EXCISE LAWS : Proposal to File Slp against Order Dated 11-3-2015 of High Court of Karnataka in Writ Appeal No.2769/2013 Filed by Madura Coats Pvt. Ltd., Bengaluru [2015] 56 Taxmann.com 348 (Karnataka)
Thursday 18 June 2015
Wrong depreciation claim made by assessee, intentionally, would invite penalty
IT : Where assessee claimed depreciation on imported plant and machinery which it could not clear from port authorities, since assessee knew that said claim was never allowable, penalty was to be levied under section 271(1)(c)
No sales tax recovery from buyer of property as it was purchased in winding up of business
CST & VAT : Maharashtra VAT - Where manufacturer-dealer shut down its business and simply sold its immovable properties to petitioner, petitioner was not successor-in-interest and property purchased by it could not be attached for recovery of tax dues of said manufacturer-dealer
CLB directs Co. to register shares in favour of insurer as it had cleared insured's claim against th
CL : Where insured purchased shares of respondent-company but share certificates were lost due to robbery and all rights relating to shares were transferred to insurance company, CLB directed company to rectify its register and issue new share certificates in favour of insurance company
Director couldn't challenge the order passed against Co. if dues of Co. weren't recoverable from him
IT : Where assessee-director of company filed an appeal before Tribunal against penalty imposed on company, as no tax was payable by assessee, he could not be treated as an aggrieved party and would not be entitled to file instant appeal before Tribunal
Sales of 'Coil' and 'liquid repellants' are closely linked transactions; should be clubbed together
IT/ILT : Where assessee sold various insecticide products such as coil, liquid repellants, etc., to its AEs in various countries, since all products fell in category of insecticides and were used as supplementary to each other, all insecticide products sold by assessee to its AE in each country would be clubbed and aggregated together for purpose of determining arm's length price of said transaction
Penalty for unauthorized dealing in Forex couldn't be set aside due to acquittal of accused in crimi
FEMA : Adjudication and prosecution are two independent proceedings and finding in one is not conclusive in other
I-T department to follow ratio of Apex Court on extension of suspension order for its officials: CBD
IT : Principles Laid down by Supreme Court in Judgment in Civil Appeal No. 1912 of 2015 in the Case of Shri Ajay Kumar Choudhary vs. Union of India [2015] 58 TAXMANN.COM 231 (SC)
Import Duty Hike Won't Help Indian Steel Makers Much: Fitch Ratings
Fitch Ratings does not expect India to increase customs duties on steel imports to alleviate much of the pressure on steel producers, which have been challenged by cheap imports and weak domestic demand.
Higher customs duties will result in only a marginal increase (between Rs 500-Rs 1,100 a tonne) in the landed costs of imported steel products, which in the short term will help close the gap between domestic output and the cheaper imports.
However, Fitch does not expect domestic steel makers' realisations to improve because the demand continues to be weak, particularly as the economy moves into the low demand season during June-September due to monsoon.
The government increased customs duty on long product to 7.5 per cent from 5.5 per cent, and on flat products to 10 per cent from 7.5 per cent. The new duties were announced on June 17. The increase in customs duties and the implementation of an anti-dumping duty on stainless steel are part of the government's measures to develop the manufacturing sector under its "Make in India" campaign.
The increase in duties will likely have a larger impact on imports from China. India's steel imports rose 71 per cent to 9.3 million tonnes (mt) in the financial year ended March 2015 (FY15), data from the government showed, with most of the increase due to shipments from China (around 3 MT).
The higher duties are not likely to reduce imports from Korea and Japan, which are generally of higher value-added steel and covered under free trade pacts.
The steep increase in imports and weak demand for steel have significantly impacted the profitability of Indian steel producers over the last two quarters.
EBITDA margins of Steel Authority of India Limited (BBB-/Negative) and JSW Steel Limited (BB+/Stable) narrowed to 8 per cent and 13.4 per cent, respectively in 4QFY15 from 10.9 per cent and 17.4 per cent in the previous quarter.
Tata Steel Limited's (BB+/ Stable) margins for its Indian operation, which was also hurt by a temporary ban on iron ore mining, fell to 15.8 per cent from 20 per cent. Indian steel consumption has remained muted with overall steel consumption growing only by 3.1 per cent during FY15. However the consumption of carbon steel remained flat at 68mt during FY15.
Fitch expects Indian steel demand to revive during 2HFY16, driven mainly by improvement in government infrastructure spending and better auto sales as consumer sentiment recovers.
Source:- economictimes.indiatimes.com
SC : quashes CVC direction that pending a criminal investigation, departmental proceedings are to be
SC : quashes CVC direction that pending a criminal investigation, departmental proceedings are to be held in abeyance
CBDT plans to provide ease to CIT(A) in handling appeals workload by rolling out CIT(A) module
IT : Implementation of the CIT(A) module in the New Income Tax Business Application (ITBA)
Textile Industry Waits With Bated Breath For New Policy
As the government prepares to unveil a new national textiles policy aimed to boost the sector’s exports, the industry expects the new guidelines to be friendly towards it.
The new policy is expected to address concerns of adequate skilled work force, labour reforms, attract investments in the textile sector, and to provide a road map for the textile and clothing industry. The new policy aims to achieve $300 billion textiles exports by 2024-25 and predicts the creation of additional 35 million jobs.
The industry is hoping that its expectations will be fulfilled. Ravi Chechani of Aditya Birla said,”There should not be any bifurcation in duty structure of cotton and synthetics (polyester, viscose etc) in the entire value chain from fibre to fashion. And if we have to grow, it is very important that the level should be same for all fibres.”
Smooth funding for ease of business is also on the industry’s wishlist. “All the subsidy should be allowed to be applied online by applicant. There should be no intervention by bank so time can be saved. Necessary certificate from bank is to be demanded to ensure proper utilisation of subsidy. The release of fund should be fast. (presently it stretches to a year or so),” said Jatin Jalal of JNJ Associates.
The industry also expects an uniform import duty for textile machinery and spare parts. Surjit Singh Mahajan , director of the Indian arm of Swiss mechatronics company Staubli said, “There should be uniform import duty when weaving machine with Dobby is imported or when Sheddding System like Jacquard is imported separately.”
“Uniform import duty structure for spare parts for textile machinery will make life simple for the government, customs and customers and will reduce corruption to clear consignments under different nomenclature and heads.”
He also batted for stable government policies and said that once declared, a policy should be valid for a minimum for five years.
Swen Schwenkner, areas sales manager of Andritz Küsters GmbH that specialises in textile and nonwoven calendar had a suggestion about a particular scheme. “Change the TUF scheme. Actually Calendering Machines are defined in wrong way and only give chances to our competition,” he said.
Earlier this week, the cotton textiles export promotion council (TEXPROCIL) said that the removal of benefits on exports to African countries in the new foreign trade policy would affect shipments of value added products like cotton dyed and printed fabrics.
Another textile export body, the Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA), requested the government this month to take up the demand of the entrepreneurs in SME-dominated Tirupur knitwear cluster for raising the threshold limit for MSMEs from Rs 10 crore to Rs 25 crore to avail various subsidies and incentives.
Source:fibre2fashion.com
Global 2015/16 Cotton Output To Decline 6%: Usda
In its latest report, USDA has projected the global 2015/16 cotton production to decline 6 per cent from the previous season to 111.3 million bales.
“Lower crops are forecast for most major cotton-producing countries in 2015/16, with India and Uzbekistan production level with 2014/15,” a press release from USDA informed.
India is expected to be the leading producer in 2015/16 and is forecast to produce 29.5 million bales, or 26.5 per cent of global cotton production. “Lower area and higher yields, compared with 2014/15, are expected to keep production in India unchanged,” the US agricultural agency averred.
According to USDA, China’s production is projected to decrease 10 per cent in 2015/16 to 27 million bales as area continues to trend lower and is expected to be only 3.7 million hectares in 2015/16. The Chinese yield, however, is projected to rise to a record as area continues to shift to the higher yielding Xinjiang region.
Production for Pakistan in 2015/16 is forecast at 10 million bales, about 6 per cent below the previous year with a return to normal yields. While, Brazil’s crop is expected to approach 6.8 million bales, nearly 4 per cent lower as both area and yield are projected below 2014/15.
World area harvested in 2015/16 is forecast at 31.8 million hectares, 2 million hectares or 6 per cent below the previous season and global cotton yield at 763 kg/hectare in 2015/16, slightly below 2014/15.
World cotton mill use is forecast at 115.3 million bales, 3 per cent higher than the 111.5 million bales expected to be consumed in 2014/15.
If realised, mill use would be the highest since 2010/11’s 115.6 million bales, with China and India being the largest consuming countries, with a combined cotton mill use of more than 53 percent of global total. China’s cotton consumption is projected at 36 million bales in 2015/16, up from 35 million bales but equal to 2012/13.
In 2014/15, China is likely to import more than 9.5 million bale-equivalents of cotton yarn, with Pakistan, India, and Vietnam being leading suppliers of cotton yarn and will account for over 80 percent of yarn imports.
The agriculture agency has projected mill use in India at nearly 25.8 million bales, 5 per cent above 2014/15 and a record, supported in part by expanding textile product exports. Pakistan’s cotton mill use is also expected to expand to near the global average in 2015/16, reaching 11.1 million bales.
In addition to gains in the United States, USDA informed that cotton mill consumption is also expected to increase in Turkey, Bangladesh, and Vietnam.
Global cotton trade, in contrast, is forecast to reach only 33.8 million bales in 2015/16, 400,000 bales below a year earlier and the lowest since 2008/09, when only 30 million bales were traded.
Source:fibre2fashion.com
Profit arising to a German Co. from high sea sale of equipment to Indian Customer isn’t taxable in I
IT/ILT: Profit arising to a German Co. from high sea sale of equipment to Indian customer couldn't be taxed in India even if equipment was subjected to inspection in India.
Cost of reworking reimbursed to NR wasn't FTS as re-working done abroad had no link with business of
IT/ILT : Where assessee engaged in manufacturing and export of printed circuit boards, paid certain repairing expenses to its parent company located abroad to complete manufacturing process before selling its products to final customers, since activities carried out outside India had no connection with assessee's operations in India, payment in question was not taxable in India under section 9(1)(vii)
Service provider is liable to pay service tax even when service recipient doesn't reimburse service
Service Tax : Service tax liability is not dependent on whether service recipient makes payment of service tax or not; taxable event is rendering of service and merely because service recipient did not pay service tax liability initially, that would not take away/obliterate liability on service provider to discharge tax
Bir Pleads India To Push Effective Date Of New Scrap Import Regulations
The Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) has requested the Indian authorities to extend the effective date of implementation of the new scrap import regulations. In a letter written to the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the world trade body has requested to extend the transition period to comply with the pre-shipment inspection rules by another four months. Currently, the new rules are set to become effective July 1st onwards.
BIR, in collaboration with the Metals Recycling Association of India (MRAI) and the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) has pointed out that more time is required for Pre-Shipment Inspection Agencies (PSIAs) to prepare themselves to meet the proposed certification requirements.
BIR, in its letter, noted that large shredders around the world who maintain high standards of quality and safety should be either carry out self-inspection or be exempted from the certification requirements. BIR also appreciated Indian authorities for installation of new state-of-the-art radioactivity detection devices at major ports.
With reference to Public Notice No. 12/2015-20 issued by India’s Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), PSIAs in source countries are required to submit photograph(s) or video clipping of the place of inspection with PSIA inspector and representatives of exporter or importer. The proposed rule also requires photograph(s) or video clipping of the testing instruments used for inspection. Additionally, photograph(s) or video detailing the process of stuffing of containers displaying the container numbers must be submitted for all scrap shipments destined to the country.
The Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) is a global recycling industry association representing more than 700 companies from the private sector and 40 national trade federations from 70 different countries. The organisation serves as a platform to promote business relations and recycling among industry and to liaise with policy makers.
Source:metal.com
Indian Rupee Rallies 25 Paise Against Dollar
The rupee appreciated 25 paise to trade at 63.87 against the dollar in early trade on Thursday at the Interbank Foreign Exchange after the American currency weakened overseas amid sustained selling of the greenback by exporters and banks.
Forex dealers said the dollar’s weakness against euro and other currencies overseas after the Fed disappointed some who had hoped for a clearer signal on the timing of an interest rate increase supported the rupee.
The US Fed kept its near-zero benchmark interest rate unchanged. Furthermore, a higher opening of the domestic equity market influenced the uptrend in the rupee, they added.
The rupee had closed 14 paise higher at 64.12 against the dollar on Wednesday on fresh selling of the greenback by exporters amid weakness of the American currency in overseas markets.
Meanwhile, the benchmark BSE Sensex regained the 27,000-mark by surging 200.65 points or, 0.75 per cent, to 27,033.31 in early trade on Thursday.
Source:financialexpress.com
Raj VAT: Works contract having major portion of laying of pipeline attracts exemption fee of 2.25%
CST & VAT : Rajasthan VAT - Where assessee was awarded works contract for sewerage treatment plant and work awarded to it was composite agreement of contract and major activity undertaken by it was laying of pipeline with material, assessee would fall under Item No. 3 of Notification dated 11-8-2006 and was liable to pay exemption fee at rate of 2.25 per cent
Interest paid on partner's cap was allowable if cap was used to construct property from which rental
IT: Rental income received from unsold portion of property constructed by assessee a real estate developer, is assessable as income from house property
Celebration by coaching institute for successful students after completion of coaching isn't an inpu
Cenvat Credit : A commercial training or coaching centre cannot take input service credit of : (a) celebrations meant for successful candidates; (b) repair and maintenance of its motor vehicles; and (c) travelling expenses incurred for business tours
No denial of sec. 80P relief to society merely due to receipt of small portion of revenue from non-m
IT : Where assessee-co-operative society could not be regarded as 'Co-operative Bank' on, mere fact that an insignificant proportion of revenue was coming from non-members, and thus, was entitled for deduction under section 80P(2)(a)(i)
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