Sum received under JDA for identifying purchaser for land owner was taxable on due basis and not as

IT : Where assessee, a real estate company, received certain sum for identifying purchaser for third party and was following mercantile system of accounting, sum received by it would be taxable in current year and not when project would be complete

Salary and interest paid to partners are deductible even if income is estimated by AO on basis of Ne

IT : Where assessment was done under section 145, normal deductions were to be allowed; Assessing Officer could not deny deductions of salaries to partners and interest on financial, charges to assessee firm on ground that said exercise was akin to one under section 44AD under which separate deductions provided for in sections 30 to 38 are impermissible

Transaction occasioning movement of goods from one State to another is inter-State sale under CST Ac

CST & VAT : Central Sales Tax - Where assessee operated rice mill at Yanam in Union Territory of Pondicherry and it in accordance with a memo issued by Government of Andhra Pradesh purchased paddy within State of Andhra Pradesh, transported it to its rice mill at Yanam, milled paddy in its rice mill and supplied prescribed percentage of levy rice to FCI, Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh, sale of rice had taken place in course of inter-State trade and commerce

IRDA notifies norms for minimum limits of annuities & other benefits under life insurance policies

INSURANCE/INDIAN ACTS & RULES : IRDAI (Minimum Limits For Annuities And Other Benefits) Regulations, 2015

Sum received for maintenance services linked to supply of software isn't taxable as royalty

IT/ILT : Consideration received by assessee for supply of 'contact solutions' used for better management customer interaction, comprising of sale of hardware alongwith license of embedded software to end user is not royalty under article 12 of DTAA between India and USA

Book entry doesn't create income but recognizes it; income doesn't arise merely on reversal of wrong

IT : Where assessee credited her capital account with amount of sundry creditors written back but failed to furnish anything except name of parties and even reason for write back was not stated, impugned sum was assessed as income from other sources under section 56

Now Commissioner can select cases for reassessment within 3 calendar years under Chhattisgarh VAT

VAT/INDIAN ACTS & RULES : Chhatisgarh Value Added Tax (Amendment) Act, 2015 – Amendment In Section 21

AO couldn't raise higher TDS demand due to non-furnishing of PAN by NRs while issuing sec. 200A inti

IT/ILT : Where assessee made royalty payments to non-residents, since benefit of DTAA was available to said recipients, their TDS liability could not be more than rate prescribed under DTAA or Act whichever was lower

Pick and drop facility extended to employees is eligible for credit an input service

Cenvat Credit : Transport/Rent-a-cab services for transporting staff to factory and return back to their place of residence, is eligible for credit as input service; however, credit would not be allowed up to extent cost is borne by employee

FEMA provisions inserted by Finance Act, 2015 comes into force wef Sep 9, 2015

FEMA/ILT/INDIAN ACTS & RULES : section 138 of the finance act, 2015 – amendments in foreign exchange management act, 1999 – notified date on which provisions of clause (b) of said section, sections 140, 141, 142 and clause (ii) of section 143 of the foreign exchange management act, 1999 to come into force

Book entry don't create income but recognizes it; income doesn't arise merely on reversal of wrong e

IT : Where assessee credited her capital account with amount of sundry creditors written back but failed to furnish anything except name of parties and even reason for write back was not stated, impugned sum was assessed as income from other sources under section 56

Dispatching notice intentionally at incorrect address couldn't be deemed as valid service of notice

Excise & Customs : Where department was aware of assessee's correct address as per certificate of registration, dispatching notice/order at different/incorrect address does not amount to 'service' thereof; therefore, entire proceedings are liable to be set aside for violation of principles of natural justice

Forex loss in forward contract isn't speculative as contract is made to hedge loss in export-import

IT : Foreign exchange loss incurred by assessee on account of entering into forward contracts with banks for purpose of hedging loss in connection with its import/export business has to be regarded as business loss subject to condition that maturity of hedge does not exceed maturity of underlying transaction

Ponds specially designed for breeding of prawns to be treated as plant for depreciation purposes

IT: Ponds which were specially designed for rearing/breeding of the prawns have to be treated as tools of the business of the assessee and the depreciation was admissible on these at the rates applicable to plant and machinery

Imported goods eligible for SAD exemption only if VAT is leviable thereon: Apex Court

Customs : If goods are tax-free and not chargeable to sales-tax on their resale by importer, the said goods cannot be exempted from Special Additional Duty (SAD) of customs or special CVD at time of import

Order of AO wasn't erroneous if he had taken net profit rate of contractor above normal rate after s

IT: In case of civil sub-contract normal profit rate was about 5 per cent; where Assessing Officer worked out same to be 6.4 per cent in assessee's case, after scrutiny, said order could not be regarded as erroneous

India: Pomegranate Exports May Hit Record 60K Tonne

Maharashtra is all set to export record 40,000 to 60,000 tonne of pomegranates in the coming season beginning November. In 2014-15 season, the state had exported a record 40,000 tonne of pomegranate, an increase of nearly 33% compared to the previous season.

Prices have picked up after a poor start and doubled from R40-50 per kg to R100 per kg for farmers, said Prabhakar Chandane, chairman, Maharashtra Pomegranate Growers Research Association.

While the deficient monsoon has affected other crops, for pomegranates, less rains mean lesser possibility of fungal infections, he pointed out. Cultivation of pomegranates is on the rise not only in the state but also across the country, Chandane said.

In addition to Maharashtra, pomegranates are now being cultivated in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. Around 1.25-1.3 tonnes of production is expected in the coming season.

While the government quotes figures of 9 million hectares, the association says the crop is cultivated on some 14 million hectares, 1.5 times more than the earlier acreage, he said.

Maharashtra contributes 90% to the country’s total pomegranate production. The second season of harvesting is to come up in January-February period. The first season for the crop comes up in the July to September period.

Normally, the export season begins in November every year and is completed by March. However, the season extended up to April this year, Chandane said.

For exports, West Asia continues to remain one of the biggest markets for India, Chandane said. This year, India also exported pomegranates to countries such as Bangladesh, Bahrain, Sri Lanka and the Netherlands.

Although Russia emerged as a new market last year, traders are not keen to send products there owing to payment issues in the previous year, Chandane said. The UK, the UAE, the Netherlands, Egypt, Turkey, Bahrain and Kuwait are other important markets for the fruit.

In addition to increased acreage, new markets are also opening up, he said. In all likelihood markets in the US are also expected to open up next year.

Source:freshplaza.com

Lease rentals paid to start a new project wasn't preoperative exp. if such project formed part of ex

IT : Where a project was not a new business of assessee but was part and parcel of same business, lease rent expenses and hire purchase charges in respect of said project was allowable as revenue expenditure

Bangladesh Rice Farmers Face Double Whammy With Lower Prices And Higher Supplies

Bangladesh rice farmers are not happy despite the country achieving record 34.708 million tons production (milled basis) in FY 2014-15 (July - June) due to prevailing low prices, according to local sources.

They are the current prices are not even sufficient to cover their production costs. Most of the farmers are receiving Tk 460 per 40 kilograms (around $145 per ton) for hybrid and high-yielding varieties, about 20% lesser than the production costs.

Farmers have been complaining of lower prices since April this year due to increased local production and higher imports from India. The country reportedly imported about 1.45 million tons of rice during FY 2014-15, about four times more higher than in 2013-14, despite a record production due to prevailing low global rice prices, according to the Ministry of Food. They told local sources that the total availability of rice has crossed the local consumption demand of around 3 million tons and has put a downward pressure on prices.

Also farmers and traders are mainly concerned that increased imports have lowered demand for local rice further pushing down the prices. Average price of coarse rice currently stands at around Tk 30-34 per kilogram (around $377-$428 per ton), compared to around Tk 32-37 per kilogram (around $402-$465 per ton) in April this year and around Tk 35-38 per kilogram (around $440-$477 per ton) during the same time last year, according to data from Trading Corporation of Bangladesh.

They noted that the imposition of 10% duty on rice imports did not provide the desired effect as the Indian suppliers lowered their rates. They are expecting the current floods that are affecting some rice growing areas to push up the prices to some extent.

Floods that are a result of heavy rains have damaged more that 260,000 hectares of Aman crop land, local sources quoted the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE). Farmers are reportedly encouraged to grow flood-tolerant rice varieties such as BRRI dhan51, BRRI dhan52, BINA dhan11 and BINA dhan12 to ensure that the production is not impacted.

USDA estimates Bangladesh’s MY 2015-16 (July 2015 – June 2016) milled rice production at around 35 million tons, slightly up from an estimated 34.5 million tons in MY 2014-15. It estimates Bangladesh to import around 1.2 million tons of rice in 2015.   

Source:- Oryza.com

 

Imported Pulses To Arrive In India From Sept. 23

At the second meeting of the Inter Ministerial Committee on Prices and Availability of essential food items here on Monday and it was appraised that 2500 MT of the imported Tur will arrive in three tranches at Chennai Port and similar quantity of around 2500 MT of Tur will arrive in four tranches beginning from 23rd September, 2015.

The entire consignment of 5000 MT of Tur would be received at the two Ports by 20th October, 2015. To further improve the availability, import of additional 5000 MT of Tur has also been approved. MMTC has already floated a tender of procurement of Tur on 11th September, 2015 with the bid opening date of 21st September, 2015.

With respect to Urad MMTC indicated that 5000 MT of Urad from Myanmar will be received at the Chennai and JNPT. Both the port will received around 2500 MT each by 20th October, 2015.

As regards imports of Onion MMTC informed that about 1000 MT is expected by 1st week of October, 2015 and another 1000 MT by 2nd & 3rd week of October, 2015 at JNPT, Mumbai. As directed by Union Minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution in the review meeting held on 10th September, 2015 MMTC have also floated a tender for import of 1000 MT of onion on 11th September, 2015 and the bid would be opened on 18th September, 2015.

These imports are expected to improve the availability of pulses and onion and moderate their prices.

Source:business-standard.com