In extra-ordinary circumstances a comparable ceases to be so

IT/ILT : Transfer Pricing : A comparable ceases to be so for the period it operated under extra-ordinary circumstances

SC: Revenue to disburse interest at 15% if sum seized during search exceeds sum required to meet tax

IT: Where amount retained under section 132 exceeds amounts required to meet liability under section 132B(1)(i), revenue is liable to pay simple interest at rate of fifteen per cent on expiry of six months from date of order passed under section 132(5) to date of regular assessment or re-assessment, as the case may be

Business and Commercial brand equity is goodwill and entitled to depreciation; HC followed SC ruling

IT: In view of order passed by Supreme Court in case of CIT v. Smifs Securities Ltd. [2012] 24 taxmann.com 222, Tribunal was justified in allowing assessee's claim for depreciation in respect of intangible assets, viz; business and commercial brand equity

Prior to 01-06-2007, turnkey contracts were not liable to service-tax

Service Tax : Turnkey/Works contract are, prima facie, not liable to service tax prior to introduction of works contract services w.e.f. 1-6-2007

HC raps revenue for denying approval to trust on basis of seized docs without following principle of

IT: Where on basis of documents seized during search, Commissioner opined that Chairman of Board of Trustees had undisclosed income and, thus, approval sought by assessee-trust under section 80G(5)(vi) was denied, in view of fact that copies of seized documents were not furnished to assessee, there was violation of principle of natural justice and consequently, impugned order was to be aside

Liberalised Trade With India To Benefit Millions

The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) on Monday said liberalised trade with India will benefit tens of millions of people on both sides of the divide while reducing food import bill which is above five billion dollars.



Fears among Pakistani business and agricultural community including textile and pharma sector are unsupported, it said.

Intra-regional trade will get a boost when both the governments lift trade barriers to bring a major change which will have a positive impact, said Dr. Murtaza Mughal, President PEW/

He said that all the major political parties and key business associations are supporting trade liberalization with India but some sectors are voicing concerns to avoid competition with Indians.

Worries regarding Indian products flooding Pakistani markets are mostly baseless which amounts to underestimating skills and resilience of the business community, he noted.

Murtaza Mughal said that liberalisation will help exporters gain increased access to a much larger market while importers will save transport costs.

Apprehensions among some manufacturers have been addressed by the government anti-dumping laws and countervailing duties that can be imposed any time, he said.

Similarly, fears in the agricultural sector are due to lack of information as lower priced Indian agricultural products will benefit producers as well as masses, he said, adding that half of agricultural income come from the livestock sector which will face no competition.

Producers of major crops will not be affected, rather it will augment overall supply while vegetable imports and exports will help the two countries balance gap between supply and demand.Both the nations should strive for improved infrastructure and customs facilities to promote bilateral trade.

Source:- onlinenews.com.pk

Yellen Is Bullish Factor For Gold Ncdex Spot Prices Set To Top Rs. 30,000

Gold is set to rule firm with spot prices likely to top Rs. 30,000 for 10 gm and futures ruling above Rs. 29,000 on Tuesday.In the global market, gold has vaulted higher on hopes that the new US Federal Reserve Chief Janet Yellen could spell out some sort of slowdown in the tapering of the central bank’s stimulus programme. Since January, the programme (to pump money into the economy by mopping up bonds and other assets) has been pruned twice by $10 billion each to $65 billion. The cut in the stimulus followed signs of recover in the economy.

Yellen will testify before the US House Financial Services Committee later in the day where she could respond to issues relating to the labour market and the pace of tapering.

Last week’s economic data has particularly been disappointing with the economic growth again showing signs of slackening. This has led to rising bets that the tapering of the stimulus could slow down.

Aiding the rally in gold currently is the return of the Chinese after the Lunar New Year holidays. That has resulted in physical buying in Asia. China has already topped India as the largest gold consumer, with demand exceeding 1,100 tonnes last year.

Rolling favourably for gold are holdings in the world’s biggest gold-exchange trade fund, SPDR Trust, ruling unchanged at 797.05 tonnes after posting a 0.5 per cent gain last week.

Eyes are also on India, where the Government could ease curbs on imports and may even cut Customs duty after the Congress President Sonia Gandhi wrote to the Commerce Ministry for a review of the measures that made shipments into the country difficult.

In the domestic market, currency movements could also matter since a weak rupee against a strong dollar will make imports of gold, crude oil and vegetable oils costlier.

By mid-day in Asia, spot gold zoomed to $1,285.59 an ounce and gold futures maturing for delivery in April to $1,285.30.

Spot gold on NCDEX ended at Rs. 29,950 for 10 gm on Monday.

On MCX and NCDEX, gold April contracts could exceed Rs. 29,000.

Crude oil prices are likely to rule steady on bets that stockpiles in the US decreased. This has driven West Texas Intermediate crude prices to $100 a barrel. However, improving Libyan supplies could cap gains.

Brent crude contracts maturing for delivery in March ruled at $108.71 a barrel, while US crude at $100.10.

The oils and oilseeds market is likely to come under pressure on the US Department of Agriculture projecting an unchanged ending stocks, higher Brazilian crop and lower demand for soyameal.

On Chicago Board of Trade, soyabean contracts maturing for delivery in March slid to $13.25 a bushel. Crude palm oil on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange dropped to 2,608 ringgit or $782 a tonne.

Wheat prices are set to head higher on the USDA projecting a lower carryover stock as well as Argentine exports. Corn (industrial maize), on the other hand, is expected to head south on projections of higher-than-expected stocks.

CBOT wheat for delivery in March was up at $5.87 a bushel but corn for delivery the same month slipped to $4.42 a bushel.

Source:- thehindubusinessline.com

Sugar Export Subsidy Likely To Be Fixed At Rs3,500 Per Tonne

Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar to provide a subsidy of Rs3,500 per tonne on export of four million tonnes of raw sugar, involving an expenditure of Rs1,400 crore, in a move to boost sales and bail out the cash-strapped industry.

The CCEA had twice deferred the decision on fixing the export subsidy as the food ministry had proposed a lower subsidy of Rs2,200 per tonne against the Rs3,500 proposed by Sharad Pawar.

The difference was resolved at a meeting of Pawar with finance minister P Chidambaram and food minister K V Thomas on Friday.

Food minister K V Thomas said the Rs3,500-subsidy per tonne of sugar exported will cost the government Rs1,400 crore over a two-year period, against Rs800 crore under the earlier proposal of Rs2,000 per tonne subsidy.

The subsidy will be borne largely from the Sugar Development Fund under the food ministry and the subsidy amount will be reviewed after export of 2 million tonnes of raw sugar, he added.

The matter will now be placed before the cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA).

After factoring in the Rs3,500 per tonne subsidy, sugar mills could still lose around Rs1,000 per tonne considering the current raw sugar futures prices in New York, say analysts.

"At Rs3,500 per tonne subsidy, mills would still be making losses, but sugar can be exported. This is because mills' realisation from exports would be slightly higher than domestic sales, thanks to low local prices of sugar," Indian Sugar Mills Association director-general Abinash Verma had said last month.

India, the world's second biggest sugar producer, is sitting on huge opening stock of sugar.

The country is also expected to produce 25 million tonnes of the sweetener in the current (2013-14) marketing year (October-September), against demand for 23.5 million tonnes.

Sugar mills in India are faced with mounting cane price arrears they owe to farmers that has reached Rs10,000 crore from about Rs3,000 crore at the start of the current marketing year in October 2013.

The government had, in December, extended a Rs6,600-crore interest-free loan to the sugar industry to help them make payments to sugarcane farmers.

Source:- domain-b.com

Govt Appoints Two Directors On Coal India Board

State-owned Coal India Ltd (CIL) today announced appointment of two new non-official part time directors on the company’s board.

Both the directors — Indranil Manna and Shri Prakash — will be on the board of CIL for a period of three years with effect from February 6, 2014,

The company said in a filing to the BSE.Manna, Director, IIT, Kanpur and Prakash, Ex-Member (Traffic), Railway Board are “appointed as non-official part time directors on the board of the company by the Ministry of Coal for a period of three years w.e.f. February 6, 2014,” it said.

Source:- thehindubusinessline.com

Sa Keen To Set Up Processing Units In Punjab

South African High Commissioner to India France Morule has evinced interest in setting up agro-processing joint ventures in Punjab, especially in packaging and marketing kinnow juice, since the state is a major producer of kinnow and South Africa, too, is a leader in the production of citrus fruits, besides having a substantial fruit processing sector.

Morule has invited state Chief Minister P S Badal to lead a business delegation to South Africa to explore the potential in agriculture, coal, food processing, textiles and hosiery because, with South Africa being a duty free zone, there is potential to export from there to other parts of the world.

Badal has formally invited the envoy, who recently visited Punjab, to lead a high-level delegation of progressive farmers from South Africa to the four-day progressive agriculture summit at Mohali from February 16-19. He has also urged Morule to send a team of agro-processing experts to Punjab, to explore ways of enhancing value-addition in other fruits such as guavas and peaches.

According to Vikramjit Singh Sahney, South Africa's honorary consul for Northern India, 80 per cent of the agricultural produce of South Africa is processed, compared to a mere two per cent in Punjab.

Source:- business-standard.com

Deemed STCG under sec. 50 qualifies for sec. 54EC relief as deeming fiction only provides mode of co

IT : Capital gain computed under section 50 qualifies for exemption if investment is made out of sale proceeds towards prescribed bonds under section 54EC

Indian Shrimp Export Peak

The huge growth in production Andhra Pradesh and other States on the East Coast experienced, boosted exports of vannamei to almost double in quantity compared with the first three quarters of the last fiscal year to 134,000 tonnes vs. 69,000 tonnes.

In dollar terms, the jump was an astounding 173 per cent over the previous fiscal’s first three quarters, that is to say, from USD 540 million to USD 1,474 million.

The Marine Products Export Promotion Authority (MPDA) reported that in the first nine months of the current fiscal year (April 2013-March 2014) seafood exports from India reached a record peak of USD 3.66 billion, largely driven by sales of frozen shrimp.

The frozen shrimp accounted for one third of exports of fishery products, while in dollar terms, the percentage was 65 per cent: 229,010 tonnes were exported for USD 2.39 billion.

Vannamei variety alone constituted 81 per cent of in terms of quantity of the total exports of shrimp.

This upsurge, according to Anwar Hashim, a leading exporter and former president of Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI), was due to two major factors; a serious fall in the production and export of shrimp from South East Asian countries owing to diseases, and the lowering of the countervailing duty (CVD) on Indian shrimp in the USA.

The production in South East Asian countries had been severely impacted by the spread of the Early Mortality Syndrome (EMS). The supply from Thailand, the world’s second largest shrimp producer, nearly fell to a half from its normal production of 500,000 tonnes per year, The Hindu reported.

Besides other leading producers like Vietnam and Malaysia have been badly hit as well. Their processing plants started to depend on import from India in order to meet their commitments with European and US importers. Therefore, India was presented with a chance to enhance its exports.Likewise, China and Taiwan turned to India to get resources mainly for re-export.

This favourable context encouraged Indian new farmers in the States on the East Coast to venture into vannamei.USA is the largest import market with a 51.24 per cent share of the total Indian shrimp exports. South East Asian countries account for the 16.10 per cent, followed by the EU with 15.82 per cent, and Japan with 4.94 per cent.

Source:- fis.com

India Refutes Us, Canada Allegations Of Subsidised Wheat Exports

India is collecting data to refute allegations of subsidised wheat exports made against it by the US and Canada at the World Trade Organisation.

“The allegations are false as they are based on the faulty assumption that the administration cost of procuring and storing wheat in the country is almost half the acquisition price of the foodgrain,” a Commerce Department official told Business Line.

The Ministries of Commerce and Agriculture are now working out the actual costs involved in each stage right from when the crop is sent out of the farms up to the point of distribution, the official added.

If the US and Canada can prove that India is selling subsidised wheat, the country could be either forced to stop exporting at the existing prices or face penalties. The two countries raised concerns about the on-going export of 2 million tonne of wheat by Food Corporation of India – the Government agency responsible for procuring foodgrains from farmers and distributing it – at a recent meeting of the WTO’s Committee on Agriculture.

Canada complained about India lowering the floor prices for wheat exports from $300 per tonne to $260 per tonne which was less than the price of about $275 per tonne being offered by other exporters in the global market.

The US said India was selling wheat at prices lower than its acquisition cost. It argued that although FCI’s acquisition price from farmers was at an estimated $220 per tonne, which is much lower than the price at which India was exporting wheat, if one would add administration costs to it, the actual cost would be much higher.

Indian officials, however, contend that the numbers are over-estimations. “The US has assumed administration costs at 40 per cent of the total acquisition cost which is way too high,” the official said.India will supply its own estimates of administration costs of wheat when the Committee of Agriculture meets next.“Our officials and economists are working on the numbers. We will be ready with it soon,” the official said.The issue of subsidised food procurement by FCI for the country’s Food Security Programme was a matter of great debate at the recent WTO meeting in Bali.

Source:- thehindubusinessline.com

U.S. Brings Second Trade Action Against India For Solar Power Imports

The United States wants India to remove allegedly illegal local sourcing requirements of its national solar program.In a legal action filed with the World Trade Organization, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative claimed that the domestic content requirements for India’s National Solar Mission (NSM) discriminate against solar cells and modules manufactured in the U.S.

“These unfair requirements are against WTO rules,” said U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman. “These types of ‘localization’ measures not only are an unfair barrier to U.S. exports, but also raise the cost of solar energy, hindering deployment of solar energy around the world, including in India.”

In 2010, India launched the first of three phases of the NSM, which is aims to deploy 20 gigawatts of grid connected solar power by 2022.

In February 2013, the U.S. challenged similar domestic content requirements in Phase I of the NSM program in formal consultations with the WTO. The consultations failed to resolve the dispute.

Under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, India is supposed to treat imported products as favorably as domestic products.Phase II of the NSM also limits funding to solar projects using solar cells and modules manufactured in India.

Source:- forbes.com

Commissioner has no jurisdiction over TPO administratively

IT/ILT : Commissioner has no jurisdiction over TPO administratively and he cannot revise order passed under section 92CA(3) by TPO

Floating restaurants aren't 'goods'; its construction tantamount to work contract

CST & VAT : Construction of floating restaurant at agreed sides does not amount to sale of goods, but, amounts to works contract liable to tax accordingly

Civil courts can't grant injunction in respect of an action to be taken pursuant to SARFAESI Act

SARFAESI : No injunction can be granted by any Court or other authority in respect of any action taken or to be taken pursuant to SARFAESI Act

Delay in filing appeal due to negligence of consultant was valid reason to condone delay, rules HC

IT: Delay in filing appeal due to negligence of staff of assessee's consultant was condoned in view of fact that assessee's appeal raising same question for earlier assessment year had been admitted

Delhi Public School allowing use of its name, logo and motto was liable to service-tax under 'franch

Service Tax : Where agreement does not provide for sharing of risk/profits/losses by one party and entire expenditure/risk/benefits is to be borne/enjoyed by other party, there is no joint venture

Agriculture land located beyond limit of municipality in year of sale can't be taxed

IT: Where assessee had acquired agricultural land in a village and in year in which he sold said land it was not within limits of nearest municipality or corporation or cantonment board, land sold by assessee was agricultural land not falling within definition of capital asset

Interest on I-T refund is a statutory obligation; no need to seek authorization for payment from Par

IT/ILT : Section 234D of The Income-Tax Act, 1961 - Refunds - Interest on Excess Refund - CBDT's Clarifications on News Reports About Huge Interest Paid by Government on Refund of Excess Taxes During 2006-2007 to 2010-2011

CLB allowed single shareholder to call EGM when other shareholders turned hostile and denied to coop

CL : Where there were only three shareholders of company, namely, petitioner and respondent Nos. 2 and 3 and petitioner despite being majority shareholder was unable to call a meeting of company due to non-co-operation of respondent Nos. 2 and 3, CLB directed that petitioner being a single member of company present in person or by proxy would be deemed to constitute requisite quorum for holding and conducting extraordinary general meeting of respondent company

ITAT denies to reckon period of holding of stock-in-trade before its conversion into capital assets

IT: Where property held as stock-in-trade is converted into investment, for ascertaining as to whether property is a short-term capital asset or a long term capital asset, period for which said asset is held by assessee's as capital asset (investment) alone has to be reckoned

Mere making an unsustainable claim of prior period exp. wouldn't invite concealment penalty: HC

IT : Mere making of claim of deduction of prior period expenses which was ultimately found to be unsustainable would not by itself amount to furnishing of inaccurate particulars of income so as to pass a penalty order under section 271(1)(c)

Waterfront royalty recovered by State Govt. was not an 'intellectual property service'

Service Tax : Intellectual property rights are rights available with individual/ person; therefore, 'Waterfront royalty charges' recovered by State Government for usage of Waterfront under its sovereign rights cannot be charged to service under Intellectual Property Services

Any device usable in integration with computer comes within expression 'Computer'

IT: Any device used along with computer with an integrated function comes within ambit of expression 'computer' and, hence, entitled to claim of depreciation at rate of 60 per cent

AO can't initiate search proceedings if authorization to search wasn't issued in name of person to b

IT: Where authorization under section 132 was not issued in name of assessee-firm, Assessing Officer could not proceed under section 158BD

SC: No judicial authority shall intervene where there is a valid clause of arbitration to resolve di

Arbitration & Conciliation Act: Supreme Court directed parties to resolve their disputes through arbitration when arbitration clause in agreement between parties was valid