The government plans an umbrella law to tighten financial scrutiny and regulation of religious trusts and non-profit organisations as it looks to allay global concerns about money laundering and terrorist financing activities by such entities. It is also likely to make public names of organisations that claim tax exemption to ensure greater transparency. Some of India's religious trusts are among the richest in the world. Last year, Tirumala temple, managed...

As many as 17 top officials representing the senior bureaucracy are believed to have amassed or misappropriated nearly Rs 603 crore between 2007 and 2010. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has submitted a list of the officials under investigation to the parliamentary committee on assurances. The CBI says these officers had misappropriated funds from the exchequer and entered into criminal conspiracies by making huge illegal financial transactions. The CBI says it...

The Centre on Monday informed the Supreme Court that it had constituted a high level committee comprising the heads of various probe agencies and specialised departments under the aegis of the Department of Revenue to monitor the investigation of all aspects relating to black money. Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam told a Bench of Justice B. Sudershan Reddy and Justice S.S. Nijjar that the 10-member committee, headed by the Revenue Secretary, would...

The Income Tax Department has handed over to the CBI tapes of a fresh set of an estimated 15,000 conversations of intercepted telephone calls which could widen the scope of the agency’s probe in the 2G scam and spell trouble for corporate lobbyist Niira Radia. The 15,000 conversations involve two alleged Delhi-based hawala dealers Anil Bansal and R S Bansal whose phones were put on surveillance along with those of Radia...

The gap between PAN holders and the number of returns filed was 617.1 lakh Biometrics uses biological method to identify physical features of an individual 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, in the wake of a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report that asked the Income...