28 December 2015

Pre Budget Memorandum-Indirect Taxes-2016

ICAI Pre-Budget Memoranda 2016 for Indirect Taxes–Key Points Raised on Service Tax, Cenvat, Central Excise, Customs & CST

 

The  Key Points Raised are  as under:-

 

 

Service Tax

 

1.  Introduction of Tax Audit Report under Service Tax

 

2.  Introduction Reconciliation Certification under Service Tax

 

3.  Exempting Employer to Employee Services

 

4.  Works Contract Definition to be Brought in Parity with CST Act

 

5.  Trading of Goods to be removed from Negative List as it is not even a Service

 

6.  Seeking Clarification for Non Taxability of charges/ recoveries for supply of electricity by developers

7.  No Serice tax on Take Away or Home Deliveries to be incorporated in the Act Itself

 

8.  Seeking Clarification on Non Taxability of Penalties, Liquidated Damages etc

 

9.  Valuation Clarification on Sharing of Expenses between Sister Concerns / Groups Companies

 

10.  Deemed Valuation for Transactions whose Consideration is non monetary

 

11.  Small Scale Exemption to be Raised from 10 Lacs to 25 Lacs

13.  Date of Service Tax Liability to be mentioned in Registration Certificate Itself

 

14.   Efiling all the documents to the Department CA's to Certify the Form

 

15.   GAR-7 Challan to mention the Period Pertaining to which Tax Paid

 

16.   Due Date of Payments to be Made 10th of Following Month in line with GST

 

17.   Provision for Bad Debts to be covered under Rule 6(3) of Service Tax Rules, 1994

 

18.   Challan Correction System to be Implemented

 

19.   Introduction of Annual Return under Service Tax

 

20.  Instant Acknoledgment in Filing of Service Tax ST-3\

 

21.  Time Limit to Revise to be Increased to 180 Days

 

22.  To Curb Vexatious Searches, the reasons for conducting the search may be recorded in writing. This will also be in line with income-tax provisions

23.  Recorded Statement to be provided to the assessee immediately. Use of Printed Statement to be permissible

 

24.   Prosecution only in exceptional cases and must include mens rea

 

25.   Power to Arrest must not be delegated below the officer of Rank of JC / AC

 

26.   Online Filing of CESTAT Appeals

 

27.  Online Filing of A-1 & A-3

 

28.   Conflict between Section 67A and Rule 4 / 5 of POT to be removed

 

 

Cenvat Credit

 

 

1.  Avoid the exclusion clause of Cenvat on Input Services

 

2.  Allow Credit of Outward Freight

 

3.  Input Ambit should cover Capital Structures

 

4.  Discreet Drafting of Rule 2(e) – Definition of "Exempted Services"

 

5.  Rule 2( d) i.e. Definition of Exempted Goods to be brought in accordance with Bharat Fritz Werner Limited Judgement of Karnataka High Court on Job Work

6.  Utilisation of Old Education and Secondary Education Cess

 

7.  Swachh Bharat Cess to be Integrated in Cenvat Scheme

 

8.  100% Cenvat Credit on Capital Goods in the First Year Itself

 

9.  Refund to be Allowed to be certified by a Practicing Chartered Accountant and not neccesarily the Auditor only

 

10.  Refund Process Streamling

11.          Reinstatement of Transfer of Credit from LTU one unit to another

12.  No Interest shall be Payable under Rule 14 of CCR, 2004 where assessee is able to substantiate non utilisation of Impugned Credit

13.  Rule 15 Penalty – 'Taken or Utilised' to be replaced with 'Taken and Utilised'.

 

 

Central Excise

 

1.  Procedure for Section 14 to be envisaged in Rules

 

2.  Advance Ruling on Admissibility of Cenvat Credit on Capital Goods in Factory or Service Provider

 

3.  Memorandum of Cross Objection before Commissioner (Appeals) – Forms to be Prescribed

 

4.  Mandatory Pre-deposit to be 1% / 2% instead of Current 7.5% / 10 %. Bank Guarantee to substitute. Tribunal Must be given right to waive predeposit on merit

5.   Excise Returns should be Quarterly and not Monthly

 

6.  Revision of Excise Returns should be Permissible

 

7.  Audit Report under EA-2000 must be furnished in all  cases.

 

 

Customs

 

1.  Dispensing 1% EDD

 

2.  SAD Refund to be Smoothened based on CA Certification

 

3.  SAD Refund not to be subject to Time Limit under Section 27

 

4.  Increase in Limit of Duty Free Allowance to Rs 75,000/-

 

 

Central Sales Tax

 

1.  Reduction of CST Rate to 1%

 

2.  Streamlining Form Process related to C, F, H, E1 and EII

26 December 2015

Final list of elected candidates from WIRC

So finally, it's final. Here is the list of our new regional council members:

Congratulations!!

Position
NAME OF CANDIDATE
Votes
1
 SAVLA PRITI PARAS- MUMBAI
1681
2
 CHITALE SUSHRUT MUKUND- MUMBAI
1681
3
 KHANDELWAL PURUSHOTTAM LAL- AHMEDABAD
1681
4
 DESAI DRUSHTI RAHUL- MUMBAI
1681
5
 ALSHI RAKESH GANPAT- MUMBAI
1681
6
 KELKAR ABHIJIT JAYANT- NAGPUR
1681
7
 GADIA MANISH R- MUMBAI
1681
8
 TALATI ANIKET SUNIL- AHMEDABAD
1681
9
 SABOO KAMLESH- THANE
1681
10
 SHARMA UMESH RAMNARAYAN- AURANGABAD
1681
11
 MUNDADA SATYANARAYAN GOVERDHANLAL- PUNE
1681
12
 JAIN SANDEEP KAILASHCHAND- MUMBAI
1681
13
 SHINAGARE SHILPA BABASAHEB- MUMBAI
1681
14
 SHAH SHRUTI JAYESH - MUMBAI
1635
15
 AGARWAL VISHNU KUMAR - MUMBAI
1624
16
 SHAH PRIYAM RAMESHBHAI- AHMEDABAD
1623
17
 SHAH HARDIK PRAVINKUMAR- SURAT
1568
18
 AGRAWAL PRADEEP KANAIYALAL- VADODARA
1500
19
 JOSHI SARVESH NANDLAL- PUNE
1484
20
 BAJAJ LALIT LAXMINARAYAN- MUMBAI
1473
21
 KULKARNI VIKRANT MURLIDHAR- NASHIK
1449
22
 AGARWAL BALKISHAN - SURAT
1323


25 December 2015

ITD to quote e mail and Phone Number

Govt directs taxman to quote email, phone number in e-notice
In an attempt to bring authenticity to e-mail based communication to taxpayers, the Finance Ministry has asked Income Tax department officials to mandatorily mention their email and official phone numbers in such letters and notices.
An official order, accessed by PTI, in this regard was issued by the Ministry sometime back on the directions of Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia.
"Henceforth any notice, letter, communication issued by any officer under Department of Revenue, including CBDT, its directorates and field formations to the taxpayers, members of public should invariably contain mention of email address and office phone numbers, of the officers signing such, communications, notice, letters for facilitating tax payers' electronic interface with the department.
"All are requested to kindly ensure that the above directions are strictly followed," the order said.
A senior official explained the step had been taken to lend the required "authenticity" to electronic communications which at times are fraught with the danger of being fake or a phishing attempt on the taxpayer.
"In case of doubt, the recipient or taxpayer could check the authenticity of the notice or letter sent by the Assessing Officer or the IT officer. The attempt is to make e-communication by IT department safe, secure and reliable," the official said.
The department has recently launched a first-ever pilot project to begin an email based scrutiny assessment of taxpayers in select cities.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes, the policy-making body of the IT department, had recently also notified use of emails as the new mode of communication between the taxman and taxpayers, as part of the government's e-initiative to reduce human interface and complaints of harassment and corruption in conducting tax-related jobs.
Henceforth, the taxman can now send official communication to "email address available in the income-tax return furnished by the addressee to which the communication relates or the email address available in the last income tax return furnished by the addressee or in the case of addressee being a company, email address of the company as available on the website of ministry of corporate affairs".
The department, in order to reduce the taxpayers' visit to the IT office, had launched the 'pilot' project and the first set of e-communications have been decided to be mailed to 100 chosen people each in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, and Chennai regions.
The CBDT had recently asked the department to "initiate the concept of using email for corresponding with taxpayers and sending through emails the questionnaire, notice etc. at the time of scrutiny proceedings and getting responses from them."
"This would eliminate the necessity of visiting the Income Tax offices by the taxpayers, particularly in smaller cases, involving limited issues and where taxpayer is able to provide details required by the Assessing Officer (AO) without necessitating his physical presence," the order had said.

New Fraud Reporting


Govt sets threshold for fraud reporting by auditors at Rs 1 crore


Auditors are now required to report any suspected corporate fraud amounting Rs 1 crore or more to the central government, as stringent measures are being put in place to curb misdoings.

Under the Companies Act, 2013, auditors are required to report to the government when they come across instances of fraud at a firm, but the threshold was not specified.

To introduce the threshold, the Corporate Affairs Ministry, which implements the Act, has issued the Companies (Audit and Auditors) Amendment Rules, 2015.

Status after Jayesh Kala elimnation

Position
NAME OF CANDIDATE
Votes
1
 SAVLA PRITI PARAS- MUMBAI
1681
2
 CHITALE SUSHRUT MUKUND- MUMBAI
1681
3
 KHANDELWAL PURUSHOTTAM LAL- AHMEDABAD
1681
4
 DESAI DRUSHTI RAHUL- MUMBAI
1681
5
 ALSHI RAKESH GANPAT- MUMBAI
1681
6
 KELKAR ABHIJIT JAYANT- NAGPUR
1681
7
 GADIA MANISH R- MUMBAI
1681
8
 TALATI ANIKET SUNIL- AHMEDABAD
1681
9
 SABOO KAMLESH- THANE
1681
10
 SHARMA UMESH RAMNARAYAN- AURANGABAD
1649
11
 JAIN SANDEEP KAILASHCHAND- MUMBAI
1634
12
 SHAH PRIYAM RAMESHBHAI- AHMEDABAD
1543
13
 AGARWAL VISHNU KUMAR - MUMBAI
1543
14
 SHINAGARE SHILPA BABASAHEB- MUMBAI
1482
15
 MUNDADA SATYANARAYAN GOVERDHANLAL- PUNE
1476
16
 AGRAWAL PRADEEP KANAIYALAL- VADODARA
1464
17
 SHAH HARDIK PRAVINKUMAR- SURAT
1462
18
 BAJAJ LALIT LAXMINARAYAN- MUMBAI
1423
19
 SHAH SHRUTI JAYESH - MUMBAI
1332
20
 KULKARNI VIKRANT MURLIDHAR- NASHIK
1293
21
 AGARWAL BALKISHAN - SURAT
1287
22
 MAJITHIA NEEL PANKAJ- MUMBAI
1215
23
 JOSHI SARVESH NANDLAL- PUNE
1155
24
 VAIDYA AMBARISH ASHOK- PUNE
1146

Bad luck Ambrish lost by 4 votes only. Saveesh Joshi and Vikrant make it to regional council. Neel Majithiya is in great danger of loosing

Ambrish Vaidya ran out of luck. In a very tough neck to neck fight, the lady luck smiled on Sarvesh Joshi and Ambrish had to give up by ONLY 4 votes. And that is why we say, each vote matters. Here is the live example of that. Vote you must.

Ambrish is being eliminated and Sarvesh will be in the regional council. But this will upset one of the Mumbai guy. Most liekly Neel Majithia. Vikrant looks safe. He will feinately get something from Amnbrish compared to othe Mumbaikar and that makes Neel in danger. Balkishan from Surat seem to make it as a last candidate in council at no.22.

The scenario of winning Neel is that Ambrish Vaidya gives 80 votes more than Balkishan to Neel, which is most unlikely.

Congratulations to my friend Sarvesh Joshi and very upset on the elimination of Ambrish a very able leader deserves to be in regional council.

RC Election: Interesting phase in the last eliminations and may surprise many

As we approaching towards end of the eliminations, things have been very interesting. It may bring many surprises. see the scenarios:

  • Jayesh Kala, the unlucky guy who lost on the edge, will move Shruti and Neel Majithia up. They will occupy 19th and 20th position form their current 21st and 22nd position. 
  • What it means? It means Balkishan from Surat and Vikrtant from Nashik are displace from their current position. They become 21st and 22nd respectively.
  • Then the twist in story. Out of one Pune fellow, Sarvesh or Ambrish eliminates, and the moment one eliminates from Pune, the other moves up considerable by getting very big bunch. And that makes an exit moment from one of the struggling candidates, Balikshan or Vikrant. Vikrant can get from Pune but Balkishan will not get much from Pune. And that will make a story interesting.
  • If Pune guy jumps too much up, if Pune guy gives lots of votes to Vikrant then one of the Mumbai guy can also be in danger.
  • Vikrant and Balkishan are still not safe. 
  • So the last two positions are very very interesting to watch.

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