TIOL-DDT 2920
31 08 2016
Wednesday

IN December 2015 (DDT 2752 28 12 2015), the Revenue Secretary had directed that any notice/letter/communication issued by any officer under Department of Revenue including CBDT, its directorates and field formations to the tax payers, 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.

It has come to the notice of the CBDT that that the notices do not contain any such details. This has led to a situation where the taxpayers who want to communicate with the Assessing Officer through e-mail or wish to make statutory compliance electronically are unable to do so. Further, non furnishing of official telephone number also causes inconvenience to the taxpayer concerned in case he needs to seek any clarification from the Assessing Officer.

Therefore, looking into the difficulties being faced by the taxpayers due to lack of proper compliance with earlier directions of the Board by some income-tax authorities, Board wants all income-tax authorities to invariably mention their official email Ids along with official telephone numbers/fax number in all notices/letters/communications being issued by them to the taxpayers.

Further, in all time-barring scrutiny cases and in cases where notice for any statutory proceeding has been issued during this financial year till now without the necessary communication details of the income-tax authority concerned, such information should be furnished to the concerned taxpayer immediately.

Board wants the Commissioners (Appeals) also to follow these instructions while handling appellate matters.

CBDT F.No. 225/214/2016/ITA.II., Dated: August 30. 2016 

Service Tax Exemption for Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS)

DDT 2918 29 08 2016 had reported about the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS)  of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, is to facilitate / stimulate regional air connectivity by making it affordable. We reported,

Accordingly, Government has notified the concessional rate of 2% excise duty for  Aviation Turbine Fuel drawn by operators or cargo operators from the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) airports, till 25th day of August, 2019.

The Scheme proposes that Service Tax will be levied on 10% of the taxable value (abatement of 90%) of tickets for RCS Seats on an RCS Flight, without any input credit, for an initial period of 1 year from the date of notification of the Scheme by MoCA. Subsequently, this will be reviewed and notified accordingly. Service Tax will be payable by the passengers over and above the specified Airfare Cap.

CBEC is yet to notify the service tax concession.

CBEC has now notified this. 90% abatement is given to the value of service of Transport of passengers, with or without accompanied belongings, by air, embarking from or terminating in a Regional Connectivity Scheme Airport. This will be valid for a period of one year from the date of commencement of operations of the Regional Connectivity Scheme Airport as notified by the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

Notification No.38/2016-Service Tax, Dated: August 30, 2016

What is meaning of 'deemed to have been duty paid'?

YOU need the Supreme Court of India to answer this question. And that is exactly what the Apex Court did recently observing, It is trite law that a fiction created by a provision of law is to be given its due play and it must be taken to its logical conclusion.

For more details, please see Breaking News.

GST - FICCI Wants GST to be administered by one authority alone and not by two

A delegation from FICCI met the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers yesterday to discuss GST related matters.

FICCI suggested:

++ Goods fully exempted from the levy of excise duty and VAT by all the states should be categorised as exempted goods in the GST regime as well.

++ Goods chargeable to nil rate of excise duty but charged to VAT in most of the States could be suggested for levying a merit rate of GST.

++ All other goods (except jewellery and demerit goods) could be subjected to the standard rate.

++ Clarity on the current exemption schemes (area based exemptions, incentives under State policies) is required because the transition provisions prescribed under the draft law do not provide for the treatment of the said exemptions / incentives.

++ In order to provide adequate time to the trade and industry to prepare itself for a hassle free roll out of the GST regime, a minimum of 6 months' time from the date of the adoption of the GST Law by the GST Council should be permitted. Additional time would be required in case the GST Law as passed by the Parliament or the State legislatures is significantly different from the one adopted by the GST Council.

++ As per present indications, there will be two separate authorities for administering the GST, one of the Central Government for the CGST / IGST and the other of the States for the SGST. Further, the draft Model GST Law contains separate and disparate provisions relating to administering the above levies by these authorities. GST is a path breaking tax reform and the opportunity it therefore provides for a thorough overhaul of the tax administration should not be missed. Consequently, GST be administered by one authority alone and not by two.

++ Given the stated intent of the Government to bring about a taxpayer friendly tax administration, with a non-adversarial relationship between the taxpayer and the tax authorities, it was hoped that the draft Model GST Law would contain path breaking provisions to bring about this desired outcome, couched in language which would further this objective. Instead, the Model Law has incorporated the extant provisions of the present Central Excise law at the Centre as also the present VAT laws of the States besides also containing several provisions which are even more rigorous than at present and worded in stringent language, such as the presumption of guilt and wrongdoing on the part of the taxpayer, in various situations which are enumerated in the Model Law.

++ In the draft GST law, wide powers have been given to Central/State Governments to prescribe transport documents for transportation of goods. Standardization in requirement of transport documents (such as consignment note, lorry receipt, delivery challan, GRN etc.) should be aimed under GST across all the States. No specific document should be required for inter-state movement of goods.

++ Valuation provisions under the draft GST laws are reflection of valuation laws of a single point tax like excise duty. Wide powers have been given under the draft GST laws to authorities to reject declared transaction value. The valuation provisions under GST (a transaction based tax) should give primacy to actual transaction value.

++ The manner of resolving the mismatch between the details of outward and inward supplies uploaded on the GST Network (GSTN) is unfair to the recipients of such supplies. The draft provides that a buyer shall not be entitled to claim an input tax credit (ITC) unless the tax charged in respect of such supply has been paid by the seller. Shifting the onus on the buyer to check whether the seller has paid goods and service tax (GST) is the most onerous provisions in the draft Model GST Law.

++ As a principle, once non-compliance is detected, it is the responsibility of the Tax Administration to proceed against non-compliant entities. This responsibility should not be fastened on the recipients.

The West Bengal Finance Minister is the current head of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers and West Bengal has not yet ratified the Constitution Amendment Bill.

GST - Full of Promises - Top Brass of North Block - but where is CBEC?  

YESTERDAY, the top four secretaries of the Finance Ministry were at a meeting organised by CNBC TV 18 explaining the niceties of GST. Pearls of wisdom from the Big Four:

Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia:

++ Fully Geared to Implement GST From April 1, 2017, from Govt Side

++ Worried About Corporates not being Prepared for GST

++ Corporates need to clarify with Govt if GST timeframe is enough

++ The government will grandfather exemptions in some cases

++ Adjudication will be handled by either State or Centre

Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa:

++ There is a concerted effort to address concerns on GST & to meet deadline

++ Resolution of GST issues is work in progress

++ Govt is committed to compensate states for any losses post GST

CEA Arvind Subramanian:

++ Aim to ensure that tax incidence is same as before GST implementation

++ RNR will depend on if compensation comes from GST Rate Or Budget

++ The GST Rate will depend upon a lot of policy choices

++ Hope that as efficiency increases, there will be more job creation

++ The higher the taxes, the greater the distortion

Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das:

++ Central & State govts well positioned to rollout GST from April 2017

++ Appeal to industry to come forward with their problems about GST

++ Consuming States will be net gainers with GST

++ Looking at a Very Small Exemption List

++ List of Exemptions will have to be Short for a Low Neutral Rate

++ Manufacturing States will see a lot of revenue buoyancy post GST

But where is CBEC?, maybe CNBC and the rest of the country is not aware that CBEC will be the agency that will administer GST.

Until Tomorrow with more DDT

Have a nice day.

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