The government has decided to issue biometric PAN cards to taxpayers across the country to weed out the problem of duplicate and fake ones. The decision was taken recently by the finance ministry and it comes in the wake of a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report that asked the income tax department to ensure that a single tax payer is not issued multiple cards. The proposed new biometric Permanent Account Number...
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Union Home Ministry awaiting Communal Violence Bill draft
Union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai clarified on Friday that his ministry was awaiting the draft of the Communal Violence Bill from the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC). “There has been some delay but we hope to get it by the end of March, after which we will study it in the MHA, before it goes to cabinet,” he said. Mr Pillai was responding to a question, at an interaction at...
More »Takeaways from an RTI experience by LV Srinivasan
A case where request for info on some Budget 2007 notings was rejected by the CBDT, but made available by the Central Information Commission, the Second Appellate Authority under the RTI Act. The Right to Information Act of 2005 is a very important piece of legislation to bring about complete transparency in the functioning of the bureaucracy and thus increase accountability as well as reduce corruption. Since it is a relatively new...
More »FinMin probing more than 100 overseas deals for tax evasion
The Finance Ministry has begun its maiden investigation into over 100 offshore "financial structuring deals" undertaken by Indian business entities in foreign tax havens to allegedly evade the taxman's net. The multi-pronged probe has been undertaken by the international taxation wing of the Income Tax department and the foreign taxation unit in the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). A number of investments and deals to the tune of billions of rupees...
More »“I have neither seen nor heard the Radia tapes”
Union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai on Saturday said he had neither heard nor seen the tapes of conversations between corporate lobbyist Niira Radia and others, and denied leaking the tapes at the behest of Home Minister P. Chidambaram.“I wish to clarify that neither I, nor the Ministry of Home Affairs had, or have any access to any of the tapes concerning the interception of Ms. Radia's telephones,” Mr. Pillai said...
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