The Finance Ministry has overhauled its Income Tax intelligence wing in order to speed up investigation of high value cases of Rs 10 lakhs and above and stop new methods of tax evasion. Commissioners of Income Tax (CITs) of the Central Information Branch (CIB) will now report to the intelligence wing headquartered in the national capital.
Income tax evaders are being pushed into an increasingly tight corner – the I-T department is planning restructuring that will help assessing officers spend more time on an assessee than they do now. Currently in Mumbai, an assessing officer, the individual who actually detects tax evasion after going through the assessee’s files, scrutinises an average of 400 cases a year.
The Bombay High Court has disposed of Golden Tobacco Company’s appeal against a judgment of the Company Law Board (CLB) on January 19, 2009, which stayed resolutions passed by the company’s board. The court on Friday asked the CLB to pass a judgment on the matter by February 2. The Golden Tobacco board had sought to sell or jointly develop some of its land banks in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Guntur.
Income tax refunds may get delayed for a fortnight, following a complete revamp of security buffers in the computer software system of tax departments across the country, after the discovery last week that someone had hacked into an account and made off with Rs 11 crore.
On 22/01/10 the Hon. Finance Minister Mr. Sunil Tatkare has announced at the time of bhoomipujan ceremony of proposed building of sales tax office of Ratnagiri that MVAT Audit date is extended by 2 months. This announcement was made in the presence of Hon. Sales Tax Commissioner Mr. Sanjay Bhatia, but there is no official communication yet from the Sales tax department which is creating confusion.
The CBI, investigating the fraudulent I-T refund scam, held a series of meetings with IT officials on Friday. CBI officials said the fraud, in which over Rs 3 crore was transferred into several bank accounts and withdrawn by four key perpetrators, could not have been possible without the involvement of I-T officials and the National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL).
The 18-year-old Matunga resident, who ended her life last week, took the drastic step as she feared that she hadn’t done well in her chartered accountancy examination. Parents of Shivani Seth, who jumped to death from the fifth floor of her building on January 14, told the cops that she was depressed ever since she sat for the CA exams on December 26 and 27.
The Government on Friday said there was “near unanimity” among all stakeholders to raise the ceiling of payment on gratuity for private sector employees from Rs 3.5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh and hoped a decision in this regard will be taken before the forthcoming Budget session. “We have already prepared legislation and it remains to be approved by the Cabinet,” Labour Minister Mallikarjun Kharge said.
The Supreme Court has dismissed the Centre’s plea challenging the Bombay High Court ruling that restrained it from levying service tax from Indian National Shipowners Association for services received abroad between March 2002 and April 2006. The high court had held that services received by vessels and ships outside India prior to April 18, 2006, from persons who are not residents of India or are outside India cannot be taxed.
The government has written to the RBI asking it to consider classifying loans to the infrastructure sector as secured lending to increase the flow of funds to the sector, a finance ministry official told. As per RBI guidelines, loans given to infrastructure sector specially, road, construction, telecom and ports, fall under the unsecured category as there is no tangible asset that can banks can take-over in the case of default to secure their loan.
