-PTI In order to guard against possible leakage of names figuring in the secret bank accounts lists it has received from foreign shores, the Central Board of Direct Taxes CBDT has ordered the I-T department to obtain a signed undertaking from any government entity or department who demands the data for their own probe. The CBDT fears that if these names are leaked and they are publicised, global financial bodies like OECD...

Chances of a single answer to two opposing questions on the RTI Act means there is something to it which the rule-books don’t tell you about—but you can bowl googlies to them, too, when the system expects you to hold a straight bat to their bouncers Here is a single answer to two diametrically opposite questions—“Yes, you can file an application under the Right to Information Act of India 2005 (RTI...

-The Hindu   Revised pact with Switzerland will allow India to obtain banking information in specific cases: Finance Minister   Having impressed upon the G-20 nations the need to adopt automatic sharing of banking and tax-related information at the Paris Ministerial meeting last weekend, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday sought to highlight the “noteworthy” achievements and the progress made back home in unearthing unaccounted income. In his inaugural address at the ‘Economic Editors'...

-PTI   The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) today said it would submit its report to the government in September, suggesting changes required in the key economic Acts such as Income Tax and FEMA to tackle the menace of black money and ways of retrieving it from tax havens abroad. ICAI had said earlier this month that the report was expected in August. A committee, headed by ICAI President G Ramaswamy, is...

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...