-The Telegraph New Delhi: The income tax department has allowed referral kickbacks paid to doctors by private hospitals, nursing homes and diagnostic centres and spending on advertisements by doctors as expenses despite such expenditure being disallowed and unethical, a parliamentary panel said on Thursday. The public accounts committee for the Union finance ministry's department of revenue has cited an audit that found that in 19 instances in eight states, income-tax officers had...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A Right to Information applicant has drawn a blank while trying to access studies carried out on black money by autonomous research institutions under the finance ministry, making him wonder whether these documents have been sucked into some black hole. Even the much-touted special investigation team on black money - set up by the Narendra Modi government soon after assuming office - has informed Venkatesh Nayak of the...

-The Indian Express The Centre has defended their appointments, saying it was cleared unanimously by a three-member committee comprising the PM, Home Minister and Leader of Opposition. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its order on a petition challenging the appointment of former Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) head K V Chaudhary as Chief Vigilance Commissioner and former CMD of Indian Bank T M Bhasin as Vigilance Commissioner. A...

-TheWire.in Year-to-year growth in the number of tax payers in 2016-17 was 26% (with demonetisation), which is less than 27.6% during 2015-16 (without demonetisation). I am finally able to resolve the jigsaw puzzle of the number of tax payers added during FY 2016-17. In my last article in response to the clarifications issued by the Ministry of Finance on August 18, I pointed out the inconsistencies in their response. For instance, “Instead...

-TheWire.in Instead of waiting for all the data to come in and making an apples-with-apples comparison, are different numbers being thrown at the public in order to make a political point about the ‘success’ of demonetisation? On August 18, the Ministry of Finance issued a clarification about the number of tax payers that had been added post-demonetisation, hoping to set at rest the confusion – and skepticism – that had resulted from...