Excise & Customs : Judgment passed by co-ordinate Bench of High Court is binding on another bench of High Court even if earlier judgment of High Court has not been appealed against by Revenue owing to monetary limits
Wednesday, 6 January 2016
Edu. Cess and surcharge aren't leviable on tax rates provided in DTTAs, says Kolkata ITAT
IT/ILT: Surcharge and education cess is not leviable when tax rate is prescribed under DTAA
Refundable deposits collected by Club from its members isn't liable to service-tax
Service Tax : Provision of a facility by club to its members is an 'activity' for consideration and since clubs and members are deemed to be separate persons under Explanation 3(a) to section 65B(44), Membership fee/Entrance fee for provision of such facilities is liable to service tax
Higher stock valuation given to bank to avail of credit limit couldn't be said to be unexplained inv
IT : Where there was no material to show that assessee had received any consideration in excess of amount shown in sale deed, merely because valuation given to bank to avail higher bank limit, no addition could be made
Delivery of export or import consignments booked by other courier agencies also amounts to courier s
Service Tax : Activity of collection/delivery of export/import consignments booked by other Indian/foreign courier agencies, also amounts to courier services, as it also involves time-sensitive transport of document/things; it cannot be classified as Business Support Services. Where such delivery/collection is performed in India, courier services cannot be regarded as exported, even if consideration is received in foreign currency
Govt. received 2,428 crore under compliance window of Black Money Act
IT/ILT : Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015 – Declarations and Payments made Under Said Act
4 year's period to rectify an amended order would begin from date of amended order and not from date
IT: Once an order is amended to give effect to appellate order, period of limitation under section 154 would commence from amended order and not from original order
No tax on foreign co. if services rendered by its PE were compensated at ALP and PE had paid taxes i
IT/ILT: Where assessee's branch office, which was considered as assessee's PE in India, was compensated at arm's length for performing services in respect of direct sales made by assessee in India, no part of assessee's profit could be taxed in India as profit attributable to Indian PE
Jewellery Exports May Decline To Six-Year Low
India’s jewellery exports are likely to decline 10 per cent in 2015-16 to a six-year low due to weak demand in the US and the European Union.
Jewellery exports declined 13 per cent in April-November 2015 to $21.45 billion from $24.70 billion in the corresponding period a year ago. With hardly any occasion left for fresh jewellery purchases in the West, chances of an export recovery are slim. Sentiment was upbeat in the US during the year-end season. The country consumes 38 per cent of the world’s jewellery production and the 45-day season ending in February contributes 40 per cent of annual sales in developed countries.
“A marginal recovery in exports cannot be ruled out. But, given that exports were 13 per cent lower in the first eight months, the financial year may end with a 10 per cent decline,” said Vipul Shah, managing director and chief executive officer, Asian Star, a city-based jewellery exporter.
Praveen Shankar Pandya, chairman of the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), had forecast a 25 per cent decline in exports this season. “But, the season has been much better,” he said.
Diamond De Beers, Alrosa and Rio Tinto have lowered their production targets for 2015. However, they are yet to announce actual cuts.
Indian importers of rough diamonds have cut purchases to reduce inventory. The GJEPC estimates India’s rough diamond imports to have declined 27.15 per cent to $8.65 billion during April-November 2015 from $11.87 billion in the corresponding period a year ago.
Jewellery exports may decline to six-year low
Imports of polished diamonds plunged 62 per cent to $18.52 billion during the period from $48.78 billion in the comparable period a year ago.
"India diamond processors have reduced their import of raw material in commensuration with global demand. As a consequence, overall inventory level has declined to the manageable level of 4.5 months as compared to over 6 months a recently," said Shah.
Interestingly, according to reports, Chinese government has strengthen regulations to discourage spends on luxuries in order to bring its economy back on growth path.
Source :business-standard.com
Jute Products' Exports Take A Hit On High Costs
Rising prices of jute goods, triggered by steep raw jute prices, have shrunk the export market for domestic manufacturers. A squeeze in export orders could wipe out profitability of the mills with major export orders.
Jute goods exports have logged almost flat growth from 2010-11 (0.19 million tonne) to 2013-14 (0.21 million tonne). However, jute goods exports declined sharply in 2014-15 to 0.15 million tonne, a fall of 27 %.
Raw jute prices have touched an all-time high of Rs 53,000 a tonne, double the level of Rs 26,000 per tonne in the year-ago period. This has escalated prices of jute goods as well. B Twill sacking prices are now ruling at Rs 74,000 a tonne whereas Hessian has moved beyond Rs 100,000 per tonne.
"Rising prices of jute goods has both a short-term and long-term impact on the export market. While exports may not be impacted in a big way in value terms, the decline would be felt in volume terms. We have already lost major export markets like Egypt and Syria. Also, there is no incentive from the Government of India on exports unlike Bangladesh which continues to incentivise jute exports", Manish Poddar, chairman, Indian Jute Mills Association (IJMA) told Business Standard.
A report by the Jute Commissioner Subrata Gupta says jute mills with substantial export orders have been adversely impacted as several had contracted orders with foreign buyers without expecting such huge jump in raw jute prices.
"While on one hand, this could wipe out profit for these mills, on the other, the increase in prices of these goods could also shrink the demand from foreign buyers. Further, the sharp increase in price of some products such as jute felt and Hessian can also adversely impact the opening up of new markets, such as those for geo-textiles and jute composites. These developments do not augur well for the health of the jute sector in the long term", the report adds.
Source :business-standard.com
Robusta Saves The Day For Indian Coffee Exports In 2015
KOCHI: Even as Arabica exports plunged, higher robusta shipments have pulled up the Indian coffee exports for 2015 marginally over the previous year.
Plagued with production woes from pest attacks and fluctuating prices, arabica is fast losing out to the sturdier robusta in coffee estates. The shift to robusta cultivation that started about four years ago has gained momentum of late.
In 2015, coffee exports stood at 307,726 tonnes, a rise of about 3.5% from a year ago. While the robusta shipments increased 23%, exports of arabica fell 26%. The re-exports of robusta by instant coffee makers increased 22%.
"Very few are selling arabica coffee which has been freshly harvested. Given the current prices it is not remunerative for the growers,'' said Ramesh Rajah, president of Coffee Exporters Association of India. The 2% reduction in export incentive was also a dampener for exports, he said. The average yield of arabica coffee has come down in India because of white stem borer attacks and the existing price doesn't cover the cost of production. Almost 70% of India's coffee output is exported. The March futures of arabica on ICE New York stood at $1.23 per pound on Tuesday. The prices have been hovering around this figure for some time.
It seems the prices are not likely to improve in the immediate future as coffee from other sources is compensating for the output fall in Brazil. As per the latest report of USDA, the global coffee output in 2015-16 is slated to touch 150.1 million bags (each bag of 60 kg), up 6 lakh bags as record output in Indonesia and Honduras, and better recovery in Vietnam more than offset the shortfall in Brazil, the largest producer.
Source :economictimes.indiatimes.com
Sodexo meal vouchers are not goods; not liable to octroi/duty: SC
Maharashtra Municipal Corporation Act : Where appellant was conducting business of providing pre-printed meal vouchers, i.e., Sodexo Meal Vouchers, to its customers, said vouchers were not goods within meaning of section 2(15) of Maharashtra Municipal Corporation Act and, therefore, not liable for either octroi or local body tax
Indian Sugar Export Prospects Fade As Domestic Prices Soar
LONDON/MUMBAI: Indian domestic sugar prices have surged, boosting incentives for production of low-quality white sugar for the local market and giving Brazil a competitive edge in the export market.
Sugar prices in India have risen more than 15 percent in a month on concerns over lower than expected output because of drought, making exports less attractive for mills even after export incentives, dealers said.
The government in India, the world's second-biggest sugar producer behind Brazil, has approved plans to pay farmers 45 rupees per tonne of cane produced, provided that mills manage to export their quota.
"The Indian (export) sugar that people were expecting isn't there," one senior European trader said.
Dealers quoted Indian low-quality white sugar at $415 a tonne FOB, equivalent to about $4 below ICE London front-month futures.
Offers of Indian sugar would need to be at discounts of about $30 a tonne to futures to compete against Brazilian supplies in key export markets.
One trader quoted Brazilian low-quality white sugar in containers at about $18 below London ICE futures.
"The traditional destinations for Indian sugar in Africa and the Middle East are not being taken," the European trader said.
"Indian sugar will stay in the Far East and Brazilian sugar will stay in West Africa."
Indian mills have contracted to export about 850,000 tonnes of sugar so far in the season that began on Oct. 1 and nearly 400,000 tonnes have already been dispatched, dealers said.
A Mumbai-based dealer with a global trading firm said: "The difference between local and overseas prices has been widening. Until last week mills were able to sign export deals at around $400 a tonne to Myanmar. Now sellers are quoting $430, which buyers are refusing to pay."
European and Indian traders said they see little prospect of Indian raw sugar exports in the near term because world prices are too low.
"Some mills are now waiting for an improvement in prices in the world market," said Sanjeev Babar, managing director of Maharashtra State Co-operative Sugar Factories Federation.
A New Delhi-based dealer with an Indian trading firm said that many mills think prices could jump sharply after the crushing season because of lower production. "Now mills don't want to sell sugar at a discount for export," the dealer added.
The first back-to-back drought in three decades is expected to cut Indian sugar production drastically this year, with a risk that output could drop below consumption for the first time in seven years in the 2016/17 season.
Source :economictimes.indiatimes.com
Govt To Import Rice From India, Pakistan
The government is sounding out the possibility of importing rice from India and Pakistan amid low rice stocks following a prolonged dry season.
“We are still negotiating imports with India and Pakistan,” said Trade Minister Thomas Lembong in Jakarta on Wednesday.
The government, Thomas said, was still preparing a government-to-government Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on rice imports with the Pakistani government. The State Logistics Agency (Bulog) was studying the technical details of Pakistan’s rice stocks, he went on.
“We are also proposing an MoU with India, as it has for years been the world’s largest exporter of rice. They export between US$3 billion and $4 billion worth of white rice a year,” said Thomas.
Earlier, Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution said that because of last year’s prolonged El Niño, the rice planting season had been put back from October to November. As a result, harvest time in several areas across Indonesia suffered delays, leading to depleted rice stocks in the first quarter of 2016.
"We have calculated that we still have only 1.35 million tons of rice in March. Normally, we have 1.5 million tons. To fulfill the shortage of rice, we’re looking at signing MoUs with Myanmar and Pakistan,” Darmin told a press conference last week.
He further explained that the agreements were a precaution measure to anticipate reduced rice stocks, which could in turn lead to surging prices of basic commodities.
"The estimated domestic production of rice at the end of March this year will be 1.35 million tons From the end of March to April, our rice production will improve as the effects of El Niño gradually lessen,"
Source :thejakartapost.com
India's Coal Imports Fall For Sixth Straight Month In December
India's coal imports fell for a sixth month in December, a government official said Wednesday, as the world's third-biggest buyer of the fuel expands domestic mines to boost output and expand power generation.
India shipped in 12.35 million tonnes of coal last month, a 34.3 percent decline from the same month a year ago. Imports slipped thanks to a jump in production by state-run Coal India (COAL.NS), the world's biggest miner of the fuel that is opening one new mine a month as the government fast-tracks environmental clearances.
"Record coal production by Coal India leads to further reduction in imports," Coal Secretary Anil Swarup tweeted.
Coal India's April-December production grew by a record 9 percent, keeping the country on course to reduce annual imports for the first time in five years.
Source :reuters.com
Sodexo meal vouchers neither are goods nor liable to octroi/duty: SC
Maharashtra Municipal Corporation Act : Where appellant was conducting business of providing pre-printed meal vouchers, i.e., Sodexo Meal Vouchers, to its customers, said vouchers were not goods within meaning of section 2(15) of Maharashtra Municipal Corporation Act and, therefore, not liable for either octroi or local body tax
CIT couldn't disallow lease rental of car if AO had allowed deduction on directions of DRP
IT/ILT: Where Assessing Officer granted deduction on account of lease rentals to assessee in pursuance of directions of DRP, but Commissioner revised said order without recording as to how assessment order was erroneous, revision was unjustified
Adjudicating order violating principles of natural justice can be set aside in writ despite appeal r
Excise & Customs : Where adjudication order has been passed without giving reasons, same violates principles of natural justice and, therefore, same can be set aside in writ jurisdiction despite alternate appeal remedy
Only RBI can decide whether a co-operating society is a bank for sec. 80P relief
IT : In event of dispute as to primary object or principal business of co-operative society referred to in clauses (cciv), (ccv) and (ccvi) of section 56 of Banking Regulation Act, determination thereof by RBI shall be final before revenue authorities can term said society as a co-operative bank for purpose of section 80P
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