The government may modify the draft direct tax code to retain tax shelters on interest and principal repayments for home loans to make the proposed new code more attractive for the average Indian, a finance ministry official told .The proposed direct taxes code, which has been unveiled for public debate and is due to become operational from April 2011, does not provide tax incentives to loan-funded house purchases that are for personal use.
The salaried class, reeling under the inflationary pressures, has suffered yet another setback this holiday season with the announcement of new perquisite valuation rules by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on December 18. The new rules have come in the wake of the abolishment of fringe benefit tax (FBT) by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee in this year’s Budget and will be applicable retrospectively from April 1, 2009.
Applications are invited online from the firms of Chartered Accountants who intend to be empanelled with this office for the year 2010-2011 for appointment as auditors of Government Companies/Corporations.
Shri Anand Sharma, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, has released the first draft consolidation of all the aspects of FDI Policy and FDI Framework, here today, and also launched the same in the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion’s website (http://dipp./nic.in). Briefing the media on the occasion, Shri Sharma said that such consolidation would ensure the availability of all information on FDI policy at one place, and is expected to lead to: simplification of the policy; greater clarity of understanding of foreign investment rules among foreign investors and sectoral regulators, as also predictability of policy and added that having a single policy platform would also ease the regulatory burden for Government.
The Chairman of a Branch, after demitting office, should not seek re-election for or hold the said or any other post at Branch level in subsequent years. The Committee also decided that no member should hold two posts simultaneously and that in case, as a result, any difficulty was faced, the matter may be brought before the Institute for its consideration.
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 has been enacted by the Parliament to provide for free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years. After receiving the assent of the President, the aforesaid Act was published in the Gazette of India on 27th August, 2009.
The Supreme Court has upheld a Bombay High Court ruling saying that the Government cannot levy service tax on services provided outside the country. The order pertains to service tax for the period from March 1, 2002 to April 17, 2006.
The Law Commission is in favour of amending the country’s archaic Indian Stamp Act 1899 and the Court-fees Act 1870, which entail payment of stamp duty on instruments and court-fee on documents to be filed in courts only in the form of adhesive stamps or stamped papers.Taking up the obsolete statutes suo motu for a thorough study, the Law Commission headed by Dr Justice A.R. Lakshmanan in its latest report tabled in Parliament, said in the recent past there have been scandals on stamp papers.
The single-most important regulation in India, governing the acquisition of shares or control in an Indian listed company is the SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeover) Regulations, 1997, or the Takeover Code. In the backdrop of changing needs of a dynamic Indian economy surging at a growth pace of more than 7 per cent over the last few years, this code has been tested during many a corporate takeover battle in India, observes Girish Vanvari, Executive Director, M&A Tax Head and Member of the Tax Executive Committee, KPMG India, Mumbai.
Accounting regulator Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has allowed Indian students of chartered accountancy to undergo their mandatory three-year training programme outside India. This means that even ICAI members working with a local firm outside India would be entitled to train chartered accountancy students. Earlier, CA students had to undertake the training programme within India. This also posed a problem for students settled abroad.
