All real estate transactions will have to be reported to the country's anti- moneylaundering agency once the government amends a key law that seeks to curb black-money transactions. The government plans to amend the Prevention of Money Laundering Act , which will require property registrars to file data of transactions recorded by them with the Financial Intelligence Unit, or FIU, a finance ministry official said. "The scope of the (Prevention...

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...

Delhi and Chandigarh may hardly have any land left for agriculture but when it comes to availing cheap farm loans, they beat top agricultural states of the country. Residents of the two cities took agricultural loans worth over Rs 32,400 crore in 2009-10 – more than UP, West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand put together. The four agrarian states collectively got less than Rs 31,000 crore in 2009-10. Delhi alone has, since 2007-08,...

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...

Giving in to demands from anti-corruption activists, the government today issued a gazette notification on formation of a joint committee headed by senior minister Pranab Mukherjee to draft an effective Lokpal Bill. The notification, one of the key demands of the anti-corruption campaign launched by Gandhian Anna Hazare, has been signed by V K Bhasin, Secretary, Legislative Department of the Law Ministry. The notification was proudly displayed at the site of Hazare's...