THE CVC had disposed off 468 cases during December 2009 referred to it for advice. The Commission advised initiations of major penalty proceedings against 70 officers. Of these, 20 were from public sector banks, 17 from M/o Railways, 11 from Northern Coalfields Ltd., 4 from Western Coalfields Ltd., 3 from MCD, 2 each from Ministry of Home Affairs and Central Board of Excise and Customs. The remaining 9 cases pertained to different departments of the Government of India and PSUs.
Calcutta High Court asked film actress Suchitra Sen to deposit Rs five lakh before opening up a hearing of her appeal challenging the income tax (I-T) department directive to pay hefty taxes for her flat in the city’s southern part. This is for the second time Ms Sen moved an appeal against the I-T department for imposing a wealth tax penalty of over Rs 30 lakhs on her property.
The Union government on Monday indicated it was hopeful of a favourable reply from the US Securities and Exchange Commission to a request for being lenient on scam-hit Satyam Computers, thereby allowing it to remain on the rehabilitation track.
Income-Tax officials on Tuesday conducted raids at the residents of senior state officials, including that of Chief Minister Shibu Soren’s personal secretary M L Pal, in connection with a multi-crore money laundering scam involving former chief minister Madhu Koda.
Accounting watchdog Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), which regulates auditors, is currently facing the prospect of meeting an income tax penalty of Rs 16 crore, after the Income-Tax department withdrew tax exemptions on the institute. It is also understood that the I-T department has written to the institute’s banks to freeze the accounting regulator’s accounts till the institute pays the penalty, according to persons familiar with the development.
As earlier intimated to you, Writ Petition bearing No. 50 of 2010 (Indian Exporters Grievances Forum & Other vs. CIT) challenging the constitutional validity of Rule 8D has been admitted on 12.1.2010 by Hon’ble Shri Justice Dr. D.Y. Chandrachud and Hon’ble Shri Justice J.P. Devadhar of the Bombay High Court.
A writ Petition challenging the constitutional validity of the Explanation inserted by the Finance No.2 Act 2009 to section 80IA (4) of the Act with retrospective effect from 1.4.2000 has been admitted today (16.2.2010) by the Bombay High Court in Patel Engineering Ltd vs. ACIT W. P. No. 219 of 2010.
Securities and Exchange Board of India has told the government that it favours giving companies five years to increase their public shareholding to 25 per cent. Sebi’s letter to the finance ministry follows a proposal by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to increase the minimum public holding in all listed companies – whether government- and privately-owned – in last year’s Budget.
FIEO said that sectors like tobacco, man-made yarns, tea and coffee have shown growth due to stimulus provided by the government and ‘in case of abrupt withdrawal of stimulus these sectors may again enter into negative territory’. In the wake of the contraction in exports, the government had provided incentives like two per cent interest subsidy, higher duty drawback and refund of services tax in 19 categories of services.
Budget 2010-11, to be presented on 26th of this month, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee should aim for rationalisation of the Customs tariff, unification of the central excise and service tax rates and simplification of the indirect tax laws.
