The Narendra Modi government's alacrity in promoting ease of tax administration, a critical component in the ease of doing business index, has set in motion several incremental policy and administrative reforms, says Mukesh Butani.
Many requests are pending with the Swiss authorities.
FY16 GDP growth was seen at 7.5%, against 8.1-8.5% earlier.
The income tax department is asked to keep names of blackmoney holders under wraps.
The ruling mean FPIs cannot seek treaty protection against the new withholding tax that companies are required to deduct at source. The apex court order pertains to when the cricketing bodies of Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka formed a joint committee to conduct the 1996 Cricket World Cup.
In a major relief to Indian information technology (IT) companies operating in Australia, Canberra has agreed to amend its domestic laws to stop taxing offshore income of such Indian companies, as part of the free trade deal inked. This may lead to savings up to $200 million each year for over 100 Indian IT companies operating in Australia. "The Government of Australia has agreed to amend the domestic taxation law to stop the taxation of offshore income of Indian firms providing technical services to Australia. "This will resolve the issue that the Indian government has raised about the double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA) between the two governments for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income," said a commerce ministry official.
The Enforcement Directorate on Friday slapped a money laundering case against former Indian Air Force chief SP Tyagi and 20 others in the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal to probe alleged kickbacks of Rs.360 crore.
These individuals largely include businessmen associated with companies, including the dummy ones, in sectors ranging from real estate, financial services, technology and telecom to paints, home decoration, textiles, engineering goods, gems and jewellery. Several of these persons and their companies are said to be based in Kolkata, Gujarat, Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai.
Singapore is the favoured destination as it has traditionally had a stable fund management regime; also, its tax treaty with India is similar to that of Mauritius
Financial institutions at the risk of US sanctions as sharing of documents on SC directive amounts to violation of existing agreements.
It has been in force since October 2011.
Modi said the two countries should resume their discussions on Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement.
Addressing Parliament on the first day of Budget session, President Pratibha Patil said steps have already been initiated for negotiations to enter into agreements for the exchange of information with major jurisdictions.
The amended treaty will enable India to get banking information in specific cases, beginning April 1, 2011.
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.
Rejecting the charge that the National Democratic Alliance has done a U-turn on disclosure of names of black money holders, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said the government will not be pushed into an act of adventurism and jeopardise the chances of getting cooperation of other countries in future.
Citing national security and confidentiality clauses, the Finance Ministry has declined to disclose information on exchange of correspondence among India, Swiss and German authorities in connection with the black money probe.
A stream of people, including those from Rajasthan and Karnataka, walked into the only designated office before the closure of the one-time compliance window.
India has been probing hundreds of black money cases.
Switzerland's Ambassador to India Linus von Castelmur also said the past cannot be undone, while promising full support of his country in cases where at least some proof is provided on tax frauds.
Compliance window for those with undisclosed income abroad to come clean by paying 30 per cent tax and 30 per cent penalty
While there are no specific data for money that could be of Indians, this includes outflows to the tune of 100 billion Swiss francs that are related to fine payments in the context of declaration of untaxed money, as per a new study by PwC.
Such listings will help internationalise our currency, give us economic heft, compel best in class regulations and further develop the professional-services ecosystem., says Amit Tandon.
Chaos in Parliament threw a spanner in the government's efforts to revive the economy and kick-start reforms.
'Gloom is nowhere in sight, with healthy foreign exchange reserves, a strong rupee, healthy tax collections, corruption and crony capitalism under check,' argues Gopal Krishna Agrawal.
Concluding the three-part series, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta says that the black money law is likely to fail because of the ineptness of India's investigative and enforcement agencies.
If India was able to provide additional and new information about people and entities that figure on stolen lists, they may consider it to exchange information
Ministry considering tax sops for India's first global financial centre, steps to liberalise futures and options markets.
Meeting the disclosure norms isn't very easy.
'The cash part is the lower hanging fruit compared to the other sources.' 'To attack the cash part of black money, I can't think of anything else but demonetisation.'
The Swiss National Bank, the country's central banking authority, has estimated the funds currently held by Indians in Swiss banks at a mere $1.98 billion. Fear of disclosure due to greater scrutiny of this illicit wealth has played the main role in the flight of capital.
Key was not to be left behind and quipped that he is thankful to Modi for not raising his country's poor performance in the series so far. New Zealand were whitewashed 0-3 in the Test series and are trailing in the ongoing five-match ODI series as well.
Clearly, rich Indians have little confidence in India. Perhaps we are also chronically dishonest.
'The difference between black money in India and the black money out of India is, in India, it is tax evaded money and Indian money outside India is not only tax evaded money, but money which has been taken out of India's capital resources needed for India. So it is not only tax evasion, but treason too.'
This is the joint statement issued by the ministry of external affairs on the visit of US President Barack Obama to India.
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