If the company A is located in a non-GST state, it would pay a total tax of Rs 300 (Rs 200 on finished product and Rs 100 on input), compared to Rs 200 paid by other producers in a GST state. The Centre is hoping that in such a scenario companies in GST states would lobby for introduction of the pan-India tax, which will subsume most state and Centre-level taxes.
Key roadblock: Constitutional amendment required to provide wider taxation powers to Centre, states.
Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khursheed said his ministry would push for affirmative action in the corporate sector through fiscal incentives.
Prospects of a stable government at the Centre have prompted at least six economic forecasters to raise their growth estimates for the current fiscal, citing lower-than-expected political risk after the recent general elections.
Under the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, the Centre should have eliminated the revenue deficit and brought down the fiscal deficit to 3 per cent of gross domestic product by March 2008. This target was extended by a year. Then, due to the global economic crisis, the government decided to suspend implementation of the FRBMA. As a result, the fiscal deficit for 2008-09 crossed 6 per cent of GDP and is projected at 5.5 per cent in fiscal 2009-10.
The Taj Mahal, the timeless masterpiece built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, along with other heritage sites like the Qutab Minar, will be valued in the government books at just Re 1. This is part of the broad move to move government accounts towards accrual-based accounting system from the cash-based one within the next five years. Like a corporate balance sheet and profit and loss account statements, the government too will undertake similar book keeping.
The investigation arm of the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission, the country's anti-trust body, has launched a probe against 10 cellular service providers, including state-owned ones, for allegedly charging customers for Short Message Services that are not delivered.
"Since December last year, we started focusing on TDS and regular assessment to increase tax collections, and it has paid off," said a senior revenue department official. According to the latest data, TDS collections increased by 25 per cent to Rs 1,304.56 billion in fiscal 2009, compared to Rs 1,046.95 billion in the previous fiscal. However, advance tax collections under two major heads -- corporation tax and income tax -- dipped by 7 per cent to around Rs 1,680 billion.
The country's economy is expected to grow by around 6 per cent in the current fiscal, even in the worst-case scenario of global recession prevailing till March 2010, according to Arvind Virmani, chief economic adviser in the Ministry of Finance.
India's information technology sector is likely to post a single-digit growth rate of 9 per cent in fiscal 2008-09, as measured in gross domestic product calculations, according to a senior government official. The IT sector, which constitutes 3.5-4 per cent of India's GDP, grew at an average rate of around 25 per cent in three years up to March 2008. Thus, the sharp fall in growth rate is cited as one reason for drop in growth rate of the Indian economy in fiscal 2009.
He went on to explain that it is standard practice for developers to have development agreements under which the land-owner cannot sell his land to any other entity or individual.
In the three months since the scam, Satyam's employee strength has reduced from 53,000 to 50,000, said a senior ministry of corporate affairs official. "Satyam continues to have strong revenues. The difference between its turnover and the next highest is around 10-15 per cent," he said. He did not disclose his idea of the revenue and net profit, saying it would interfere with the ongoing process for selling a strategic stake in Satyam.
India has bilateral tax agreements with more than 70 nations.
This would bring between 20,000 and 25,000 firms under the ambit of cost audit. At present, only 44 industries and specific products within an industry come under cost audit. This covers around 6,000 firms but cost audits are conducted in only about 2,200 of these. The proposed change will have a major positive impact on the profession because more firms will have to mandatorily appoint a cost auditor and have cost accounting records audited on an annual basis.
The Budget estimate of fiscal deficit for the next financial year has been underestimated by nearly 0.9 percentage point of Gross Domestic Product, or about Rs 51,000 crore. This is because the estimates for revenue collections in the Interim Budget for 2009-10 do not reflect the full impact of the duty concessions announced by the government since December 2008. The Budget estimate for fiscal deficit in 2009-10 put it at 5.5 per cent of GDP.
The second phase of reforms was expected to address areas like extending 'national treatment' to foreign banks, which means that foreign banks would be treated on a par with Indian ones under the World Trade Organisation agreement. Other items that are to be considered include permitting listing foreign banks' wholly-owned subsidiaries in India and the acquisition of sound Indian banks by foreign banks.
The government is planning to nominate full-time directors while inducting the remaining seven members in the reconstituted board of Satyam Computer Services Ltd, said a top corporate affairs ministry official. The ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), which got an interim order from the Company Law Board to supersede the existing board of the Hyderabad-based company, is planning to make the announcement within a week to ensure smooth functioning at Satyam.
Deficit-financed tax cuts could be a better option to revive the economy hit by global financial crisis as government spending is not effective due to leakages and delay in execution, economists feel.
Low commodity prices and a likely softening of interest rates have set the right business conditions, but the revival of demand - both in domestic and overseas markets - will be the key driver in 2009, experts said.
Interestingly, these recovery officers do not have the power to reduce the amount stated in the order issued by the presiding officer. The annual review was published "to point out irregularities or deficiencies which need the immediate attention of the Heads of Departments", S M Kumar, chief controller of accounts, said in the review for 2007-08.
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