IT: Question as to whether trust is created or established for benefit of any particular religious community or caste would be relevant only when income of trust is being assessed in terms of section 11, however, at time of disposing of application of a trust seeking registration, Commissioner has to merely decide whether said trust has fulfilled necessary requirements of registration as provided under section 12A
Wednesday 5 March 2014
HC slaps concealment penalty as assessee had given fake address of donor and had failed to prove his
IT: Where assessee in support of gift received from donor filed a copy of his residential address which was found to be false, and, moreover, he also failed to prove that gift in question was made by executing a valid gift deed, assessee's case fell under Explanation 1(B) to section 271(1)(c) and, therefore, impugned penalty order passed on account of deemed concealment of income was to be upheld
Small service provider relief available to each co-owner in case of renting of jointly-owned propert
Service Tax : If a co-owned property is rented out by its co-owners to a single person, every co-owner can avail small service provider's exemption separately
No sec. 80-I relief interest earned on FDs even if deposit was prerequisite to start business activi
IT : Where assessee-industrial undertaking kept certain amount in fixed deposits on account of pre-condition of its business activity, interest earned on said deposits could not be regarded as income derived from industrial undertaking and, thus, assessee's claim for deduction in respect of said interest under section 80-I was to be rejected
Exemption for agricultural income denied as assessee couldn't produce certificate of Tehsildar and f
IT: Where assessee in support of claim of agricultural income, failed to produce certificate of Tensildar and accounts pertaining to agricultural activities, revenue authorities were justified in rejecting said ad hoc claim of assessee
Foreign Co. while acting as lead manager and underwriting ADRs was not rendering any technical servi
IT/ILT : Where assessee, a UK based company, acted as lead manager and underwriter to ADRs/GDRs issued by Indian companies abroad for raising capital, it did not 'make available' technical services to Indian companies within meaning of article 13 of India-UK DTAA and, thus, payments made for rendering said services were not taxable in India as 'fee for technical services'
Even provisional VAT registration can’t be cancelled without giving opportunity of hearing to assess
CST & VAT : Cancellation of registration, be it provisional or final, cannot be done without first granting an opportunity of being heard to assessee
HC rejected lessor’s plea against auction of land as lease deed didn’t contain specific clause on fo
CL : Where lessor contended that holding of auction for transfer of leasehold rights of company in liquidation in favour of respondent was bad and without any authority as lease period had expired, in view of fact that there was no clause providing for forfeiture or eventuality in lease deed, company application filed by lessor could not be entertained
India Gets Record Port Investment After Tariff Is Deregulated
India has secured a record 207 billion rupees ($3.4 billion) of investment in port projects after it deregulated tariffs.
The nation has awarded bids for thirty ports in the year ending March 31, Shipping Secretary Vishwapati Trivedi said in an interview. The value is more than three times greater than projects awarded in fiscal 2013, he said. The projects will add 217.6 million metric tons of annual cargo-handling capacity, according to the Ministry of Shipping.
The bids will ease congestion at Indian ports where the average turnaround time for ships was about three days in 2013, compared with about one day in Singapore and Shanghai, according to a report by Anand Rathi Shares and Stock Brokers Ltd. They will also help India meet a 2020 target of more than doubling its port capacity to 3,200 million metric tons at an investment of 2.87 trillion rupees.
“Indian port capacity woefully falls short of demand in some sectors,” said Nripesh Kumar, director at PricewaterhouseCoopers India. “Considering its growth potential, there is a great scope to expand port capacities in India.”
In July last year, India stopped setting port tariffs and allowed future terminal projects at state-controlled major ports to raise rates with the proviso that performance goals are met.
This year, Singapore’s PSA International Pte Ltd. won the largest order to build the fourth container terminal at Mumbai’s Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust for 7.9 billion rupees, marking its entry into India’s west coast. The company operates terminals at ports in Kolkata, Chennai and Tuticorin on the east coast, according to its website. Adani Ports and SEZ Ltd. won the bid for a 12.7 billion-rupee container terminal at the Ennore port in southern state of Tamil Nadu.
Source:- bloomberg.com
Will Revisit Gold Import Duty After Final Cad Figures: Fm
Faced with intense pressure to relax gold import curbs, the government today said it will review the decision after getting final figures of the current account deficit (CAD).
"We will revisit the import duty on gold only after the CAD figures become clear for the end of the year. Let's see what the CAD figures are," Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters here.
The government had imposed restrictions on imports of the yellow metal to contain the CAD, which touched a record high of USD 88.2 billion in 2012-13. The CAD in the current financial year is expected to narrow to USD 50 billion.
Gold imports, which peaked at 162 tonnes in May, came down to 19.3 tonnes in November after the government hiked import duty thrice in 2013, taking it to 10%.
Besides, the Reserve Bank of India linked imports of the precious metal to exports amid a widening CAD and depreciation of the rupee.
With the growing clamour for a cut in customs duty on gold, Congress President Sonia Gandhi had written to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to take appropriate action on demands of gems and jewellery exporters to reduce the levy and relax the rule linking imports of the metal with exports.
Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma yesterday too made a case for easing curbs on gold imports, saying over-regulation was encouraging smuggling of the yellow metal.
"I have been of the consistent view that we have to have a balance. Over-regulation leads to another problem...And that is smuggling. Therefore, some easing is essential," Sharma had said.
Source:- business-standard.com
Two Service Tax Evaders Arrested, Sent To Judicial Custody
The chief judicial magistrate of Surat has sent to judicial custody proprietors of two companies for evading service tax.
The central excise and customs had arrested Jitendra Ganpat Patel, proprietor of Jay Construction, at Hazira on Monday and Yogesh B Patel, proprietor of RK Construction in two separate cases for evading service tax to the tune of Rs 62 lakh and Rs 93 lakh, respectively.
Jitendra Ganpat Patel was presented before the chief judicial magistrate on Monday and he was sent to judicial custody until March 14. Yogesh Patel was arrested and produced before the court on Tuesday. He was sent to judicial custody until March 15.
Sources said the duo was supplying manpower to giant industries in Hazira for the past many years and not paying outstanding service tax liabilities.
"This will send strong signals among the tax evaders that they need to pay up their outstanding taxes or face arrests. We have started preparing the list of the tax evaders in and around the city," said a senior central excise and customs officer.
Source:- timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Titan Plans To Export Gold Jewels To Damas, Mustafa
Jewellery and lifestyle products manufacturer Titan Company has firmed up plans to export its gold jewellery to marquee global retailers, as current gold import regulatory norms in India mandates the Tata Group company to have a sizable export portfolio.
Titan Jewellery, which constitutes 75% to 80% of Titan's $2 billion revenue, will supply its Tanishq brand of gold jewellery to Dubai-based Damas and Singapore's Mustafa. The exports will also include diamond jewellery sales.
Titan had a gold export business until 2007, but closed it because margins were thin. "Also, we have had such a good opportunity in India that exports became insignificant to us," said Bhaskar Bhat, MD, Titan Company.
At present, Titan, which operates close to 200 boutique jewellery stores, has a 4% market share in the country's Rs 2.5 lakh crore gems and jewellery industry.
"We have an import license, but we won't be able to utilize it if we don't have exports," Bhat told TOI. This follows the Reserve Bank of India's 80:20 rule on gold imports aimed to stem the country's ballooning current account deficit.
As per the rule, merchants/retailers have to re-export 20% of each gold import consignment before placing new orders. Due to these restrictions and increase in import duties, the demand for the yellow metal has softened over the last six months. This was reflected in Titan's jewellery business, which reported a 15.4% decline in the December quarter. Given the current market dynamics and the company's exposure to the gold trade, Bhat expects Titan to end the ongoing fiscal with a 10% revenue growth. In the previous fiscal Titan reported a 14% revenue growth. Shares of the company ended Tuesday's trade at Rs 254.80, up 2.35% over the previous day's close.
Source:- timesofindia.indiatimes.com
RBI permits e-transfer of inward foreign remittances directly into beneficiaries accounts
FEMA/ILT : Money Transfer Service Scheme - ‘Direct to Account’ Facility
India Not To Achieve $325 Billion Export Target This Fiscal: Fieo
India's exports will not be able to achieve the target of $325 billion in the current fiscal and will fall short by about $10 billion, FIEO said.
"Domestic factors like declining manufacturing growth and slow improvement in the global demand are the main reasons for slow growth in the country's exports.
"We will not be able to achieve the $325 billion exports target," Federation of Indian Exports Organisation (FIEO) President Rafeeq Ahmed said.
The country's merchandise exports would touch $312-315 billion by the end of this fiscal, ending March 31.
During April-January, exports grew by 5.71 per cent to $257 billion, while imports dipped by 7.81 per cent to $377 billion. The trade deficit was about $119 billion.
In the remaining two months (February and March), the country requires about $70 billion to reach the target.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram in the Interim Budget speech has said that India's exports are expected to grow by 6.3 per cent to $326 billion during the current fiscal.
In 2012-13, the outbound shipments declined by 1.8 per cent to $300.4 billion.
Ahmed said that liquidity is a big issue for exports and pending claims of refund of service tax, duty drawback, rebate claims and VAT are affecting exports.
"The government should not fix annual targets for exports. We should fix a target for five years and work accordingly," he added.
FIEO is working on a paper for the new Foreign Trade Policy for 2014-19.
"In the next two and a half months time, we will submit the paper with our recommendations to the new government. It will includes measures which should be taken up to boost exports," Ahmed said.
There is an urgent need to enhance investments in building infrastructure such as roads and ports, he said.
"Inadequate infrastructure is impacting exports. Transactions costs is very high," he said, adding that the banks should provide credit at affordable rates to exporters.
The manufacturing sector, which constitutes over 75 per cent of the index, declined by 1.6 per cent in December, as against a contraction of 0.8 per cent in the year-ago period.
Source:- economictimes.indiatimes.com
Dot To Amend Indian Telegraph Rules To Locally Screen Imported Mobile Phones, Bis To Frame Mobile Phone Standards
The telecom department plans to tweak the Indian Telegraph Rules (ITR), 1951, by including `mobile phones' within the definition of the word "telegraph" to ensure mobile operators only deploy cellphones deemed safe after being screened at a local test lab, said an internal note seen by ET.
At present, DoT cannot legally demand such compliance from operators since a mobile phone is a consumer good and outside the broad definition of `telegraph', which only includes telecom network/infrastructure equipment.
The proposed amendment comes at a time when the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has been mandated to frame safety and product standards for cellphones in coordination with DoT's technical arm, Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC).
"Legal enforcement of mobile standards under a (mobile operator's) licence conditions cannot be done unless ITR is amended to include mobile phones within the definition of `telegraph'," the internal DoT note shows.
The government has already initiated the process of amending ITR, 1951, to arm DoT with legal powers to screen telecom network and infrastructure gear at a certified local test lab on security grounds. It will also be able to screen mobile phones once the definition of "telegraph" is widened.
At present, DoT is also establishing a Telecom Testing & Security Certification centre, which will frame the local testing rules.
The decision to engage the BIS to frame standards for mobile phones was taken after DoT realised that "it did not have legal powers to regulate mobile phones. The BIS will formulate product standards for mobile phones that will focus on both the safety and performance aspects.
But the note reveals that TEC is not too pleased about DoT's decision to involve BIS as it has "already prepared interface requirements (IRs) for mobile phones. So much so, in a recent meeting a top TEC official expressed reservations and said "BIS should not pursue formulation of standards for mobile phones".
However, a senior DoT official present in the meeting asserted that BIS was engaged after Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) advocated mandatory disclosure of a cellphone's specific absorption rate (SAR) value as a pre-condition for all future mobile handset imports into India.
"The DoT asked BIS to prepare standards for mobile phones after DGFT wanted domestic rules to regulate imported mobile phones," said this official, according to the minutes of the meeting.
The SAR value, which is the radiation emitted by a cellphone, will have to be displayed on mobile handsets just as the International Mobile Equipment Identity number is available on handsets imported into India.
Cellphone radiation varies from handset to handset and is measured in terms of its SAR level. Under the new handset emission rules announced two years ago, the radiation limit for imported handsets is pegged at a SAR value of 1.6 watts per kg (W/kg).
Source:- economictimes.indiatimes.com
Rupee Strengthens To 61.84 Per Dollar; Financial Markets, Global Cues Aid
The Indian rupee was trading marginally higher on Wednesday against the US dollar, backed by positive sentiment in the financial markets about an improvement in the domestic economy, and tracking the strength of Asian peers.
At 2.24pm, the local unit was trading at 61.84, up 0.03% from previous close, after opening at 61.91 in the morning.
India’s benchmark index, S&P BSE Sensex, was trading at 21,289.02 points on the BSE, up 0.38%. A majority of the Asian currencies were trading up with the South Korean won rising 0.24%, Chinese renminbi gaining 0.24% and Indonesian rupiah climbing 0.13%.
Since the beginning of this year, the rupee has lost 0.05%, while foreign institutional investors have bought $440 million during the period from local equity markets.
The yield on India’s 10-year benchmark bond was trading at 8.843%, almost the same as Tuesday’s close of 8.845%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 80.175, up 0.01% from the previous close of 80.168.
The contraction in India’s services sector moderated last month but new business declined and input prices rose, a business survey showed on Wednesday.
The HSBC Services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), compiled by Markit, rose to 48.8 in February from 48.3, but remained stuck below the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction for the eighth month.
Elections to the 16th Lok Sabha will be held in nine phases from 7 April to 12 May, chief election commissioner V.S. Sampath announced on Wednesday. Counting for all the 543 parliamentary constituencies, as well for as state assemblies of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim, will be held on 16 May, Sampath added.
Financial markets are expecting a stable regime at the Centre post the elections—much needed for a revival of investor sentiment.
Source:- livemint.com
Cotton Prices Down On Lower Demand
Lack of buying interest pushed cotton prices further down on Tuesday as leading spinners and exporters kept to the sidelines.As the off-take of cotton yarn continues to be slow and spinners are faced with huge unsold stocks, the entire cotton trade is presently faced with liquidity crunch, brokers said.
The latest phutti (seed cotton) arrival figures indicate that substantial quantity of phutti is still held by growers and total production for current season may touch 13.5 million bales.
According to brokers, spinners are complaining that they are faced with cheap yarn being dumped by Indian exporters in the domestic market. Spinners said they could not compete with Indian yarn which gets 5 per cent rebate at export stage whereas Pakistani yarn exporters have to pay up to 26pc tax and duties.
However, it is interesting that phutti prices recovered by Rs100 per 40kg for Sindh and Punjab varieties which are now being quoted at Rs3,100 and Rs3,200, respectively. Meanwhile, around 1m bales are reported to be lying unsold with ginners.
On the world markets New York cotton opened on firm note where all the futures finished with modest gains.
The Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) cut its spot rates by Rs50 to Rs6,800 per maund and trading on ready counter was extremely slow. Only one deal of 400 bales was reported to have changed hands on ready counter at Rs6,
Source:- dawn.com
Commission paid to agent for liaison work disallowed as assessee failed to present relevant info of
IT : Where assessee failed to bring on record exact nature of services rendered to sub-agents for liaison work with quantitative details of services provided date-wise, and party-wise details of supply etc., claim for commission to sub-agents was rightly disallowed
SC sends Sahara's chief 'Subrata Roy' to judicial custody on his failure to show concrete refund pla
CL : The Supreme Court held as under:
Partners not liable to pay taxes on share of profits received from firm even if such profits include
IT : Partners are entitled to claim exemption under Section 10(2A), on the share of profit received from the firm even if it includes that income also which was exempted in the hands of the firm under various provisions of Section 10.
Department couldn’t initiate recovery proceedings against sick units under consideration of BIFR
CST & VAT : Once proceedings have been initiated for reconstruction of company under provisions of SICA, recovery proceedings against assessee are not permissible unless permission is obtained from BIFR
Revised return not defective can't be rejected alleging it to be an afterthought and device to evade
IT : Where assessee filed a revised return in accordance with provisions of section 139(5), revenue authorities were not justified in rejecting said return without following procedure prescribed under section 139(9) by merely taking a view that revised return was an afterthought
Ministry notifies June 2, 2014 as Telangana formation date
CL:OTHERS/INDIAN ACTS & RULES : Section 2(a) of The Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act, 2014 - Appointed Day - Notified Appointed Day for Purposes of Said Act
Compliance officer fined for not closing trade window while in possession of unpublished price sensi
SEBI: Where appellant as Compliance Officer of Company had failed to close trading window when in possession of unpublished price sensitive information relating to acquisition of two companies, such failure would amount to violating model code and PIT Regulations
After omission of profit criteria from sec. 2(15), commercial educational units can still avail of s
IT : Once assessee is considered as carrying on educational activities and that activities fall under purview of section 2(15), Director (Exemption) cannot deny registration under section 12AA
Re-credit of wrongly reversed credit isn’t hit by bar of unjust enrichment
Cenvat Credit : Assessee is entitled to take suo motu credit of wrongly reversed credit and there is no need to claim refund thereof and, accordingly, section 11B and doctrine of unjust enrichment are inapplicable thereto
HC denies sec. 80-IB relief as assessee filed audit report in support for first time before it to cl
IT : Where assessee claimed deduction under section 80-IB and filed audit report in Form No. 10CCB for first time before High Court, without any justification, assessee could not file such report before High Court and sought benefit of deduction
HC agrees to keep confidentiality of 2G spectrum report; non-disclosure to assessee won’t vitiate re
IT : HC upholds Revenue's claim for privilege/confidentiality over 2G Spectrum report of DIT(Inv)
Respondent’s conduct of denying entry of business partner in premises and eying on major stake held
CL : Where petitioner and respondent funded company to set up business in proportion of 20:1 and entire investment was shown as share application money in balance sheet of company, conduct of respondent attempting to made their shareholding as 50 per cent in company and thereafter not allowing petitioner to enter into company's premises was not only oppressive and prejudicial to interest of petitioner but also reprehensible
Opportunity to be given to assessee to challenge value recommended by DVO for making additions to hi
IT : Assessing Officer cannot adopt fair market value of property as per report of DVO, without giving sufficient opportunity to assessee to challenge DVO's report
Tribunal must provide reasons for overturning factual findings of lower authorities; HC remands case
Excise & Customs : During period from December 2003 to July 2004, as per EXIM Policy, additional duty of customs paid by debit in DEPB was not available as drawback/Cenvat credit
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