-Hindustan Times The key to this problem lies in the way political and electoral financing are conducted in this country The stranglehold of political parties on the electoral and political system continues to increase with time. The anti-defection law, passed in 1985, formalised the control of political parties even on Parliament. Despite a large number of candidates on the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), the candidates with a realistic chance of getting elected...

-PTI New Delhi: The attachments of over 780 benami assets, worth crores, risk being invalidated because of the government's failure to create a designated adjudicating authority in the 19 months since enforcing a stringent law against black money and corruption. The Centre had amended the Benami Property Transaction Act of 1988 and enforced the tighter version on November 1, 2016, days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi demonetised 1,000-rupee and 500-rupee notes. Section 7...

Believe it or not, the total revenue foregone in 2017-18 on account of special tax rates, exemptions, deductions, rebates, deferrals and credits -- broadly termed as 'tax expenditures' (an indirect subsidy) – that was given to corporate taxpayers has been more than 50 percent of the expenditure incurred by the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (MoAFW) and the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) altogether in that year. In other...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: The Income-tax Act is intricate — sometimes income received by an individual even if it relates to employment, does not fit within the technical definitions of 'salary' or 'profits received in lieu of salary'. Thus, very often, such income could not be taxed. Budget 2018-19 proposes to change this scenario. A wide range of income received — say non-compete payments (which sometimes did not fit the above...

-PTI The SIT was set up on the orders of the Supreme Court in 2014 through a government notification to suggest methods to curb black money in the economy. The Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team on black money is answerable under the RTI Act, the Central Information Commission has held. Bringing SIT under the RTI Act, Information Commissioner Bimal Julka said every action of the government must be actuated in...