In the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 (39 of 1972) (hereinafter referred to as ‘the principal Act’), in section 2, for clause (e), the following clause shall be substituted, namely:—‘(e) “employee” means any person (other than an apprentice) who is employed for wages, whether the terms of such employment are express or implied, in any kind of work, manual or otherwise, in or in connection with the work of a factory, mine, oilfield, plantation, port, railway company, shop or other establishment to which this Act applies, but does not include any such person who holds a post under the Central Government or a State Government and is governed by any other Act or by any rules providing for payment of gratuity;’.
The government will allow companies to adjust the fringe benefit tax (FBT) paid by them against the advance tax due in the March quarter, reducing the hazard of claiming a refund and slightly improving profits at a time of rising costs, said an income-tax department official. “The Central Board of Direct Taxes has taken an in-principle decision to allow corporates to adjust FBT paid in the first quarter against their advance tax,” he said.
The internal audit to be conducted on a half-yearly basis by chartered accountants, company secretaries or cost accountants, and will cover all aspects of CRA operations and procedures, including investor grievance redressal mechanism, the regulator said in its circular. The report will have to state the methodology adopted, deficiencies observed and consideration of response of the management on the deficiencies. Besides a summary of operations and of the audit, covering the size of operations, number of transactions audited and the number of instances where violations were observed will also have to be stated.
In partial modification of the guidelines as contained in the Announcement dated 14th September 2009, it is hereby notified for the information of all concerned that the Council, in its 291st meeting held on 16th and 17th December 2009, has decided that delay in submission of Form 112 for having done additional / other course alongwith articleship through correspondence mode of study/private student (where there was no requirement of attending any classes at all)/early morning classes/evening classes (with no clash/overlapping between office and teaching hours) be condoned by taking a liberal view of the lapse on the part of the students concerned and membership be granted, as an amnesty measure for all such requests already received or to be received upto 31st March 2010.
The Central Board of Direct taxes and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India have jointly constituted a study group to identify direct tax issues arising from convergence of Indian Accounting Standards [IAS] with the International Financial Reporting Standards [IFRS].The 1st meeting of the aforesaid Study Group was held on 6th January, 2010 in the head office of the Institute at New Delhi. The meeting was chaired by the President, ICAI.
The results of the Chartered Accountants Final and Final (New Course) Examinations held in November, 2009 and Common Proficiency Test (CPT) held in December, 2009 are likely to be declared on Sunday, the 17th January, 2010 around 2:00 PM and the same as well as the merit list (candidates securing a minimum of 55% and above marks and upto the maximum of 50th Rank in the case of Final Examination and candidates securing a minimum of 60% and above marks and upto the maximum of 10th Rank in the case of Common Proficiency Test) on all India basis will be available on the following website:
India is drafting new rules to avail the services of private information technology (IT) firms for a range of government functions such as collecting taxes or issuing birth certificates, allowing transactions to be conducted electronically or through mobile phones, which are more pervasive in the country than computers.
The market regulator Sebi today said Permanent Account Number (PAN) is mandatory for transfer of shares to the heir in case the deceased shareholder was the sole owner of shares. “It is hereby clarified that it shall be mandatory to furnish a copy of PAN (on) transmission of shares to the legal heir(s), where the deceased shareholder was the sole holder of shares,” a Sebi circular said.
The government will sift through the financial data filed by companies with the Registrar of Companies to get a better picture of their investments and expenditure, helping it get better inputs for key policy decisions such as tax incentives. Financial details submitted with the RoC will be aggregated under various parameters such as investments, deposits and trade debt, a government official told. The initiative is driven by the ministry of corporate affairs. The RoC has financial data of nearly 10 lakh companies stored in its database management system, MCA-21.
Prakash Sharma, a contestant from Jaipur, had approached the court against an order on postal ballots by T. Karthikeyan, secretary, ICAI. The Rajasthan high court has stayed the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) from declaring the results of the election to its apex council held on 4-5 December. The results were to be declared on 6th of January’10.
