This Budget positions India's taxation ideology as not merely a revenue source but as a strategic catalyst for growth, inclusion and long-term confidence.
Festive buying spree unleashed by lower tax rates pushed gross GST collection to about Rs 1.96 lakh crore in October, registering a 4.6 per cent year-on-year growth -- the slowest rate so far this fiscal.
Price Waterhouse Chartered Accountants (PwC India) has resigned as the auditor of Paytm Payments Services, the fintech major said in a regulatory filing on Monday. "...we wish to inform you that M/s. Price Waterhouse Chartered Accountants LLP ... statutory auditors of material subsidiary i.e. Paytm Payments Services Limited (PPSL) have resigned with effect from August 7, 2023," the company added. Paytm said that the statutory auditors had not raised any concerns or issues and that the company had noted PwC's resignation.
PriceWaterhouse on Wednesday said its Bangalore unit audited the accounts of scam-hit Satyam Computer and was now cooperating with a probe by regulator SEBI, thus quashing reports that it was distancing itself from the multi-crore accounting fraud.
Gross GST collection increased 7.5 per cent to about Rs 1.96 lakh crore in July on higher domestic revenues and taxes from imports. Gross Goods and Services Tax (GST) mop-up was Rs 1.82 lakh crore in July 2024. Last month, the collection was Rs 1.84 lakh crore.
Satyam Computer Services on Monday said it has filed a suit in a Hyderabad court against its former Board of Directors, certain employees and the company's audit firm Price Waterhouse seeking damages for perpetrating fraud.
PriceWaterhouse (PW) has said that it resigned as statutory auditor of Satyam Computer Services with effect from February 12, 2009, while stating that it would co-operate with the ongoing investigations into the Rs 7,800-crore (Rs 78 billion) fraud at the IT major.
The Andhra police have arrested two Price Waterhouse auditors- Gopalakrishna and T Srinivas- in connection with the financial irregularities case with Satyam Computer Services Ltd.
As a fallout of the Satyam scam, the company's former auditors Price Waterhouse on Thursday announced a major overhaul of its top India leadership, including setting up a new advisory board and appointing a new quality assurance and risk management head.
Although most high-frequency traders (HFTs) prefer to set up shop close to stock exchanges to enjoy better latency, a few are willing to sacrifice proximity to save a few bucks. Two HFTs have already established their offices at the GIFT City (Gujarat International Finance Tec-City) IFSC while many more are likely to follow suit.
Gross GST collections remained above the Rs 2 trillion mark for the second month in a row, rising 16.4 per cent in May to over Rs 2.01 lakh crore. Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection had touched a record high of Rs 2.37 lakh crore in April. In May, 2024, the mop up was Rs 1,72,739 crore.
PwC one of the big four audit firms, has expressed disappointment at the conviction of two former partners in the Satyam scam.
The share of Ahmedabad in the total value of trades on both the BSE and NSE is set to touch double digits for the third year in a row.
Certain foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), which operate as pooled investment vehicles (PIVs), may not be exempt from the additional disclosure mandates by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) following an update in the standard operating procedures (SOPs) for custodians. An updated version of the SOPs has specified several conditions to be met for PIVs to benefit from the exemptions granted. These include no segregated portfolios, independent investment manager, and investors having pari-passu (equal) rights in the entity.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said buyback of shares will be taxed in the hands of shareholders similar to dividend from October 1, a move that will increase the tax burden on investors. Further, the cost paid by the shareholder to acquire these shares will be considered for computation of capital gains or loss to them.
With the government clearing the decks for direct listing at the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) International Financial Services Centre (IFSC), issuers will wait for the ecosystem to develop further before firming up their listing plans. In the meantime, most companies may continue to prefer listing in the onshore market, even as the new avenue provides key benefits such as tax waivers and reduced foreign exchange risk. Sources said that a few key things need to be ironed out further.
Do you have Budget related queries? Ask Finance Expert Ambareesh Baliga.
38 auditors resigned in 2022-23, compared with 46 the previous year.
In recent times, more and more audit firms have challenged company managements, some going to the extent of resigning on the ground of incompatibility with what the management wanted or was doing. This, said Ajay Bhushan Pandey, chairman of the National Financial Regulatory Authority (NFRA), in a media interview, was a good sign. Now, the national accounting watchdog has turned the spotlight on audit firms themselves.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has notified stricter timelines of just seven working days for foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) to disclose vital information. This could include informing their custodians about any false or misleading information about the fund or disclosing any change in structure or common ownership, or control of the investor group. The new changes have been brought into effect from March 14 through a notification amending the Sebi (FPIs) Regulations.
The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) decision on Wednesday to relax restrictions on banks operating in the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) related to the repatriation of idle funds in foreign currency accounts (FCA) could give a fillip to trading in foreign stocks at the GIFT City.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India has found two top officials of Satyam Computer Services and four auditors of Price Waterhouse prima facie guilty in the Rs 7,800-crore (Rs 78 billion) fraud case, a top ICAI official said.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has proposed stricter disclosure norms for certain foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) to bring in more transparency and trust against the backdrop of the Adani-Hindenburg Research saga. Under the new norms, FPIs with an exposure of more than 50 per cent to a single group or with assets of over Rs 25,000 crore will be tagged as 'high risk' and will be required to provide additional information such as full identification of their ownership, economic interests, and control rights. A failure to provide these disclosures will lead to invalidation of the FPI registration.
A small Ahmedabad-based chartered accountancy firm, whose appointment was questioned by a US short seller in its scathing report against the conglomerate run by billionaire Gautam Adani, has resigned due to "pre-occupation", Adani Total Gas Ltd said. Hindenburg Research in its January 24 report that levelled allegations of fraud, stock manipulation and money laundering against the Adani group, had also raised the issue of the size and capability of the firms auditing the conglomerate. Adani group has repeatedly denied all allegations.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) are likely to seek from the finance ministry a six-month extension of the date for complying with the amendments to the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act (PMLA), citing implementation challenges. Sources said FPIs, through their custodians, were planning to approach the ministry, highlighting key concerns and seeking more clarification. The ministry, through a notification on March 7, lowered the threshold for reporting ultimate beneficial ownership (UBO) for non-profit organisations and politically exposed persons to 10 per cent from 25 per cent.
Chartered accountants body ICAI on Saturday served a showcause notice on auditor PriceWaterhouse and asked it to submit balance sheets of Satyam Computer audited by it in the last five years.
A questionnaire sent to Price Waterhouse was not answered.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has allowed Price Waterhouse to cross-examine some of the entities involved in the Satyam scam. The capital market regulator has, however, refused permission to cross-examine the erstwhile top brass of Satyam, including Ramalinga Raju (former chairman) and Vadlamani Srinivas (former senior vice-president & CFO).
The Sixth Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate on Wednesday allowed Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to quiz Satyam Computer's former CFO Vadlamani Srinivas and ex-Price Waterhouse partners S Gopalakrishan and Talluri Srinivas.
Tax consultants and chartered accountants have started receiving a flurry of calls from their clients - both corporate and individuals - seeking clarity over changes in the reassessment regime made during the recently concluded Budget Session of Parliament. Tax experts apprehend the amendments may lead to the income-tax (I-T) department sending out more notices. The new provisions, effective from April 1, have extended the scope for tax sleuths to reopen the past assessments.
The auditor of ABG Shipyard, which is being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for the Rs 23,000-crore default to banks, had settled an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) by paying a small settlement fee in 2019. The regulator had initiated an investigation into the fund diversion from ABG Shipyard and had asked the auditor to explain why it failed to detect fund diversion in time. In his settlement application, auditor MN Ahmed, partner of Nisar & Kumar, a chartered accountant firm, said he ceased to be an Indian citizen and has retired from the profession.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) who invest from Mauritius into Indian companies that dole out bonus debentures will get impacted by the tax avoidance provisions on bonus stripping. The FY23 Budget has extended these provisions - applicable only to MFs, so far - to shares and units of REITs, InvITs and AIFs. The move will especially affect large institutional investors who sell original units within nine months after the record date because the loss arising from sale of original units would have to be ignored for the purposes of computing taxable income and cannot be set off against any other capital gain.
Concessional rate of tax on dividends received by Indian companies from foreign subsidiaries will be done away with from April 1, a change that may hamper global expansion of Indian companies and compel some firms to move their headquarters out of India to geographies such as Singapore and Dubai. At present, dividends received by Indian companies from their foreign subsidiaries are subject to a concessional tax rate of 15 per cent under Section 115BBD of the Income Tax (I-T) Act. The provisions of this section shall not apply from assessment year 2023-24 onwards, according to the Finance Bill.
ICAI has also imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on each of the three accused in Satyam case.
China and India's advantages such as lower costs and greater market opportunity outweigh the higher risk compared with the more established and mature regulatory regimes of Australia, Japan and Singapore.
'IIM Ahmedabad has seen one of the best placement seasons ever and this change can be attributed to the markets opening up after the pandemic.'
The Securities Appellate Tribunal on Wednesday directed the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to allow PW cross-examination of former key executives of Satyam - former chairman Ramalinga Raju, former managing director Rama Raju, former chief financial officer (CFO) Vadlamani Srinivas and former vice-president (finance) G Ramakrishna.
The Supreme Court on Thursday cancelled the bails granted to Price Waterhouse partner Subramani Gopalakrishnan and Satyam's internal auditor V S Prabhakar Gupta, directing them to surrender by April 30.
In a major development in the Satyam fraud case, US regulators on Tuesday fined the software firm and its auditors PriceWaterhouse India up to $17.5 million for the accounts bungling that went undetected for several years.
Former Chief Financial Officer Vadlamani Srinivas has also filed a bail plea in the court.