PM to ‘clarify’ Pranab’s tax measures

June 29, 2012

28_pranab_1127824e

New Delhi, June 29: Taking charge of the Finance portfolio after the resignation of Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has kindled hopes of a rethink on the controversial tax measures the departing Minister leaves behind.

While the Finance Ministry maintained on Thursday that there were no plans to defer the roll-out of the General Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAAR) beyond April 1, 2013, it said it was committed to providing “clarifications” to the PMO within two or three weeks on tax matters, which have raised the hackles of industry ever since the budget was presented.

Besides transfer pricing issues, the clarifications, in particular, would pertain to the retrospective amendment of Section 9 of the Income Tax Act — now popularly known as the Vodafone tax — which now forms apart of the Finance Act, 2012, on enactment of the Finance Bill.

Speaking to journalists, after another meeting with the Prime Minister a day after Dr. Singh in his review meeting with top Finance Ministry officials referred to “problems on the tax front which need to be addressed” as they were among the “many factors that have contributed to this general negative mood,” Finance Secretary R.S. Gujral said: “The Prime Minister’s Office sought clarifications on taxation issues and Section 9 of the Income Tax Act [related to tax on indirect transfer of assets]... We asked them to give us two-three weeks’ time.”

Under the amended provisions of Section 9 of the I-T Act, 1961, with retrospective effect, Vodafone would now be liable to pay about Rs. 20,000 crore (including interest), if and when a tax demand is raised by the authorities, though the British telecom major had won its case in the Supreme Court under the earlier legal framework.

While not giving any indication as to whether clarifications on the retrospective tax law were likely to result in any softening of the government’s stance, compared with what obtained when Mr. Mukherjee was Finance Minister, Mr. Gujral, who also heads the Revenue Department, sought to scotch speculation on deferment of the GAAR beyond April next year, as was indicated by the Finance Minister in his reply during the debate on the budget.

There is “no deferment... the GAAR is staying,” Mr. Gujral said, pointing out that the Finance Ministry would shortly issue draft explanatory guidelines on the GAAR for public comments. “We have finalised the GAAR draft rules after three meetings with the stakeholders. The draft will have examples for what would be deemed as permissible and impermissible arrangement.”

Late at night, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) went into fast-forward mode to clear the confusion in the minds of foreign investors and issued a 23-page draft guidelines on the implementation of the GAAR in terms of Section 101 of the I-T Act with illustrative examples of cases, in which the provisions of the law would be invoked.

“The GAAR will be applicable for income arising from April 1, 2013. Certain grey areas have been highlighted. We need to clear the legislative intent of the proposal,” Mr. Gujral said. He pointed out that stakeholders would have 15 days to offer comments on the draft rules, after which the Finance Ministry would come out with the final guidelines.


Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
January 20,2020

New Delhi, Jan 20: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said the kind of cleaning in the system that the BJP-led government had to carry out after coming to power in 2014 was "unbelievable" and it undertook the exercise without any grudge or worry.

Between 2014-16, there were a lot of questions as to why reforms did not come fast and there were comments that the government was incapable of bringing them, she said delivering the Nani Palkhivala Memorial lecture on "Road Map to $5 Trillion Economy" here.

Pointing out that there were allegations and criticism that the government wants to do something but it did not, Sitharaman said, "I am fully willing to buy that." She recalled that Prime Minister Narendra Modi often said he did not believe in incremental changes and the country needed good transformational change. The stage in which India is today, it cannot have little marginal increments, but good transformational change.

"But still one might say in the last five years the government never did. That can be a critical analysis and I am fully willing to buy that. Because post-2014 the kind of cleaning up the government had to do was unbelievable and we undertook that exercise without a grudge without a worry.. we had to do it and it is part of the game," she said. Elaborating, Sitharaman said states have their own views on Land Acquisition Bill and the government could not have done anything because land, after all, is with them.

Commenting on the topic 'Road Map to $5 trillion economy,' she said quoting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's comments, the government would take the route "Sarkar ka abhaav nahi hona chahiye, prabhaav hona chahiye aur dabaav nahi hona chahiye."

"Abhaav and dabaav both of which are not desirable, abhaav is the inadequacy or lack of adequate presence or shortfall. You do not need a shortfall. You need a government where it should be present, where it is expected to function.", she said.

"So there should not be abhaav. Dabaav (meaning pressure) is not something you want from the government. So, you want Prabhaav. It is broadly an influence, facilitation, broadly the philosophy with which it is mandated, she said.

Noting that the government has got the mandate through the election, she said, "The mandate was spelt out in so many different ways in its manifesto. So the route towards $5 trillion is this."

"We have to be there to facilitate. We have to be there to make it easy. We have to be where you need us, where there is no policy (reforms from the government)," she said.

On the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) implemented by the government, the union minister said the approach of the IBC was not to shut business. "IBC takes on the approach in having some kind of resolution where all people who exploited the company do not come back through the "back door," she said.

IBC was done through better management so that the institution is alive and kicking. It is something which she wanted to carry forward from Modi 1.0 to 2.0. "The point I am trying to make on this road to $5 trillion economy is that it is not just an abstraction, this is not how I want India to be. But in micro-level too, we are coming in response to every stakeholder," she said.

Comments

Well Wisher
 - 
Tuesday, 21 Jan 2020

LOL. Do not say anything, else she will get angry.

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
March 13,2020

Mumbai, Mar 13:  Investor wealth worth nearly Rs 12 lakh crore was wiped out in less than 15 minutes of trading on the stock exchanges on Friday, with the two benchmarks, the BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty, crashing over 10 per cent.

The 30-share BSE Sensex plummeted 3,380.59 points, or 10.31 per cent, to 29,397.55. It hit an intra-day low of 29,388.97, falling up to 3,389.17 points.

Trading was halted for 45 minutes in the early session after the index hit its lower circuit limit.

The BSE and NSE benchmark indices, however, pared most losses with the Sensex trading 835.40 points, or 2.55 per cent, lower at 31,942.74, and the Nifty was down 253.25 points or 2.64 per cent at 9,336.90 at 10.40 am.

The mayhem on Dalal Street eroded investor wealth worth Rs 12,92,479.88 crore, taking the total m-cap to Rs 1,12,78,172.75 crore on the BSE at 1020 hours.

The m-cap of BSE-listed companies stood at Rs 1,25,70,652.63 crore at the end of trading on Thursday.

Traders said besides global selloff, incessant foreign fund outflows also weighed on investor sentiments.

On a net basis, foreign institutional investors sold equities worth Rs 3,475.29 crore on Thursday, data available with stock exchanges showed.

On the BSE, 1,279 scrips declined, while 193 advanced and 40 remained unchanged.

Volatility heightened in global markets as benchmarks world over went into panic mode, insinuating a freakish selloff.

Bourses in Shanghai dropped over 3.32 per cent, Hong Kong 5.61 per cent, Seoul 7.58 per cent and Tokyo cracked up to 7.97 per cent.

Wall Street lost 10 per cent in overnight trade.

More than 1,30,000 cases of the novel coronavirus have been recorded in 116 countries and territories, killing at least 4,900 people.

The number of coronavirus patients in India has risen to 74, as per the health ministry.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
January 1,2020

New Delhi, Jan 1: Newly-appointed Chief of the Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat on Wednesday said the armed forces stay away from politics and work as per the directives of the government of the day, remarks that come amid allegations that the forces were being politicised.

Gen Rawat also said that his focus as CDS will be to integrate the efforts of the three services and to work as a team.

"We keep ourselves away from politics. We act according to the directives of the government of the day," he said.

Gen Rawat said his focus will be to ensure best and optimal use of resources allocated to the three services.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.