In its drive against tax evasion, the finance ministry is planning to add to the list of high-value transactions required to be reported to the revenue department in annual information returns (AIRs).
Ministry wants to take views of industry on the issue, before giving its opinion to the Securities & Exchange Board of India.
French auction was tried for two issues - NTPC Ltd and Rural Electrification Corporation - in 2009-10.
Says it is worried a general pardon will send wrong signal
It is now clear that the revised takeover code and the Bimal Jalan committee report will not be implemented soon and in the same form, since the finance ministry wants to seek industry views on these two sets of recommendations this month, before the market regulator could take a decision.
In the Budget for 2011-12, the government revised the tax mop-up target for 2010-11 to Rs. 4.46 lakh crore for direct taxes and Rs. 3.36 lakh crore for indirect taxes.
Finance ministry has halved the tax rate on foreign dividend from 30 per cent to 15 per cent, but the rebate is allowed only for the financial year 2011-12.
The Bill's 2007 version covered only MFIs not regulated by the Reserve Bank of India.
Economic Affairs Secretary R Gopalan, who retains charge of financial services, has shown an ability to grasp ground realities in pushing critical reforms.
Even as some government departments have raised concerns on the Bill in its present form, the finance ministry has decided not to delay any further and may table it in Parliament next week.
Kapil Sibal, telecom minister, said many companies borrowed heavily to pay for 3G licences late last year. These companies were now facing difficulty in raising resources for the business, upsetting the calculations they had made while bidding aggressively for the licences, he said.
"There is a lot of opposition from the garment industry, but we are not in favour of a complete rollback of the duty. We understand their concerns and will try to address these. We may simplify some procedures for them," said a finance ministry official.
As a step towards the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST), the finance ministry plans to come up with a discussion paper on a negative list for services by the end of the next month.
The cap of 25% on sales to group companies likely to be removed.
Telcos such as Loop, Etisalat and Videocon have done little to churn the subscriber base.
The new limits for filing appeals by the Income Tax department before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), high courts and the Supreme Court have been revised to Rs 3 lakh, Rs 10 lakh and Rs 25 lakh, respectively, from Rs 2 lakh, Rs 4 lakh and Rs 10 lakh.
The Bill - to centrally regulate microfinance institutions (MFIs) - may also cap the rates charged by these institutions or limit margins, that is, the difference between the rate charged from the borrower and the lender's cost of funds.
A memorandum of understanding between the defence and telecom ministries for vacation of spectrum was signed two years ago.
We thought if tax rates were not increased, manufacturing units would have more profits and that would be further invested in growth. Automatically, with growth, taxes go up.
The plan includes expanding the number of flights of AI Express from 204 a week to over 250 a week with a new thrust on West Asia.
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