HC asks Britannia to return pension money Firm had challenged an Income Tax dept show cause notice on why it withdrew such a huge amount from the employees’ fund.Britannia Industries (BIL) has been asked by the Calcutta High Court to pay back the Rs 12 crore it allegedly withdrew from the company’s pension fund. BIL had recieved a showcause notice from the income tax department to explain the withdrawal in 2003.
The New Year brings in good news for independent finance professionals like company secretaries, chartered accountants and cost & works accountants, who will be allowed to advertise their services and area of proficiency, a move that would enable them to offer services globally and effectively highlight their areas of competence.
Companies shall be required to appoint agencies to monitor the utilisation of funds raised through public and rights issues, and report any deviation in utilisation to the stock exchanges, the Securities and Exchange Board of India announced on Thursday. They will also have to make public the adverse comments of their audit committee (or of the monitoring agency they have appointed) through advertisements in the newspapers.
The finance ministry is expected to announce the abolition of tax deducted at source (TDS) on corporate bonds in Budget 2008-09, official sources told media. The move is expected to stoke the near-dormant secondary market in corporate bonds by bringing them on a par with government securities (G-Secs). TDS on G-Secs was abolished in 2000, a move that had a positive impact on secondary trading in these bonds.
Multipurpose Empanelment Form (MEF) 2007-08. View Multipurpose Panel 2007-08 Corrections are being processed, the final panel will be available as soon as possible.
The Budget 2008-09 could bring some cheer to a host of self-employed professionals, like engineers and architects, with the likely increase in the threshold for tax deducted at source (TDS) for these professionals. The existing ceiling for deduction of tax at source is Rs 20,000. As per section 194J of the Income Tax Act, 1961, if the fee for professional or technical service contract undertaken by any of these professionals is more than Rs 20,000, the contract awardee has to deduct tax at the rate of 10%. The government had hiked the rate of TDS from 5% to 10%.
Section 80C of the Income-tax Act provides for a deduction of up to Rs. One lakh to an individual or a Hindu undivided family (HUF) for:- (i) making investments in certain savings instruments; or (ii) incurring expenditure on tuition fee and repayment of housing loan.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has clarified that a company in the structure of Hindu undivided family (HUF) cannot access public deposits if it is in the business of finance and on-lending. It can only access funds from relatives and family members. However, companies of such structures can access public deposits (inter-corporate deposits) as defined under the company law if their operation is other than financing.
The government on Monday asked the investors planning to put their money in IPOs to check with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs on issues like the promoters’ track record and regulatory compliances. Investors should verify the track record of the company and its promoters, compliance status with various regulations and whether any of its officers had been found guilty of economic offence, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs said.
Notwithstanding non-applicability of Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 to units having less than 10 workmen, units covered by the Factories Act, 1948, were to apply the gratuity law to their workers, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has held. Agreeing with the decision of the Joint Commissioner of Labour, Madurai (Appellate Authority under the Gratuity Act), that Section 1(3)(a) of the Gratuity Act was applicable even to establishments having less than 10 workers, under notification dated September 9, 1967 of the Department of Industries, Labour and Housing, Tamil Nadu, extending the Factories Act to all tailoring units in the State, Mr Justice K. Chandru ruled that the contention of writ petitioner (Star Tailoring, Tirunelveli) that Gratuity law would not apply to his units had to be rejected.
