The finance ministry is likely to float a discussion paper next month on the proposed new income tax law, which aims to simplify the existing law and phase out tax exemptions.
'There has been an enormous amount of attention paid to issues like capital account convertibility, bank privatisation and bank priority sector norms. There are many other areas where reforms are less controversial, but perhaps as important,' the report of the high-level Committee on Financial Sector Reforms headed by Raghuram Rajan, a professor at Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago, said.
The Income Tax Department has put real estate firms, who developed housing projects for low- and medium-income groups, under the scrutiny for wrongful tax exemption claims.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes is considering a proposal to widen the ambit of the Annual Information Return to cover cash cards issued by non-banking financing companies in the country, official sources said. The AIR currently covers seven kinds of transactions, including cash deposits in savings bank accounts of over Rs 10 lakh in a year, credit card billing of over Rs 200,000 a year and purchase of property over Rs 30 lakhs (Rs 3 million).
The government has asked the Pension Fund Regulatory & Development Authority to open the retirement scheme--which has so far been confined to central government employees--to the self-employed and those in the unorganised sector.
A separate law for faster enforcement of high-value business contracts is on the anvil. The aim is to boost the business and investment climate in India, a country that many perceive is bedevilled by difficulties in doing business.
Decision on additional Rs 2 lakh debt at 7% rate shortly.
In another instance of Indian tax authorities adopting a hard-nosed stance to prevent abuse of tax avoidance treaties, the revenue department recently opposed a proposal of a Cyprus-based company to increase its stake in an Indian telecom services company from 40 per cent to nearly 74 per cent.
The Income Tax Department has decided to hike the tax deducted at source rate to 10 per cent, taking the total incidence to 11.33 per cent (including 3 per cent education cess and 10 per cent surcharge), as against the existing incidence of 2.33 per cent, official sources told Business Standard.
Be ready to pay service charges if you are sending money home using the State Bank of India's network of over 10,000 branches.
After years of waiting, finally there seems to be hope for the passage of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill, thanks to the Left's withdrawal of support from the government. The passing of the Bill will provide statutory backing to the regulatory agency, enabling it to issue guidelines and allow non-government employees to save for the long-term. PFRDA Chairman D Swarup spoke to Business Standard about the issues involved.
The government is likely to list four or five more of state-owned companies, which include Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd, Manganese Ore India Ltd and Cochin Shipyard, by March next year. A senior government official said the government plans to dilute up to 10 per cent in these companies.
The Delhi-headquartered bank had favoured private placement over an initial public offer due to the stock market's volatility, a source familiar with the development said. "An initial public offer now is out of question," the source said. The private placement of shares is likely to be with public sector companies Life Insurance Corporation, UTI and Small Industries Development Bank of India but private sector participation is not completely ruled out.
The four Left parties may no longer be allies of the Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance, but their concerns on the pension Bill will still be addressed by the government.
The move is being viewed as an effort by the government to expand the taxpayer base.
Membership to help domestic banks access developed markets.
A day after Fitch lowered India's local currency outlook to negative, international rating agency Moody's said it was also worried about the reversal of India's fiscal situation due to high oil prices and the lack of policy adjustment by the government. Moody's, however, said it was unlikely to change its investment grade rating to India's sovereign foreign currency rating or the domestic currency rating, which is below investment grade.
The Income Tax Department will soon ask the BCCI to pay the taxes under Section 11 (4) of the Income Tax Act, 1961, which deals with commercial activity of trusts. This means that the board will pay taxes at the rate of 33.99 per cent on from the current financial year.
Last week, after months of scrutiny, the Forward Markets Commission, the regulator for futures trading in commodities, approved a proposal from state-owned MMTC Ltd and finance-to-real estate group Indiabulls to set up a national multi-commodity exchange.
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