The police received over 500 complaints alleging that many social media influencers and YouTubers promoted the HIBOX mobile application on their pages and lured people into investing through the app, the officer said.
Ahead of the first meeting of the top decision-making body in nearly eight months, finance ministers of eight states ruled by non-Bharatiya Janata Party and like-minded parties -- Rajasthan, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Kerala and West Bengal -- have devised a joint strategy to press for a zero tax rate on Covid essentials, sources said.
Revenue from Goods and Services Tax (GST) stood at over Rs 1.04 lakh crore in November as against Rs 1.05 lakh crore collected in the previous month, the Finance Ministry said in a statement. This is the second straight month in the current fiscal when GST revenue has topped Rs 1 lakh crore. The collection in November 2020 is 1.4 per cent higher than in November 2019 when the GST mop-up was Rs 103,491 crore.
The Centre managed to collect only Rs 990 crore as compensation cess in April 2020-21, almost one-ninth of the figure of Rs 8,874 crore mopped up a year ago. The subdued collection would further increase states' problems unless the GST Council, which meets next week, decides to borrow from the market.
The controversy over the goods and services tax (GST) rate on food products refuses to die. Now, the Gujarat-based authority of advance rulings (AAR) has ruled that 'parathas' would attract 18 per cent GST. The applicant, Vadilal Industries, sought to know whether various kinds of 'parathas' supplied by them would attract five per cent GST in line with 'khakhra', plain chapati or 'roti'.
'Assess the property in terms of type, size, location and price point, and whether it fits into your budget.' 'If it checks out on these fronts, one may consider the accompanying offers.'
Higher reliance on GST receipts for revenue reduces states' autonomy as these receipts depend on tax rates decided by the GST Council, a report by Delhi-based non-profit, PRS Legislative Research shows.
In the year-long crackdown on tax evasion, the GST authorities have unearthed over Rs 35,000 crore of tax fraud committed by misuse of input tax credit provision under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime. During the 2020-21 financial year, the CGST zones and the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) booked about 8,000 cases involving fake ITC of over Rs 35,000 crore, a statement from CBIC said. Under the GST regime, at the time of paying tax on output, entities can reduce the tax they have already paid on inputs.
Shadow of elections may overshadow political consensus at GST Council meetings.
If you think that revenue officials are going berserk, acting on their own, while the government chants the mantra of 'ease of doing business', you would be wrong. These moves appear to have full official backing, points out Debashis Basu.
After the GST Council's meeting in March, the Centre had sought views from Attorney General K K Venugopal -- who is the chief legal officer of the government -- on the legality of market borrowing by the council to make good any shortfall in the compensation fund. The AG in his view said there is no obligation on the central government to pay the GST compensation shortfall, according to the sources.
Leader of Canada's New Democratic Party (NDP) Jagmeet Singh has announced that he is withdrawing support to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government.
Leading FMCG maker HUL said that it has received a demand notice of Rs 962.75 crore from the Income Tax Department and will go in for an appeal against the order. The notice relates to non-deduction of TDS on payment of Rs 3,045 crore to GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare (GSKCH) for the acquisition of Intellectual Property Rights of the Health Foods Drinks (HFD) business consisting of brands as Horlicks, Boost, Maltova, and Viva, according to a recent exchange filing.
Sources said GST exemption on such items would lead to blocked input tax credit, thereby increasing the cost of manufacturing and a higher price for consumers.
Leading brokerages have revised their charges with the true-to-label norms by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) kicking in from Tuesday.
Ironically, West Bengal, which has been seeking a postponement of the GST roll-out, has fared better among most other states.
Agencies, whether public sector or private sector, may have to pay goods and services tax on the charges they collect on behalf of the government from clients. The authority for advance rulings (AAR), Telangana, has ruled that e-procurement transaction fee collected by an agency on behalf of the government is chargeable to GST, said Rajat Mohan, senior partner at AMRG & Associates. The AAR also ruled that neither services provided by the agency to the government, nor services provided on behalf of the government to the business entities are exempt from GST, he informed about the case.
Many states are open to the idea of petrol and diesel being brought under the goods and services tax (GST) regime - contrary to the perception that they are averse to it - but they want a concrete proposal, including a compensation mechanism, from the Centre. West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra says while the issue can be discussed, the Centre may not be keen to bring the change because it earns "much more" from taxes on petrol and diesel. "(The peak rate of) GST is 28 per cent. Under the regime, the Centre would only get 14 per cent. "So, definitely, the Union government does not want GST on fuel. It is all lies. Currently, they are in a very cozy place," Mitra said.
The Budget should use the extra RBI surplus to better effect, suggests A K Bhattacharya.
Does a doctor need to pay GST and other queries...
The stalemate over compensating states for the shortfall in GST collections continued on Monday with a meeting of the GST Council ending without reaching any consensus. The panel, which is the highest decision-making body on indirect taxes, for the second time in a week failed to reach a consensus on the Centre's proposal of states borrowing against future GST collections to make up for the shortfall.
'There is a difference between a politician and leader.' 'A politician will have his pound of flesh first and do everything else later.' 'A leader will sacrifice everything to help people.'
The government has extended the deadline for filing GST annual return and audit report for the 2018-19 fiscal year by a month, till October 31.
The Centre is looking to convene a meeting of the all-powerful Goods and Service Tax Council in early January. The meeting is likely to focus on rectifying the inverted duty structure for a few more items and will also serve as a platform for pre-Budget discussions between Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and state finance ministers, Business Standard has learnt. "The current Winter Session of Parliament ends on December 23, followed by the Christmas-New Year period. "After that we would like to have a meeting of the GST Council, depending on whether there can be a quorum," a top government official said.
Income tax officials on Monday conducted surveys at offices of engineering major Larsen & Toubro and media firm Zee Group for alleged GST evasion, an official of the tax department said. When contacted, L&T neither confirmed nor denied the development, while the media group has confirmed the tax survey. The tax official said surveys have been carried out at many L&T premises in the city, and in case of Zee, the surveys are underway at all its offices across the country since morning.
Buoyed by regulatory overhaul and infrastructure boom, engineering conglomerate Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has identified realty business as one of its growth engines for the next 10 years and plans to acquire land parcels while expanding pre-sales, said a senior company executive. L&T Realty has started looking out to acquire land parcels and grab partnership development opportunities across markets to scale up its business. "We are making some strides in that direction, albeit cautiously.
The 41st meeting of the GST Council, to be held via video conferencing, has just one agenda for discussion -- making up for shortfall in states' revenues, sources said.
Services provided by Indian information-technology (IT), marketing, and consulting companies to foreign clients may not always draw integrated goods and services tax (IGST) if a ruling by the Authority for Advance Rulings' (AAR's) Telangana Bench becomes a precedent. The AAR gave its ruling on a specific case of referral services provided by the Hyderabad-based Center for International Admission and Visas (CIAV) to foreign universities and colleges for admitting Indian students.
While Congress and the states ruled by non-NDA parties pushed for the Centre meeting its statutory obligation of covering the deficit, the Union government cited a legal opinion to say it had no such obligation if there was a shortfall in tax collections. The Centre as well as BJP-JD-U-ruled Bihar were of the opinion that the states should borrow to make up for the shortfall in the tax revenues that have been compounded by the COVID-19 crisis, sources said.
Industry body CII on Thursday made a case for pushing reforms in sectors like land, labour, and agriculture by the Modi 3.0 government to accelerate economic growth, which is estimated to be around 8 per cent in the current financial year. CII president Sanjiv Puri said a lot of policy interventions in the past have put the economy on "a much stronger wicket". "The growth rate is poised to touch 8 per cent during the current year, marking the fourth consecutive year of above 7 per cent + growth.
'Compare the new slabs with the previous years to understand if your tax liability will increase or decrease after the Budget.'
'There are obvious concerns regarding revenue leakage which is understandable, but there are also concerns about whether or not well accepted, judicially tested, fair and proper procedures are being followed during such arrests.'
If the items and services such selected subsequently pass the test from the fitment committee and the GST Council, this would be the first of such rate hikes, after a series of cuts in the process of rate rationalisation that started in November 2017.
The coaching-tuition-profiteering model built on the back of a broken education system is a scandal and an abomination, and must go, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Self-employed individuals often face hurdles in buying term insurance due to financial documentation that doesn't fully reflect their earnings. This complicates underwriting.
Simpler GST structure will be key poll plank, Congress sources tell Archis Mohan.
GST collections in March touched a record high of over Rs 1.23 lakh crore, a 27 per cent growth over the year-ago period, the Finance Ministry said on Thursday. "GST revenues crossed above Rs 1 lakh crore mark at a stretch for the last six months and a steep increasing trend over this period are clear indicators of rapid economic recovery post pandemic," the ministry said. Closer monitoring against fake-billing, deep data analytics using data from multiple sources including GST, income tax and customs IT systems and effective tax administration have also contributed to the steady increase in tax revenue over last few months, it added.
Mahindra & Mahindra on Friday said it has been imposed a penalty of Rs 4.12 crore over input tax credit claim and education cess credit balance carry forward from pre-GST regime to GST regime in relation to its two-wheeler business. In a regulatory filing, Mahindra & Mahindra said it has received an order from the office of the Deputy Commissioner, State Tax, Audit Wing, Indore-01, Madhya Pradesh imposing a penalty amounting to Rs 4,11,50,120 to the two-wheeler business of Mahindra Two Wheelers Ltd (MTWL), which was demerged from MTWL and has since been merged with the company.
However, where the directors' remuneration is in the nature of professional fees and not salary, GST will be levied on a reverse charge basis.
The revenues for August are 88 per cent of the GST collected in the same month last year.