10.00 am and 11.30 pm from Monday to Friday.
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs had released voluntary guidelines on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) during the ‘India Corporate Week’ organized in December last year. A number of corporates have stated that they would like to have an effective framework for reporting their responsible business practices. Keeping in view this feedback from the Corporate Sector, Shri R. Bandyopadhyay, Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, stated here today that the Ministry is in the process of designing an e-form under MCA-21 which will enable the corporates to file their CSR report on the portal of the Ministry.
Applications for issue of passports under the Tatkal scheme are accepted if a verification certificate is submitted in the prescribed performa, duly signed by a designated officer of the Central/State Governments, or on submission of three prescribed documents. Two lists containing designated officers and prescribed documents are enclosed at Annexure A and B.
“In the primary issuance process, Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs) that currently pay only 10% margin while applying will be required to pay 100 per cent money in line with what other investors are required to do for all the issues that open on or after May 1, 2010.”
The State Bank of India (Amendment) Bill 2010 contains a provision that will further limit the Reserve Bank of India’s powers on bank auditor appointment. The provision allows SBI to appoint its own statutory auditors. The Central Government too will have no say in the appointment of statutory auditors of SBI.
The government today said it will try to harmonise the voluntary corporate governance norms with the new Companies Act and is open to make the existing guidelines more effective.
