FMCG suppliers move court as sops go missing in tax exempted zones
Suppliers to major FMCG companies that were given tax exemptions for investing in industrially marginal areas of Uttarakhand, J&K, Himachal Pradesh and the North East have dragged the government to court over the apparent lack of such concessions in the Goods and Services Tax (GST). Under the erstwhile tax regime, manufacturers who would invest in some areas would get indirect tax exemptions from the state governments – and sometimes from the central government. The idea was to encourage more investments in these exempted zones.
Angels offer to dematerialize unlisted shares to solve row
The angel investor community is turning voluntarily towards dematerializing their unlisted shares, after tax authorities hounded them over the past couple of years. As per bankers and angel investors, after recent years of tax scrutiny exercises carried out by authorities, many are willing to dematerialize the unlisted shares for convenience as well as transparency. One of India’s largest private sector lenders HDFC Bank is running a pilot test for one of its new product – Demat services for unlisted shares for Angel Investors, according to Neha Agrawal, Head Startup, HDFC Bank.
Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India faces CCI probe over unfair trade practices
Fair trade regulator CCI today ordered an investigation against Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) for various anti-competitive provisions in its agreement with dealers. It was alleged that HMSI had perpetuated tie-in arrangements, imposed resale price maintenance and maintained a discount control mechanism through the standard form of dealership agreement. After finding prima-facie evidence of competition norm violations, the watchdog has decided to carry out a detailed probe against the company. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) noted that prima facie a case of contravention of Section 3 and 4 of the Competition Act is made out against the company.
Banks to adopt risk management system in 6 months to stop PNB-like fraud
Bankers on Thursday decided to put in place more robust and secure risk management mechanism within six months to check fraudulent activity by unscrupulous elements in the aftermath of the country’s largest bank fraud of Rs 130 billion allegedly perpetuated by Nirav Modi. All public sector banks have verified LoUs issued by them, and there are no other unauthorized authority letters except for those issued by PNB, State Bank of India Deputy MD M S Sastry said. It is important to note that the major incident that took place recently in one of the branches of a public sector banks is one of its kind in about 5,000 branches, dealing in foreign exchange in the entire banking system in India, he said.
CAG report raps tax debt for alleged discrepancies in RIL’s books
A faulty tax assessment system is letting large conglomerates get away with paying lower taxes, according to a confidential document written by the Indian Audit and Accounts Department.
Using billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) as a test case, the Director General of Audit (Central) in Mumbai at the Indian Audit and Accounts Department conducted an integrated audit of India’s most valued company The intent was to “examine the impact of scrutiny assessment and extent of co-ordination/cross-linking amongst different assessment charges of the Income Tax Department and ascertain whether there was exchange of relevant information relating to group companies for accomplishing quality assessment.
GST refunds will not be held back for small errors: CBEC
To ensure faster refunds of pending claims of exporters, the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has said that such claims should not be held back due to small errors.“Refunds may not be withheld due to minor procedural lapses or non-substantive errors or omission,” it said in a missive to its field officials.
The directive comes at a time when the CBEC is holding a special refund fortnight from Thursday till March 29 to deal exclusively with pending refund claims of Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) and Input Tax Credit. While the CBEC has processed refunds worth ₹5,000 crore, a similar amount has been pending since GST was rolled out on July 1, 2017.
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