A robust dispute settlement system would help the government unlock tax revenues, and also aid ease of doing business.
The new provision under the Income-Tax Act may enable the authorities to seize trustees' personal assets if there's a breach of objectives governing registered charitable trusts.
The instruction is that audit of large units be completed within seven working days, of medium units in five working days and of small ones in three.
In fact, India's investment activity growth is also estimated to touch a 17-year low in FY20. With overall demand not showing signs of revival, investment activity may take longer to recover, economists said.
The department notified ITR 1-Sahaj and ITR 4-Sugam in January against the usual practice of notifying returns in April, with disclosure requirements related to cash deposits, spending on foreign travel, and electricity. The notification of the returns followed Budget announcements making income-tax return filing mandatory for certain persons even if their income was below the taxable limit.
The queries, sent in November, were mainly about Capital Investment Trust, which the I-T department said, was used for the purpose of transferring foreign funds comprising global depository receipts (GDRs) of the value of $400 million to two Indian entities - Reliance Utilities & Power (RUPL) and Reliance Port & Terminal (RPTL), owned by the Ambani family. A show-cause notice issued on March 29 to Ambani's wife Nita, and their three children.
There are about 31,000 pending cases, locking revenue worth Rs 500 crore.
In 2009, FinMin proposed to move regulators' reserves into public account. These accounts were finally opened in 2013-14. However, no funds have been deposited in it so far.
Karvy group's commodity broking arm, too, is facing a liquidity crisis because of some issues related to NCDEX, said people in the know.
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said, a hike in GST rates would have hampered consumption amid the economic slowdown. The revenue augmentation panel in the Council meeting recently recommended revisiting and restructuring the GST rate slabs, besides correcting the inverted duty structure. The panel listed 24 items, including mobile phones, footwear, fabrics, LED light, medical equipment, utensils, agri machinery, pharma, and renewable components, which have an inverted duty structure, resulting in refunds of close to Rs 20,000 crore annually.
The new restriction will be challenging for businesses, as they will have to do regular follow-ups with their suppliers.
Proposals from the Centre's side include raising the 5 per cent slab to anywhere between 6 and 8 per cent, and doing away with the 12 per cent slab. A few states may oppose such a move because it involves hiking tax on items consumed by the poor. They have instead proposed raising the 18 per cent slab.
In the aftermath of the Karvy incident, lending against third-party collateral facility raises questions over regulations concerning banks and brokers which are at loggerheads. While Sebi and NSDL have ordered the transfer of securities, which were kept as collateral, lenders followed the old business model of sanctioning loan against shares and allegedly overlooked certain parameters. Legal experts feel that this could lead to a collapse of the loan-against-shares market as it raises questions over the sanctity of the pledged securities.
To improve compliance, govt may introduce lottery reward for filing GST. The Consumer Welfare Fund, where anti-profiteering proceeds are deposited, will be used to reward the lucky winners on monthly and annual bases. The prize money, yet to be fixed, may run into several lakhs of rupees for the annual draw, and about Rs 50,000 for monthly draws.
'The corporate tax cuts will obviously result in lower tax payments by companies,' says Central Board of Direct Taxes member Akhilesh Ranjan who retires after 37 years in government service.
BMA's clients allege that depository firm CDSL and stock exchanges did not act on their complaints, prompting them to protest before Sebi. They say their shares have been transferred to a pool account without their knowledge and have been used to avail loans. Clients alleged that BMA has pledged their securities with a leading private bank, who could have sold their holdings.
What's required is proper implementation of the rules and better coordination between market intermediaries such as stock exchanges and clearing members who play a key role in monitoring brokerages.
The contentious issue that Tata Trusts is challenging is the date of the order, which makes it liable to pay a much higher amount of tax under the new tax provision introduced in June 2016 concerning charitable trusts.
This was a fresh probe based on the inspection of certain derivative contracts both on the BSE and NSE.
The e-invoicing system will be rolled out in a phased manner from January 1 on a voluntary and trial basis, beginning with firms with a turnover of Rs 500 crore, while businesses with a turnover of Rs 100 crore or more will be required to do it from February 1.
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