Tag Archives: Finance Minister

India

Ordinance issued for extension of taxation time limits

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Newsroom24x7 Network

New Delhi: In order to give effect to the announcements made by the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Suthara man on 24 March 2020, regarding several relief measures relating to statutory and regulatory compliance matters across sectors in view of COVID-19 outbreak, the government of India has brought in an Ordinance on 31 March 2020 which provides for extension of various time limits under the Taxation and Benami Acts. It also provides for extension of time limits contained in the Rules or Notification which are prescribed/ issued under these Acts.

It may be noted that the outbreak of Novel Corona Virus (COVID-19) across many countries of the world has caused immense loss to the lives of people, and accordingly, it has been termed as pandemic by the World Health Organisation and various Governments including Government of India.

Social distancing has been unequivocally accepted to be the best way to contain its spread, leading to announcement of complete lockdown in the country. Keeping in view the challenges faced by taxpayers in meeting the compliance requirements under such conditions, the Union Finance Minister had announced several relief measures relating to statutory and regulatory compliance matters across sectors in view of COVID-19 outbreak on 24 March 2020 through a press release.

Some of the important features and time limits which get extended by this Ordinance are as under:

Direct Taxes & Benami:
(i) Extension of last date of filing of original as well as revised income-tax returns for the FY 2018-19 (AY 2019-20) to 30th June, 2020.
(ii) Extension of Aadhaar-PAN linking date to 30th June, 2020.

(iii) The date for making various investment/payment for claiming
deduction under Chapter-VIA-B of IT Act which includes Section 80C (LIC, PPF, NSC etc.), 80D (Mediclaim), 80G (Donations), etc. has been extended to 30th June, 2020. Hence the investment/payment can be made up to 30.06.2020 for claiming the deduction under these sections for FY 2019-20.
(iv) The date for making investment/construction/purchase for
claiming roll over benefit/deduction in respect of capital gains under sections 54 to 54GB of the IT Act has also been extended
to 30th June 2020. Therefore, the investment/ construction/purchase made up to 30 June 2020 shall be eligible for claiming deduction from capital gains arising during FY 2019-20.
(v) The date for commencement of operation for the SEZ units for claiming deduction under deduction 10AA of the IT Act has also extended to 30.06.2020 for the units which received necessary approval by 31.03.2020.
(vi) The date for passing of order or issuance of notice by the authorities under various direct taxes& Benami Law has also
been extended to 30 June 2020.
(vii) It has provided that reduced rate of interest of 9% shall be charged for
non-payment of Income-tax (e.g. advance tax, TDS, TCS) Equalization Levy, Securities Transaction Tax (STT), Commodities
Transaction Tax (CTT) which are due for payment from 20 March 2020 to 29 June 2020 if they are paid by 30 June 2020. Further, no penalty/prosecution shall be initiated for these non-payments.
(viii) Under Vivad se Vishwas Scheme, the date has also been extended up to 30.06.2020. Hence, declaration and payment under the Scheme can be made up to 30.06.2020 without additional payment.

Indirect Taxes:
(i) Last date of furnishing of the Central Excise returns due in March, April and May 2020 has been extended to 30th
June,2020.
(ii) Wherever the last date for filing of appeal, refund applications etc., under the Central Excise Act, 1944 and rules made
thereunder is from 20th March 2020 to 29th June 2020, the same has been extended to30th June 2020.
(iii) Wherever the last date for filing of appeal, refund applications etc., under the Customs Act, 1962 and rules made thereunder is from 20th March 2020 to 29th June 2020, the same has been
extended to30th June 2020.
(iv) Wherever the last date for filing of appeal etc., relating to Service Tax is from 20th March 2020 to 29th June 2020, the same has been extended to 30th June 2020
(v) The date for making payment to avail of the benefit under Sabka Vishwas Legal Dispute Resolution Scheme 2019 has been
extended to 30th June 2020 thus giving more time to taxpayers to get their disputes resolved.
In addition to the extension of time limits under the Taxation and Benami Acts as above, an enabling section has got inserted in the CGST Act, 2017 empowering the Government to extend due dates for various compliances inter-alia including statement of outward supplies, filing
refund claims, filing appeals, etc. specified, prescribed or notified under the Act, on recommendations of the GST Council.

PM CARES FUND

  1. A special fund “Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in
    Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES FUND)” has been set up for providing relief to the persons affected from the outbreak of Corona virus.
    The Ordinance also amended the provisions of the Income-tax Act to provide the same tax treatment to PM CARES Fund as available to Prime

India, World

Who will listen to the farmers?

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Suresh Ediga

I happened to be at the farm over the weekend, when I took the call from the farmer. He was calling from Maharashtra and when he learnt I was farming here (in the US)- first he was surprised then he got curious and started a barrage of questions

Do American farmers also commit suicide?
Yes, unfortunately. It is not as rampant as it is in India

What problems do they have?
They have the same problems as you do. They don’t get a fair price for their produce. Their subsidies are given to the companies. The crop insurance works for the insurance companies not for the farmers

Farmers here don’t get much help. How about farmers there, don’t they get any help?
The farmers here own anywhere from 50-60 acres to well over 1000 acres. The small farmers own anywhere from 60 to 100 acres.

Really, they own 100 acres and still they are small farmers?
Yes. And they are working alone in the farms, isolated and away from the rest of the community. When they find themselves in trouble there is no helpline for them nor any help coming their way

Do they have water problems?
No. They have plenty of water. The entire farm is connected with drip irrigation.

The farmer went on to talk about how there have been very little to no rains. There is drought and no respite from weather. Yes, there are upcoming elections and so there is some hope that the government will do something.

In some other news about farmers which, by the way, is hard to get these days

Onion prices are on the rise and the government is forced to do something only because of elections. They are now importing onions to flood the market with more onions to bring the price down

As per the Rajasthan State Co-operative Bank Limited (RSCB) website, a total of 20,79,492 farmers are registered for Kharif. But only 13,71,761 farmers got the loans leaving out almost 7 lakh farmers. So far, the disbursed loan amount stands at Rs 28,60.13 crore for this season.

And we have the Finance minister rolling back everything in the budget, announcing major cuts in corporate taxes, having back to back meetings with Corporates, but no such in person meetings with the farmers

The problem of farmer suicides is only getting worse. How can a government attempt to fix the problem when they can’t even acknowledge and face the reality. Ncrb has been shut since 2016, RTI has been muted – how will and who will listen to the farmers.

Are we willing to listen?
Are we willing to question?
Are we willing to do something, just anything?

The author, Suresh Ediga, has been involved in volunteering for more than 18 years now. And during the course of these 18 years, he has taken several projects at an individual level and has been able to implement them successfully.

World

India gets an invite from Nepal to assist in setup of Infra Bank

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Newsroom24x7 Desk

Nepal IndiaNew Delhi : Nepal government in keen to include India’s presence in infrastructure build-up in Nepal. This was indicated by the recent move taken by Nepal in seeking assistance from India for setting up Infrastructure Bank in Nepal. Nepal FM met his Indian counterpart this Monday and expressed desire for getting guidance and assistance in setting up infra bank. Finance Minister of both nations — Bishnu Prasad Paudel from Nepal and Arun Jaitley from India, had a lunch meet during which this proposal was discussed in detail. FinMin Jaitley informed that there is a scope for increasing India’s investment in Nepal in sectors such as power, healthcare and roadways as the neighboring country has sought assistance in setting up a special infrastructure development bank.

Jaitley asked Nepalese FinMin to finalize the country’s post-earthquake reconstruction program at the earliest to better utilize USD 1 billion assistance pledged by India.This meeting comes ahead of Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli’s likely visit to India on February 19 — which is stated to be his first foreign trip as the country’s premier. India has already provided financial commitment to Nepal in an earlier move, wherein, for the rebuilding of Nepal post earthquake, India had extended USD 1 billion in assistance at a donors’ conference in Kathmandu in June last year.

Finance Ministry issued a statement which spoke of the meet. Jaitley, during the meet, sounded optimistic of investments from Indian side — both in the public and the private sector — and sounded hopeful that this would give the required fillip and financial boost, and would reflect in investments across all sectors in Nepal, especially power, healthcare and road construction.

Paudel, Nepal FinMin, thanked India for the ‘tremendous assistance extended by the Indian government to Nepal in its hour of need’. In his words — Nepal is planning to establish a special infrastructure development bank and sought India’s help in this regard.

Nepal FinMin also met with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and tried to mend the burst of seams after constitution protests were on a rise, sounding promising towards normalizing ties after months of tense relations between India and Nepal at borders. Swaraj, during that meet with Finmin Paudel, assured Nepal that India is looking forward to Oli’s visit as it could “further strengthen” the bilateral ties.

Ties between the two countries had soured following Nepal adopting its new Constitution in September. Sections of the Nepalese population — Tharus, Madhesis and Janjatis — saw the new Constitution as discriminatory that would lead to their ‘political marginalization’.

India

AAP files a 2000-page reply to Jaitley’s defamation case today

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Newsroom24x7 Desk

AAP-SYMBOLNew Delhi : Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which was faced with defamation case against Kejriwal and Co. filed by none other than the finance Minister himself, Arun Jaitley, are finally ready to reply. Having pondered over the issue, and amidst series of retaliations in media and social networking sites, the Kejriwal-led AAP has inked a voluminous reply (read book), a 2000-page reply, and have decided to file it in the Delhi High Court today as a reply to the civil defamation case filed by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Jaitley had filed a criminal defamation complaint against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and five other AAP leaders On December 21, 2015 for allegedly bringing down his image and maligning his name in the Delhi and District Cricket Board (DDCA) controversy. The case had got presented before a Delhi court which had taken cognizance on his plea. FinMin had also made his opinion loud and clear in Lok Sabha during winter sessions, where he had said — All these allegations are baseless and devoid of truth. For a total sum Rs. 114 crore, we made a stadium with a capacity of taking 42,000 people. Contrary to that, the Congress built the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium spending Rs. 900 crores. No one raised doubts on that expenditure.

AAP has always tried to bring itself to the spotlight by waving out such papers, and has been famous for bringing up accumulated bundles of sheets on leaders of the opposition camps, in the likes of innumerable sheets on Shiela Dixit’s working practices, an election gimmick, the sheets — which are now lying somewhere, covered in dust since eternity (if the sheets really existed, that is). And the present paper roll is a 2000 sheeter reply on FinMin’s defamation plea, which the AAP is scheduled to lay on the table of Delhi High Court this Tuesday.

AAP-led Delhi government had set up a probe committee all by itself on the DDCA irregularities. However, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had declared that the probe committee formed by the Delhi Government to look into the affairs of the DDCA was `unconditional and illegal`.