TIOL-DDT 2863
08 06 2016
Wednesday

FROM 1.4.2016, Senior Advocates became liable to pay Service Tax under forward charge. Concerned senior advocates have got stay from some High Courts and the CBEC was planning to take all the cases to the Supreme Court.

In the meanwhile, it was rumoured that some senior advocates convinced their learned brother senior advocate Arun Jaitley to roll back this adventurous tax and it seems he agreed.

I asked a senior officer in the Board whether there was any proposal to withdraw this tax. He told me that this brilliant idea came from the FM himself and there was no possibility of any rollback.

Rollback they did, in a most confusing way - that only the Government can do. Even the learned senior advocates will find it difficult to understand what exactly the Government has done and what exactly the position now is.

The Government issued three notifications on 6th June 2016 relating to the subject:

1. Notification No. 32/2016-Service Tax, Dated: June 6, 2016: Notification No. 25/2012-Service Tax, dated 20.6.2012 is amended to exempt services provided by a Senior Advocate by way of legal services to any person other than a business entity; or a business entity with a turnover up to rupees ten lakh in the preceding financial year.

2. Notification No. 33/2016-Service Tax, Dated: June 6, 2016: The Service Tax Rules are amended to stipulate reverse charge mechanism for services provided by senior advocates, that is tax is to be paid by the recipient of service and if the senior advocate is engaged by another lawyer, the Service Tax is to be paid by the litigant.

3. Notification No. 34/2016-Service Tax, Dated: June 6, 2016: Notification No. 30/2012-Service Tax, dated 20.6.2012 is amended to stipulate 100% payment of tax by the recipient of the service provided by senior advocates.

So, the position briefly is:

1. Services provided by senior advocate to a business entity with a turnover of more than Rs. Ten lakhs, are taxable.

2. The whole of the tax is to be paid by the client.

And for this, they have now issued three notifications and enabled waste of hundreds of tons of paper and precious time of several senior advocates and High Courts - all for a mission that would not have got them even a few thousands of rupees.

Disease of doing business in full swing!

Also see DDT  2820  &  2825

Anti Dumping Duty on Vitrified Porcelain Tiles - Provisional Assessment - Finalised

ANTI Dumping Duty on import of Vitrified Porcelain Tiles originating in or exported from the People's Republic of China (China PR) was imposed vide notification 82/2008-Cus dated 27.06.2008.

M/s. Foshan Sanshui Romantic Ceramics Co Limited, China PR (Producer-1); Heyuan Romantic Ceramics Company Limited, China PR (Producer-2); Foshan Beyond Import and Export Company Limited, China PR (Shipper) and Thai Impex Malaysia SDNBHD, Malaysia (Exporter) [the NSR applicants] had requested for review in terms of rule 22 of the Customs Tariff (Identification, Assessment and Collection of Anti-dumping Duty on Dumped Articles and for Determination of Injury) Rules, 1995, in respect of exports of the subject goods made by them.

The Government has ordered that all imports of the subject goods produced by M/s Foshan Sanshui Romantic Ceramics Co Limited, China PR (Producer-1), and Heyuan Romantic Ceramics Company Limited, China PR (Producer-2) and exported by Foshan Beyond Import and Export Company Limited, China PR (Shipper) and Thai Impex Malaysia SDNBHD, Malaysia (Exporter) to India, which have been subjected to provisional assessment pursuant to the notification No. 35/2012-Customs (ADD), dated the 10th July, 2012, shall be subjected to final assessment on the payment of anti-dumping duty as imposed vide notification of No. 82/2008-Customs, dated the 27th June, 2008.

Consequently, Notification No. 35/2012-Customs (ADD), dated the10th July, 2012 is rescinded.

Notification No. 24/2016-Customs(ADD)., Dated June 07 2016

Notification No. 25/2016-Customs(ADD)., Dated June 07 2016

Lower Duty for Clandestine Clearance?

CAN you imagine a higher duty for clearances with permission and lower duty for clandestine clearances? Well, the Law used to stipulate that some time ago - prior to 2001 to be precise. The duty payable by EOUs for DTA clearances allowed by the authorities was the aggregate of customs duties and for other clearances, the duty was normal excise duty. This aberration was corrected in 2001. But for the period prior to 2001, that was the law and it was upheld by the Supreme Court. This should have been an issue closed in 2001 or at least in 2010 when the Supreme Court explained the law.

But last week, the Supreme Court had to again decide the issue. The Supreme Court reiterated its earlier view.

Please see Breaking News for more details.

Dress Code for Annual Conference of Tax Administrators

PRIME Minister Modi is to address the officers of the rank of Principal Commissioner and above of CBDT and CBEC on 16th June 2016.

CBDT informs that the DRESS CODE for the conference will be Formals (Lounge Suit/Bandhgala/Full Sleeve Shirt with Tie/Waist Coat/Light Coloured Saree/Salwar Kameez.)

This is how a District Collector received the Prime Minister and apparently his Chief Minister was not impressed.

CBDT Office Memorandum in F. No. 401/5/2016-ITCC., Dated June 06, 2016

Inflation and Pay Commission

IN his Monetary Policy Statement yesterday, the RBI Governor Dr. Raghuram Rajan said,

The inflation surprise in the April reading makes the future trajectory of inflation somewhat more uncertain. The expectations of a normal monsoon and a reasonable spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall, along with various supply management measures and the introduction of the electronic national agriculture market (e-NAM) trading portal, should moderate unanticipated flares of food inflation.

In addition, capacity utilisation indicators suggest that the available headroom in industry could keep output prices subdued even as demand picks up. Nonetheless, there are upside risks - firming international commodity prices, particularly of crude oil; the implementation of the 7th Central Pay Commission awards which will have to be factored into projections as soon as clarity on implementation emerges.

Income Tax - Cost Inflation Index

AS  per Section 48 of the Income Tax Act, for calculating capital gains, indexed cost of acquisition is to be deducted from the sale consideration to arrive at the taxable gains. And the Government is to notify a cost inflation index (CII). The government has now notified 1125 as the cost inflation index for 2016-17.

The Cost Inflation Index for the previous years:

Income Tax Notification No. 42/2016, Dated: June 02, 2016

Until Tomorrow with more DDT

Have a nice day.