The Central Board of Direct Taxes has notified amendments to the Industrial Park Scheme 2008 under sub-section (4) of section 80IA of the Income Tax Act, 1961 on 2nd July 2008. According to the amended scheme, the ambit of “industrial activity” has been expanded to include (i) research and experimental development on natural sciences and engineering as defined in section K, division 73, group 731 of the National Industrial Classification, 2004 Code, issued by the Central Statistical Organisation, Department of Statistics; (ii) development of computer software; and (iii) information technology enabled services as notified vide notification number S.O.. 890(E), dated the 26th September 2000 for the purposes of sections 10A, 10B and 80HHE of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes has decided to relax norms on scrutiny of tax payers whose premises have been surveyed by the officials, a step aimed at encouraging evaders to pay up. The decision is likely to provide relief to thousands of taxpayers and it would save them from harassment at the hands of taxmen apart from litigation costs, said a senior Finance Ministry official. The decision has been taken following Finance Minister P Chidambaram’ s assertion that government wanted to send a message that those who comply with the tax laws would not be harassed by the tax officials.
Sick industrial units may no longer have to wait for decades for the authorities to decide whether they should be revived or liquidated. To fast-track the determination of industrial sickness of enterprises, the government is planning to expand the scope of the Company Law Board (CLB) to assess whether a sick unit should be liquidated or revived. At present, this procedure is carried out by the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), which would be wound up. The corporate affairs ministry is working on a proposal to vest CLB with this authority.
NEW SCRUTINY NORMS FOR FINANCIAL YEAR 2007-08 – In super cession of earlier instructions on the above subject the Board hereby lays down the following procedure for selection of returns / cases of Non-Corporate Assessees for scrutiny during the current financial year i.e. 2007-08.
Appointment of branch statutory auditors of Public Sector Banks – Chartered Accountants from North Eastern Region. RBI has decided to relax the eligibility norm in respect of professional standing of individual auditors/proprietar y audit firms from the North-Eastern Region (viz. the states of Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura) by reducing the period from 3 years to 1 year from the year 2008-09 and onwards.
MVAT Audit Due date extended to 31St July 2008 for Financial Year 20005-06 and 2006-07. 1. The Hon’ble High Court has dismissed the Writ petition No. 2000 of 2007 and allied petitions regarding Form 704. The date for filing of Form 704 was extended by the High Court to 30th June 2008. Accordingly, a trade circular cited at reference 13 was issued and the date for filing of Form 704 in respect of the year 2005-06 and 2006-07 was extended to 30th June 2008.
This facility enables the assessee view its details (name, address, location code) as present in the Assessee Master provided by CBEC. Details of assessee codes allotted for service tax and excise can be viewed using this facility.
The requirement of compulsory practical training is an integral part of the Chartered Accountancy course. Keeping this in view, the Council has recently issued a statement to ensure that working hours of articled assistants do not clash with any other activity undertaken by the articled assistants. However, it has been brought to the notice of the Institute that some of articled assistants are attending coaching classes during working hours of articled training. It is hereby clarified that articled assistants are not permitted to attend coaching classes during working hours. As stated earlier, articled training is an important part of CA curriculum.
The Reserve Bank of India has asked small non banking financial companies (NBFCs) to curtail their public deposits. In a notification put out on Monday, the RBI has tightened the rules governing access to such public deposits. It said that NBFCs with a net owned fund (NoF) of between Rs 25 lakh and Rs 2 crore, must limit their public deposits to the level of their net owned funds as against the current ceiling of 1.5 times the net owned funds.
The government will soon introduce biometric permanent account numbers (PAN) for income tax payers, though initially only new applicants would be brought under its net, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Monday.
