Following is the text of the Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley’s Statement on the subject to impose tax on agriculture income:

“I have read the paragraph in Niti Ayog Report entitled ‘Income tax on agriculture income’. To obviate any confusion on the subject, I categorically state that the Central Government has no plan to impose any tax on agriculture income. As per the Constitutional Allocation of Powers, the Central Government has no jurisdiction to impose tax on agricultural income.”

PIB

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New Delhi: At least 50,000 letters will be sent by indirect tax officials to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention to ensure successful roll-out of Goods and Services Tax (GST).

A decision in this regard was taken during a meeting of representatives of All India Association of Central Excise Gazetted Executive Officers and those from Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise).

“We have decided that each employee working under Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) will write a letter to the Prime Minister seeking his intervention for the successful GST.

“Though there are about 85,000 indirect tax employees working at various levels across the country, at least 50,000 letters will be sent to the Prime Minister within next two days,” said Anup Kumar Srivastava, President of IRS officers association.

He said through letters, the Prime Minister will be requested to revisit some of the decisions taken by the GST Council, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in its meeting on January 16.

“There are certain issues concerning economic interests of the nation and concerning such a large work force like ours, who have been working for GST tirelessly for last 10 years and we want that these are resolved immediately to make roll-out of GST successful,” he told PTI.

The GST Council had in its meeting agreed to give states the powers to levy tax on economic activity within 12 nautical miles of territorial waters and to administer 90 per cent of the tax payers under Rs 1.5 crore annual turnover.

The indirect tax employees unions are demanding that the GST Council decisions are reviewed. They have also expressed concerns over Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) – a private company set up to provide information technology infrastructure for the implementation of the new tax regime, saying that it may be put under the CBEC.

PTI

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Inoperative EPF Accounts that Stopped Earning Interest in 2011, Now to Earn Interest W.E.F. 01.04.2016

Software Module for Disbursal of Salaries to EPFO Launched

EPFO’s highest decision making body, the Central Board of Trustees methere last evening . This was its 212th meeting.The Union Minister for Labour and Employment (Independent Charge) and Chairman CBT, Mr BandaruDattatreya after the conclusion of the meeting said that the Board has taken two important decisions.

The first is in relation to Organisational Restructuring of EPFO. While approving the report in principle, the Board also constituted a Committee to look into the anomalies/gaps pointed out by the Board members. The committee chaired by the Central Provident Fund Commissioner has been asked to submit this report to the Board in a month’s time.

The Second major decision was to allow crediting of interest on inoperative accounts. Accounts of members who do not receive contributions for a continuous period of three years are treated as “Inoperative accounts”. Interest on these accounts was stopped in 2011. The Board decided to resume crediting interest on such accounts w.e.f. 01.04.2016

This is in view of recent amendment to paragraph 69(1) (a) that has been amended to provide for withdrawal of full amount on retirement from service after attaining the age of 58 years.Thus, the employer’s share of contribution in the provident fund account of a member would be withheld by EPFO up to the age of retirement. Hence the decision has been taken, to credit interest as per paragraph 60 of the employees ‘Provident Funds Scheme, 1952. Such an account would not be classified as an “Inoperative Account” for the purpose of paragraph 72(6) of EPFO Scheme, 1952.

The Union minister on the occasion also launched a Software module for disbursal of Salaries to EPFO. The Organisation is bringing IT (Information Technology) enabled systems to manage its Human Resources. Better Human Resources management would bring further improvement in the service delivery by the offices.

The software will achieve the following objectives: –

-Uniformity in preparation of salary across all offices of Organization.

– Provision of Upload facility for existing data to enable speedy & correct data capture.

– No need to enter data for subsequent months. Only changes are required to be entered.

– Automated TAX calculation.

– Automated Staff Provident Fund and Loan Accounting.

– Provision to make calculation of arrears when required.

PIB

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Circular 2/2015
F. No. 385/ 03 /2015-IT(B)
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT)

North Block, New Delhi
10th February, 2015

Subiect: Chargeability of Interest under Section 234A of the Income-tax Act, 1961 on self-assessment tax paid before the due date of filing of return of income- regarding

Interest under Section 234A of the Income-tax Act, l961 (hereinafler the Act) is charged in case of default in furnishing return of income by an assessee. The interest is charged at the specified rate on the amount of tax payable on the total income, as reduced by the amount of advance tax, TDS/TCS, any relief of tax allowed under section 90 and section 9oA, any deduction allowed under section 91 and any tax credit allowed in accordance with the provisions of section 115JAA and section 115JD of the Act. Since self-assessment tax is not mentioned as, a component of tax to be reduced from the amount on which interest under section 234A of the Act is chargeable, interest is being charged on the amount of self-assessment tax paid by the assessee even before the due date of filing of return.

2. It has been held by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of CIT vs Prannoy Roy, 309 ITR 231 (2009) that the interest under section 234A of the Act on default in furnishing return of income shall be payable only on the amount of tax that has not been deposited before the due date of filing of the income-tax return for the relevant assessment year. Accordingly, the present practice of charging interest under section 234A of the Act on self-assessment tax paid before the due date of filing return was reviewed by CBDT.

3. The Board has decided that no interest under section 234A of the Act is chargeable on the amount of self-assessment tax paid by the assessee before the due date of filing of return of income.

4. This Circular may be brought to the notice of all officers for compliance.

5. Hindi version shall follow.

(Sandeep Singh)
Under Secretary to Government of India

Source: http://irsofficersonline.gov.in/Documents/OfficalCommunique/1210201555813.pdf

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Income Tax Department, Ministry of Finance, Government of India had initiated investigation into issuance of cheques by companies which are acting as entry operators to convert illegal cash into legitimate money. Recently in Kolkata, this investigation led to detection of substantial unaccounted income. In these cases, the unaccounted income was sought to be converted into legitimate money with the help of non-genuine companies which were acting as entry operators.

Similarly and based on media reports, enquiry was initiated in Delhi into issuance of cheques by companies which were alleged to be non-genuine and entry operators. The companies and their Directors could not be traced at the addresses given to Banks and Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Examination of the accounts of these companies revealed that they have issued accommodation entries to several persons and entities for substantial amounts. It was also found that sources for such entries were prima facie not genuine. To carry forward the investigation process, notices were issued to about 50 persons and entities including two political parties on 9th February, 2015. These notices seek information about the identity of the contributors and other relevant details which are necessary to complete the process of investigation.

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PIB

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The Finance Bill 2013 proposes extension of benefits under Section 80-D of the Income Tax Act to such schemes of the Central Govt and State Govts that are similar to Central Govt. Health Scheme(CGHS). Presenting the Union Budget in the Lok Sabha today, the Finance Minister Shri P.Chidambaram said that contributions made to CGHS are eligible for deduction under Section 80-D of the Income Tax Act and he is proposing to extend the same benefit to similar schemes of the Central Govt and State Govt. The Finance Minister also announced that deductions made to the National Children’s Fund will now be eligible for 100% deduction.

DSM/RC/nb/39
(Release ID :92759)

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The Finance Bill 2013-14 proposes a relief of Rs.2000 to every person who has a total income upto Rs.5 lakh in a financial year. Presenting the Union Budget in the Lok Sabha today, the Finance Minister Shri P.Chidambaram said that 1.80 crore taxpayers are expected to benefit to the value of Rs.3600 crore on account of this proposal of tax credit of Rs.2000. He further said that the current slabs were introduced only last year. Hence, there is no case to revise either the slabs or the rates. However, he proposed to give some relief to the taxpayers in the first bracket of Rs.2 lakh to Rs.5 lakh.

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Ministry of Finance

The Union Finance Minister, Shri P. Chidambaram said that the goods and services tax (GST) is a more effective and efficient substitute for plethora of indirect taxes. The Finance Minister said that he is hopeful that the GST Bill would be passed before the end of the current financial year. The Finance Minister was addressing the Third Meeting of the Consultative Committee attached to the Ministry of Finance, here today. The subject matter of the discussion was “GST-the Way Forward’. The Finance Minister Shri P. Chidambaram further said that though there are still some issues relating to GST and its Network (GSTN) to be resolved, yet they are not insurmountable. The Finance Minister said that the objective is to put in place an effective and efficient tax system which is friendly and fair to the taxpayers. He said that once GST is implemented, it will not be adversarial to the taxpayers.

Earlier, a presentation was made on the GST Network system by the officials of Central Board of Excise and Customs.

As part of the mandate, the Empowered Group (EG) on IT Infrastructure for GST recommended the IT strategy for GST and the appropriate structure and roadmap for creation of an SPV to be called the Goods and Services Tax Network to deliver the required IT services for GST implementation. The key objectives of GSTN SPV would be to provide standard and uniform interface to the tax payers, share infrastructure and services to Central/State Governments. The common and shared infrastructure for GST would also be leveraged for providing benefits to Centre/States, even prior to roll-out of GST. The Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers (EC) and the Union Finance Minister endorsed the recommendations of EG on the IT strategy for GST, the structure and role of GSTN SPV, as also the selection of NSDL as technology partner for incubating SPV.

The Members of the Consultative Committee participating in the discussion gave various suggestions relating to GST and its Network. They were of the view that GST is good for all stakeholders including Central and State Governments as well as traders and business communities among others. They raise various issues relating to GST Network including security of data, settlement of disputes among different stakeholders, integration of direct tax information system into the GST system and other technology related matters. Some of the members stated that firstly the issue of loss to the States be settled to the satisfaction of all States before we march forward. This is causing delay on the part of the States in accepting GST and this uncertainty may be settled once for all. Some of the members suggested that decision making process of the GST Council be made more practicable by providing decisions with two-third majority of the States rather than on consensus basis. Similarly, issues relating to dispute settlement mechanism and exclusion of certain products from the GST system among others were also raised during the discussion.

Members of Parliament who attended the today’s Consultative Committee Meeting include Shri S.P.Y. Reddy, Shri Suresh C. Angadi, Shri Narahari Mahato, Shri W. Bhaushaeb Rajaram and Smt. Rajkumari Ratna Singh (all from Lok Sabha), Shri N.K. Singh, Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Shri Rajkumar Dhoot, Shri Birender Singh, Shri Shantaram Naik, Dr. Ashok Sekhar Ganguli and Ishwar Lal Jain (all from Rajya Sabha). Shri S.S. Palanimanickam, Minister of State for Revenue, Shri Namo Narain Meena, Minister of State for Financial Services and Expenditure, Shri R.S. Gujral, Finance Secretary, Shri Sumit Bose, Revenue Secretary, Shri Arvind Mayaram, Secretary, DEA, Shri M.H. Khan, Secretary, Disinvestment, Smt. Parveen Mahajan, Chairman, CBEC and Smt. Poonam Saxena, Chairman, CBDT were also present among others in the aforesaid meeting.

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DSM/RS/GN
(Release ID :86731)

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