* All 8 sitting council members elected. Pune made a come back with Zaware sir. Ahmedabad secured its seat as usual in Dhinal Shah, FYI, his father Shri Ashwin C Shah was too in Central Council for 3 terms consecutively.Nilesh Vikamsey came a new entrant to council. FYI, his brother Kamlesh Vikamsey too had been in Central Council for two terms and is also a past president of our Institute
The Discussion Paper has envisaged a model of dual GST which has got certain structural defects that need to be pointed out for correction before the second Paper comes out. The proposed GST is an under achievement compared to the professed idea of a conceptually correct GST. It is an imperfect GST which has four rates with probably numerous exemptions, four thresholds, several taxes outside GST, a highly complicated system for inter-State credit of input tax and finally with no certainty that States will always abide by the fixed rates of tax. It is destined to be more complicated and ill administered than now.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has revised its internal audit standards to strengthen internal audit practices in the country. The current revision, approved by the ICAI council last week, addresses issues such as effects of laws and regulations in conducting internal audit, responsibility of management for compliance with laws and regulations, responsibility of internal auditor and internal audit procedures.
Auditors Nayak and Kishnadwala, who are doing special audit for telecom major Bharti Airtel, have sought extension from the government by one-and- a-half months to submit the report. In April, DoT had ordered a special audit on five telecom companies — Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar, Tata Teleservices, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communication — to check alleged mis-reporting of revenue to evade taxes and licence fee.
This follows a renewed effort by CBDT to seek clarification on the issue. The finance ministry has decided to keep the issue of taxing participatory notes (P-Notes) on the back burner to encourage foreign inflows. These views follow a renewed effort by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to seek a clarification on the taxation of the P-Notes. Sources said the clarification was sought since it was noticed that the issuance of these notes had gone up, following a buoyancy in the equity market.
The state of Punjab has challenged in the Supreme Court the validity of Union government notification giving concessions in taxes and also providing subsidy to the new as well as existing industries in the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Contending that such concessions provided on selective basis would adversely affect the industrial development of Punjab, the state government prayed for quashing of these notifications as null and void.
The nation’s accounting standard-setting body, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), has changed some rules to allow both new and serving officers of the Indian Audit and Accounts Service (IA&AS) to acquire the qualification of a chartered accountant (CA).
It has been made clear that such information cannot be sought directly from the private business groups but from a government department which holds it.
The year 2009 saw mixed signals on business law and policy fronts. The New Year cheer on Press Notes 2, 3 and 4 fizzled with the implementation in sectoral tangles. But the year end’s breaking news, the Bombay High Court judgement in the Lawyers’ Collective case threatens to be a showstopper. The Court decision dwells on fundamental issues impacting our turf, whether foreign law firms can carry on non-litigious activity in India, the regulation of the legal profession, and in a macro-perspective, the judicial interpretation of restrictions in establishing liaison offices in India.
THE much-awaited perquisite valuation rules have finally been notified by the CBDT. The Board has amended Rule 3 to give effect to the abolition of FBT, announced in the Budget 2009. Vide Income Tax (13th) Amendment Rules, the Board has notified the new valuation guidelines w.e.f April 1, 2009 for the AY 2010-11. Although the rules are largely the same old wine in a new bottle but it is strange that the TPL has taken unduly long time to finalise and notify it.
