IT : Section 35(1)(ii) of the Income-Tax Act, 1961 - Scientific Research Expenditure - Approved Scientific Research Associations/institutions – Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai
Wednesday, 22 April 2015
Retraction made by assessee after 2 years and just before finalization of assessment wasn't acceptab
IT : Where assessee made an admission regarding unaccounted investment and belatedly retracted from same on basis that admission was based on coercion and force without giving any reason, same was not acceptable and addition as undisclosed investment was to be upheld
HC affirms ITAT’s order denying condonation of delay in filing appeal considering assessee’s lazines
IT : Where assessees were lackadaisical in their approach and in a non-chalant manner they tried to seek condonation of delay over 1100 days in filing appeals, Tribunal was justified in declining condonation of delay
Rajasthan High Court upheld imposition of penalty due to incomplete declaration form
CST & VAT: Rajasthan VAT - Where Form No. ST-18 accompanied with goods under transport was found incomplete to extent that it did not disclose bill No. and date, levy of penalty under section 78(5) was justified
Kerala Knocks At Pm’S Door For Higher Import Duty On Rubber
The Kerala government has appealed to the Centre to hike the import duty on natural rubber besides seeking more funds for the price stabilisation fund. State Finance Minister KM Mani met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday and discussed the issue.
“Rubber prices have come down to ?110 a kg this year from a high of ?270 last year. The main reason for this is increasing imports,” Mani told reporters here.
Against the deficit (between demand and supply) of 60,000 tonnes, total import was actually four lakh tonnes. This kind of dumping was done to affect the domestic price, he said.
Mani requested the Prime Minister to increase the import duty to 25 per cent ad valorem (duty as a percentage of the value). Currently, the duty is 20 per cent or ?30 a kg, whichever is lower. “Although, the PM did not give any commitment, I am confident that something will be done,” he said.
The southern State also asked for an additional ?500 crore allocation for the price stabilisation fund. Currently, the corpus is ?300 crore.
“A total corpus of ?800 crore will help to purchase 50,000 tonnes of rubber at reasonable price,” Mani said, adding that this will aid in improving the yield.
Kerala accounts for over 90 per cent of total rubber production in the country. Around 11.5 lakh farmers are engaged in rubber plantation on around 5.5 lakh hectares land in the State.
However, due to un-remunerative prices, production of natural rubber has dropped to around 6.55 lakh tonnes in 2014-15 from 7.74 lakh tonnes a year ago, according to the latest figures released by the Rubber Board.
Total rubber consumption by various industries, including tyre manufacturers, was 10.18 lakh tonnes during 2014-15, 3.7 per cent more than the previous year.
Recently, the Association of Planters of Kerala analysed the production, imports, exports and consumption patterns. It revealed that an additional stock of approximately 5.5 lakh tonnes is available in the country, which is enough to meet the demands of the consuming industry even if no production takes place.
Source:- thehindubusinessline.com
Global Headwinds Drag India’S Exports
The slowdown in global growth has hit India’s exports. In FY15, India registered $310.5 billion of goods shipment, down 1.2% from $314.4 billion the year before, and far lower than the government’s $340 billion target. Despite the depreciation in the rupee—from 60.5 to a dollar in FY14 to 61.1 in FY15—India’s merchandise trade could not get the edge.
Imports, too, declined to $447.5 billion in FY15 from $450 billion in FY14, thanks to the over 16% drop in the oil import bill as crude prices crashed globally. Gold imports were up 22% year-on-year as quantitative restrictions on the metal’s imports were lifted by November last year. Non-oil, non-gold imports picked up 7% in FY15, reflecting stronger domestic demand of goods.
In terms of the country’s export destinations, the slowdown was more visible in Asian nations such as China (minus 19%) and Singapore (minus 20%), while exports to the US and the UAE were stronger. Interestingly, India’s engineering goods exports increased 14%, which is a positive development given the fact that the Modi-government’s focus is on the manufacturing sector for job creation through its Make-in-India initiative.
Source:- financialexpress.com
Rising Gold Imports No Cause For Alarm
The Government, on Wednesday, said that rising amount of gold imports was no cause for an ‘alarm’ and action would be taken at an appropriate time.
Gold imports in March nearly doubled to $4.98 billion. In January and February, it rose to $1.55 billion and $1.98 billion, respectively. “The (gold) imports have surged in February and March. We will keep a watch. I think that we do not have to be alarmist and see whatever action is required at an appropriate time,” Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher told reporters here.
He was speaking on the sidelines of the 49th convocation of the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade.
Relaxation in gold import norms by the Reserve Bank led to a spurt in imports of the precious metal in the recent months.
On November 28 last year, the RBI had scrapped the controversial 80:20 scheme.
Under the programme, which was put in place in August 2013 to put a tight leash on gold inflows, at least 20 per cent of the imported gold had to be exported before bringing in new lots.
Increasing gold import was one of the reasons for the widening trade deficit in March, which stood at $11.79 billion, a 4-month high.
India is the largest importer of gold, which mainly caters to the demand of the jewellery industry.
On declining merchandise exports, Mr. Kher said it was ‘indeed a cause of concern.’
“But we are aware of the reasons. We are aware that globally everything is slowing down, and, therefore, opportunities for Indian exports to that extend are limited. We need to find new areas, new markets, produce better quality products and more value added product. That is the way we can diversify,” he added.
Source:- thehindu.com
Exports May Not Even Touch $300 Billion
Exporters on Wednesday painted a grim situation saying that it will be difficult to even achieve even $300 billion exports in 2015-16 due to tough market conditions. In fact exports in 2014-15 had contracted by 1.23 per cent to $310.53 billion. This comes at a time when the BJP-led NDA government in its Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2015-2020 has targeted to raise India’s share in world exports from 2 per cent to 3.5 per cent by 2020.
Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) director general and CEO Ajay Sahai said that the trend right now, looks difficult for exports to touch $300 billion. “If global situation improves and currency changes its movement, then it is a different matter. But at the moment, it does not look (that the exports will touch $ 300 billion),” said Mr Sahai.
In one of the biggest decline in last six years, India’s exports fell by 21 per cent in March due to uncertainty in economic revival in key exporting markets. This was the fourth straight month of decline in Indian exports.
“Exporters need oxygen to survive,” said FIEO President S.C. Ralhan. FIEO warned that if exports contraction also impacted the volume for a long time, then it will result in job losses. “If something does not happens from the side of government or exports does not pick up then there is going to be big job losses,” warned Mr Ralhan.
Source:- deccanchronicle.com
Rupee Up 3 Paise Against Dollar
The rupee on Wednesday strengthened by another 3 paise to 62.82 against the dollar on persistent selling of the American currency by banks and exporters amid fresh foreign capital inflows into the equity market.
The rupee resumed flat at 62.85 per dollar at the at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market and hovered in a range of 62.7150 and 63.02 before concluding at 62.82 per dollar, showing a gain of 3 paise of 0.05 per cent from its last close.
The rupee has gained 9 paise, or 0.14 per cent, in the last two days.
In Asian market, the dollar was trading lower against the yen on Wednesday, getting a boost as Japan’s main stock market trimmed its earlier gains, action that limited selling of the Japanese currency.
In New York market on Tuesday, the dollar ended mixed against major currencies, with the euro pivoting to modest gains against the greenback after euro zone Finance Ministers moved away from fixing a deadline for Greece to come up with fiscal reforms.
Source:- thehindu.com
No writ against CBDT's order denying sec. 80-IA relief due to deceptive figures of allocable area of
IT : When applicant seeks benefit of deduction under section 80-IA, it must state correct facts at very first instance and not when authorities point a flaw in figures given of allocable area of industrial units, and thereafter keep changing it on grounds of typographical error and/or mistake
Misleading ad that 'Dettol' is far superior than 'Betadine' is unfair trade practice by respondent
Competition Law: Where respondent was attempting to mislead through advertisements that strength of its product Dettol and its efficacy was far superior to that of complainants product Betadine, advertisements issued by respondent being false and disparaging fell within ambit of unfair trade practice
Rajasthan High Court upheld imposition of penalty due to incomplete declaration from
CST & VAT: Rajasthan VAT - Where Form No. ST-18 accompanied with goods under transport was found incomplete to extent that it did not disclose bill No. and date, levy of penalty under section 78(5) was justified
Additions of unexplained investment made on buyer on basis of statement of seller during survey and
IT: Where assessee purchased a plot vide registered sale deed for certain consideration but during survey under section 133A, vendor of plot declared higher consideration which remained unrebutted, amount of difference was added to assessee's income as unexplained investment in plot under section 69
AO couldn't disallow direct exp. without rejecting books if assessee had shown profit higher than ea
IT : Where profit rate as declared was better than rate accepted in last year, amount of profit disclosed deserved to be accepted
No recovery proceedings against garnishee once it filed an affidavit that it didn't owe any sums to
IT : Proceedings under section 226 could not be quashed for non-service of notice where petitioner participated in proceedings subsequently
Utility bills and Bank Statements of clients acceptable as address proofs under Money Laundering nor
MONEY-LAUNDERING/ILT/INDIAN ACTS & RULES : Prevention of Money-Laundering (Maintenance of Records) Amendment Rules, 2015 – Amendment in Rule 2
Internal TNMM has to be applied to compute ALP if AE segment and non-AE segment are functionally com
IT/ILT : Where assessee had entered into international transaction with its AEs as well as third parties, AE segment and third party segment being functionally comparable, internal TNMM was to be applied to determine ALP of transaction with AEs
Advertisement to create public awareness and consciousness of product isn’t capital exp; allowable
IT : Expenditure incurred by assessee in field of advertisement with a view to create brand value of its product, was to be allowed as business expenditure
SEBI directs its employees to declare their assets and liabilities as per Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act,
SEBI/INDIAN ACTS & RULES : SEBI (Employees' Service) (Second Amendment) Regulations, 2015 – Amendment in Regulation 66
Fee paid to electricity board for using distribution network isn't FTS as it doesn't involve human i
IT : Rule 8D being not applicable for relevant year, Commissioner was not justified to hold order passed by Assessing Officer to be erroneous and prejudicial to interest of revenue simply because disallowance under section 14A was made without invoking this rule
Unabsorbed deprecation to be reduced from profit before allowing Sec. 10A deduction
IT : Unabsorbed depreciation shall form part of current year's depreciation and same is required to be deducted before allowing deduction under section 10A
No attempt to evade tax in absence of proper docs when goods in transit were meant for return and no
CST & VAT: Punjab VAT - Where Authorised Officer checked a vehicle carrying goods of assessee and having found that bills accompanying goods were not from regular bill book and an attempt to evade tax was made imposed penalty upon assessee under section 14B(7)(ii), since during assessment proceedings Assessing Authority had accepted bill book and stand of assessee that it was an agent of one 'E' and above goods had been returned to 'E' on cancellation of agency, there was no question of attempt
Losses already set-off prior to initial year of claiming sec. 80-IA relief couldn't be set-off again
IT: Loss prior to initial assessment year of claiming deduction under section 80-IA which has already been set-off cannot be brought forward and set-off while applying provisions of section 80-IA(5)
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