Tuesday, July 6, 1999
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B U S I N E S S | Tuesday, July 6, 1999 |
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IT officials made more
accountable |
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 A cheque of Rs 51 lakh for the National Defence Fund was given by the CMD of Punjab & Sind Bank, on behalf of the bank, to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in New Delhi on Monday. — PTI
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Rs 1.25 crore CII fund
established Tejendra Khanna new Chairman of
Ranbaxy Award for literary critic
instituted Disinvestment panel term to be
extended ABB hives off division |
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IT
officials made more accountable CHANDIGARH, July 5 — The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has issued fresh guidelines with a view to introducing complete transparency in the functioning of the Income Tax Department, making its officers accountable for their actions, mopping up additional revenue, mitigating hardships of honest tax payers and tightening the noose round the necks of tax evaders. The guidelines that came into force from June 1 this year envisage that assessing officers will accept all returns at face value. This means that they will have no discretion whatsoever at the time of processing the returns. Mrs Surinder Pal Kaur, Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and the Union Territory of Chandigarh, said the acknowledgement slips issued to assessees would be "deemed to be intimations about the acceptance of their returns." Before these guidelines were enforced, the assessing officers exercised unbridled powers. The assessing officers could levy additional tax on those assessees who made either inadmissible deductions or claimed erroneous refunds. The new dispensation gives a quiet burial to Section 143 which provided for selection of cases on a random basis. Under this process assessing officers used to pick up cases on the basis of total returns filed in a financial year. The assessing officers had the power to select cases for scrutiny at any time within one year from the end of the month in which the returns were filed. Henceforth there will not be any random selection of cases for scrutiny. Instead, the new guidelines lay down that "the selection of cases will be based on specific information". The information has to be credible. The cases will be picked up at a joint meeting of assessing officer with his next superior authority for reasons to be recorded in writing. This will ensure that cases of large revenue potential are not left out of selection process. As per the new guidelines the end result of a case for scrutiny should justify its selection. It saddles the assessing officer with the responsibility of establishing concealment of income, making out a case for prosecution or high revenue yield. For this purpose the Chief Commissioner or the Director-General of Investigation, will lay down certain parameters. If any officer fails to meet the parameters set out by the Chief Commissioner or the Director-General of Investigation, he or she will earn reprimand from his superiors. Mrs Surinder Pal Kaur says the entire process of selection of cases for scrutiny will be completed on or before September 30 of the financial year. She adds that all individual assessees whose cases come up for scrutiny will be informed individually, apart from issuing a notice in newspapers. She says that this does not mean that the Income Tax Department will have no power to select a case for scrutiny after September 30. The Chief Commissioner of Income Tax has the discretion to take up any case for scrutiny even after that date. However, he or she will have to record reasons for this purpose. All those assessees whose returns will come under scrutiny will be subjected to thorough interrogation. This process will help the department to mop up additional revenue, apart from enabling it to show its teeth to tax evaders. Income tax practitioners in the city, however, feel that the system of thorough interrogation will cause considerable harassment to tax payers. Mr Prem Inder Rattan, Vice-President of the Income Tax and Sales Tax Bar Association, says that with a view to justifying their end result the assessing officers would adopt every possible method to squeeze tax payers. The system of interrogation will deter people from becoming assessees in future. Mr Rattan, however,
lauded the decision of the department to take up refund
cases on a priority basis. |
IT returns
date extended NEW DELHI, July 5 — The Central Board of Direct Taxes has extended the due date for submission of return of income for the assessment year 1999-2000 up to October 31, 1999, in the case of officers and personnel (all ranks) of the Indian defence services and the Central paramilitary forces, who were or are engaged in Operation Vijay in Kargil. The due date for filing
of wealth tax return is the same as specified under the
Income Tax Act. Therefore, the above persons can also
file their wealth tax return for assessment year
1999-2000 on or before October 31, 1999. |
Sahara
group floats Rs 50 crore Kargil fund SAHARA India has set up a fund for the support of the families of Kargil martyrs. The families of the victims will be entitled to family allowance, education allowance, allowances for purchasing books, allowances for festivals and birthdays, cloth allowance, family medical help with the facility of mediclaim policy and marriage benefits. “Sahara India Pariwar Kartavaya Council pledges to take the onus of adopting and providing emotional, financial, social and cultural security of all martyrs’ families under the aegis of Sahara Sankalp,” a Sahara India release said. The fund has been established with a total corpus of Rs 50 crore. The extent of financial support will depend on the rank of the defence personnel. For instance, the dependent wife of a jawan to Havildar Major will be entitled to Rs 24,000 (per annum) family allowance whereas Naib Subedar to Subedar Major will be entitled to Rs 42,000 (per annum). In the case of officers, up to the rank of Major, the dependent wife will be eligible for Rs 60,000 per annum family allowances whereas the dependent wife of a Lt Col and above will be eligible for Rs 90,000 per annum. These and other facilities will continue for 10 years but can be extended if the wards do not get self-dependent within this time period. In addition, Sahara India has assured employment for one person from each family in the organisation and also easy loan facilities for housing and household consumer products. Offer for kids’ education The Ambala Scientific Instruments Manufacturers’ Association with 160 members employing more than 2,000 technical and non-technical persons has offered to sponsor, train and absorb children and dependents of defence personnel killed in action. The association will sponsor the children for primary and higher education. The association has designed two months’ short-term on-the-job computer training programmes where widows of defence personnels can be absorbed at secretarial positions. It will provide on-the-job six months practical training to engineering graduates and diploma holders and absorb them in the sponsoring organisations. Punjab and Sind Bank today gave Rs 51 lakh for the Prime Minister’s National Fund. The cheque was handed over by Mr S.S. Kohli, Chairman and Managing Director of the bank, to Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee at his residence. Rs 10 lakh from JCT staff Mr S.K. Maheshwari,
business head of JCT Ltd gave a Rs 10 lakh cheque to Mr
Parkash Singh Badal Chief Minister, Punjab, on behalf of
JCT employees’ Synthetic Fibres and Steel division,
Hoshiarpur and Textile division Phagwara for the War
Heroes Family Welfare Fund on Saturday at Talwara. |
Rs 1.25 crore CII fund established NEW DELHI, July 5 (PTI) — Members of the Confederation of Indian Industry have donated over Rs 1.25 crore for CII Kargil Fund to rehabilitate injured soldiers and their families affected in the Kargil region. The CII expects to build a corpus of Rs 3 crore and the interest generated from the fund will support projects and schemes to assist the victims through training, developing and encouraging entrepreneurs, a CII release said on Monday. The Kargil fund will be
administered by a high-level advisory committee headed by
Rahul Bajaj and comprise representatives of industry, the
defence forces and the media, among others. |
Tejendra
Khanna new Chairman of Ranbaxy NEW DELHI, July 5 — Former Chief Secretary of Punjab Tejendra Khanna was today unanimously elected Chairman of Ranbaxy Laboratories while Mr D.S. Brar was appointed the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director MD with immediate effect. The decisions were taken by the company’s Board of Directors following the death of its Chairman and Managing Director, Dr Parvinder Singh, on Saturday. Mr Khanna is a former Lt Governor of Delhi and also a former Commerce Secretary. Mr Brar’s appointment comes three months ahead of schedule. He was scheduled to take over as MD of the company from October as was decided earlier during the Annual General Meeting held last month. Mr Brar joined Ranbaxy in 1977 and held several successive positions before becoming President of the company in 1996. He played a pivotal role in internationalising operations of the company and in its achieving and sustaining the leadership position in India. Dr Singh’s sons, in a statement following the two appointments, said they supported their father’s belief of “distinguishing ‘ownership’ from ‘management’ and the critical importance of the management to be based entirely on the principles of competence and merit for maximisation of value for all shareholders”. Paying rich tributes to their father, Malvinder Mohan Singh and Shivinder Mohan Singh said Dr Singh had implemented his ideals and principles, including professionalising the management of the company. Over the years he successfully built, nurtured and empowered a vast pool of dedicated and talented managerial, scientific and technical personnel in the company in all spheres of its operations, the statement said. Aware of his terminal illness, Dr Singh had in the June 8 board meeting taken measures to ensure a smooth takeover by announcing his succession plans. Dr Singh chose not to
name his sons for the posts, saying “the most
competent person should run the company. There should be
no apprehension that my sons, who are in their 20s, will
take over the company.” |
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Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) on Monday announced hiving of its power division into a separate company with transfer of all assets and liabilities. The Board of Directors of ABB approved the demerger of its power generation (Powerco) business in principle and also the scheme of arrangement involving the terms and conditions of the same, an ABB statement said here. The scheme would become effective on the last date of receipt of all approvals including sanctions or orders from Bombay High Court, obtained, passed and filed. After the scheme takes effect, in consideration of the demerger and transfer of the business in favour of Powerco, the new company would issue and allot one equity share of the Powerco of the face value of Rs 10 each for every one equity of face value of Rs 10 each held by the shareholders of abb. The shares to be issued and allotted by the Powerco would be listed on the stock exchanges. Appointment date for this arrangement is April 1, 1999, the statement said, adding Powerco would engage from the effective date, all permanent employees of ABB who are directly or indirectly employed in relation to the power generation business. Hind Lever okays merger : Shareholders of Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) approved the merger of Industrial Perfumes Ltd (IPL) with it, the sale of its dairy business to Nutricia and the decision to hive off its animal feeds business into a separate wholly owned subsidiary. HLL Chairman K.B. Dadiseth said the animal feeds business would be transferred to one of the “many existing valid wholly owned dormant subsidiary companies”. The transfer at a price of approximately Rs 16 crore would allow the animal feeds business to have a separate identity and increased operational flexibility, he said. VLS Finance : Investors of VLS Finance Limited have called for a detailed time-bound inquiry by the CBI into the alleged financial irregularities committed by the company. The investors, through the VLS Finance Investors Forum, have also called for liquidation of all assets owned by the Directors of the NBFC to pay back the dues of the investors. Talking to newspersons
here today, Mr Suresh Chand, convener of the Forum, said
the company had indulged in cheating, financial bungling
and frauds. — Agencies |
Award for
literary critic instituted NEW DELHI, July 5 —Khushwant Singh, eminent journalist and author, has deplored the tendency among publishers to cheat authors by not paying royalties due to them. Often writers are not aware of the number of copies of a book are sold. Speaking at a book launching ceremony organised by Minerva Press (India) Pvt. Ltd., Mr Khushwant Singh said if publishers lost their trust, writers would be forced to take to self-publishing. He cited Arun Shourie’s instance who became his own publisher and was able to get 70 to 80 per cent of the money earned by his books. Mr Bob Hamblin, Chairman, Minerva Press, who had come from London for the book launch, said that his company would be bringing the latest technology to India. Announcing the
institution of an award for the best literary critic of
the year, Khushwant Singh said that Rs 50,000 would be
given for the best book review/critique every year. An
independent panel of distinguished judges headed by
Khushwant Singh himself would select the winners from
among the nominees. The award has been instituted by
Minerva Press (India) Pvt. Ltd. |
Disinvestment
panel term to be extended NEW DELHI, July 5 — Industry Minister Sikandar Bakht today said that term of the Disinvesment Commission would be extended to enable the panel to complete its task. “We will extend the term of the Disinvesment Commission after reviewing the original functions of the panel and the extent to which it has accomplished them”, Bakht said on the sidelines of a seminar on ‘restructuring public sector units’ here. The present term of the Commission will be ending on August 22. Earlier, Bakht said restructuring of PSUs had become the need of the hour to operate in the competitive environment particularly in the post liberalisation phase. “If the PSUs are not getting sufficient return from the already infused Rs 2,50,000 crore of capital then where do we get the capital to infuse further investment”, Mr Bakht said while speaking at a seminar on PSU restructuring organised by the (FICCI) here. “Restructuring should mean returns on investment”, Mr Bakht said adding that mere “sloganeering is not going to get us anywhere” and “productive employment was essential”. Mr Bakht disclosed that
nearly 50 proposals of restructuring have been initiated
and many of them have been approved while others are at
different stages of consideration. |
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