Paris, Jan 27 : India has become the 32nd signatory for the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said Thursday.

India's signing of the convention, a multilateral agreement promoting international cooperation while respecting the rights of taxpayers, sent "a strong signal that countries are acting together to ensure that individuals and multinational enterprises pay the right amount of tax, at the right time and in the right place," the OECD said.

European Union officials might ask the Indian private sector carrier, Jet Airways to pay Rs 300 crore toward carbon emission tax for its operations on the continent.

Even as the European authorities have asked aviation firms to file their carbon emission data in order to calculate carbon taxes on them, the government in India has urged the airlines not to comply. India is opposing the move by the European authorities and have received support from more than two dozen countries including the US and China.

According to the latest release by the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), the total indirect tax receipts recorded an increase of 16.8 per cent in April-November period this year.

The data showed that the total indirect tax collections rose to Rs 2,52,544 crore even after a major reduction in duties on crude and petroleum products since June this year. The centre sacrificed revenues of close to Rs 4,000 crore a month since July due to changes in taxation rules related to petroleum products.

Chandigarh, May 28 - Undisclosed income worth Rs. 55 crore (Rs. 550 million) was found during income tax raids at the premises of the Ind-Swift group, a leading pharmaceutical company in northern India, officials said Saturday.

The raids were conducted late Friday at over 15 premises of Ind-Swift group here, income tax officials here said.

Higher amount of advance tax is paid by several companies for the fourth quarter of 2011 due to their healthy financial presentations.

An Income Tax source released that both Reliance Industries led by Mukesh Ambani and Tata Steel led by Ratan Tata have deposited more advance tax this quarter. Reliance Industries has paid Rs 1054 crore and Tata Steel has paid Rs 987-crore.

While in 2010 in Q4, Reliance Industries and Tata Steel the companies had paid Rs 770-crore and Rs 513-crore, respectively.

On Saturday Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne alleged that the government is holding discussions regarding the striking deals with three more countries where UK residents deposit money in banks in a proposal so as to avoid paying tax.

Officials hope that the deals could increase up to 10 billion pounds by the year 2015. The deal was shared with previous agreements.

Osborne refused to find out the three new tax place of protection.

Indirect tax collections enlarged 44.4 per cent to Rs 1, 50,686 crore in the first half of the current fiscal year from the related period last fiscal. During April-September the total indirect tax collection was 48.1 per cent of the Budget approximates for 2010-11.

The finance ministry declared today that proceeds collections from society improved 66.8 per cent to Rs 63,229 crore during the period. Collections from central excise rose 40.7 per cent to Rs 60,834 crore, while service tax collections verified a 14.8 per cent rise to Rs 26,623 crore.

The center has rejected the new and revised model of Goods and Services Tax (GST), which was proposed by some of the states of the country. The center rejected the new proposal by saying that a constitutional amendment was not needed for altering in the proposed indirect tax regime.

Some of the states like Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh had suggested for an interim GST model by which the states could tax services and share the earnings with the center but the tax on the goods will remain in the current regime.

Be it because of the lack of cooperation among the political parties or be it because of the tough implications of the rule, but the fact of the matter is, that the government has not been able to implement the GST regulations even after trying its level best in the couple of last years.

It is to be mentioned here that the Haryana Finance Minister Ajay Singh Yadav has recently said that as the most BJP ruled states are not favoring the decision of implementing GST they want their autonomy should not be affected.

The Goods and Services tax (GST) is going to be become 15 per cent from October 1. And the same is going to have impacts, which are direct, on businesses. There will be tax cuts and loads of preparation before the deadline strikes.

And as the date draws closer there are fundamental changes that the businesses are making in their systems. From updating their computer systems to repricing and re-tagging of their merchandise to making changes in their promotional and advertising materials, a lot has been happening in this front.

Vodafone International Holdings BV said that it has moved to the Supreme Court challenging a fine that has been imposed on it’s with respect to not filing of its Income Tax return.

The British telecom giant had taken over Hutchison way back in 2007. Supporting the stand taken by the Indian tax authorities, the Bombay High Court had imposed a fine of 12,000 crore rupees on it.

They said that since the deal was an overseas one and because Vodafone had bought assets in India, it was liable for paying of taxes within the country.

During the period between April and August of the current fiscal, there has been a visible surge in the total tax collection. The indirect tax collection alone went up by 45.9 per cent as compared to the last year.

Out of the total collection, customs showed an increase of 66.5 per cent while that for excise receipts was 41.7 per cent.

The rise has been the result of continued increase in the front of excise as well as customs duties.

It's official now. The much awaited new regime of indirect tax, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) will in most probability not be applied from April 1, 2010.

Talking to the PTI, a senior government official made this announcement. Revenue Secretary Sunil Mitras said that looking at the current situation GST will surely miss the deadline.

While the Government's started its ambitious goods and service tax (GST) project with a very bullish spirit but it has recently hit another roadblock in the country. It has been learned from the sources that the tax reforms may be delayed from its earlier deadline of April 2011 by upto a year.

In fact, sources are echoing that the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee may go slow on rolling out GST as the government has not managed to get a consensus among all the states.

Going by the information collected from the sources, while the Congress-ruled states have favoured it several BJP states are still playing hardball.

With the booming achievement made by goods and service tax (GST), it is expected that Indian economy will rise by a trillion dollar. Earlier GST is contributing one trillion dollar to the Indian economy and it is anticipated that with in short span of time economy will reach to $ 2 trillion, said by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday in the meeting of the industry chamber FICCI.

Under the revised draft of Direct Tax Code (DTC), the Finance Ministry is unlikely to continue giving income-tax sops to special economic zones (SEZ), even though assurance has been given by the Commerce Ministry regarding the protection of the SEZ investors’ interests.

Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma, and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee have a meeting last week to discuss the issue.

The Finance Ministry has hinted that they were not inclined to give in to the request of the Commerce Ministry regarding extension of sops for a number of reasons.

An economics professor has said that a new tax that went into effect on Thursday in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and British Columbia has led to "a lot of confusion."

Canwest news service has said that provincial citizens found themselves paying more for a number of products and services Thursday, Canada Day, as a 13 percent tax known as the Harmonized Sales Tax went into effect. Goods and services previously exempt from provincial sales tax in Ontario, from haircuts to theater tickets to gasoline, will cost more.

It plans to double the nation's sales tax rate to 10 percent to continue financing the country's social welfare system, Japan's ruling party has said.

The Kyoto News said on Friday that Prime Minister Naoto Kan of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan said the country needs a comprehensive reform in its tax system, urging opposition parties to join related parliament debates.

But some within his own coalition criticized his proposal for doubling the 5 percent consumption tax rate.

According to the official reports, a Michigan development office Tuesday approved $56.8 million in tax credits for 10 companies in order to create or keep 11,000 jobs in the state.

The Detroit News has reported that the Michigan Economic Development Corp. approved the credits for Ford Motor Co., Detroit Diesel and eight other firms.

The country has decided to establish eight more overseas tax units with the intention to fight the threat of evasion as growing cross-border trade of goods and services was throwing up novel and multifaceted challenges.

India's Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee made this announcement during the annual conference of chief commissioners and directors general of income tax in New Delhi.

Mr. Pranab also said that the growth of tax shelter products and use of tax havens is one more challenge that exhales from globalization.