Ministry of Finance

Government of India Condemns False Reporting on Cairn Legal Dispute

Dated: 23 MAY 2021

The Government of India has strongly condemned the false reporting in certain media by some vested interests claiming that the Government of India has purportedly asked state-owned banks to withdraw funds from foreign currency accounts abroad in anticipation of the potential seizure of such accounts with regard to the Cairn legal dispute.

Condemning all such source based reports as false, the Government of India said that these are totally incorrect reports which were not based on true facts. Certain vested parties appear to have orchestrated such misleading reporting, which often relies upon unnamed sources and presents a lopsided picture of factual and legal developments in the case.

Government of India is vigorously defending its case in this legal dispute. It is a fact that the Government has filed an application on March 22, 2021 to set aside the highly flawed December 2020 international arbitral award in The Hague Court of Appeal.

The Government has raised several arguments that warrant setting aside of the award including but not limited to: (i) the arbitral tribunal improperly exercised jurisdiction over a national tax dispute that the Republic of India never offered and/or agreed to arbitrate; (ii) the claims underlying the award are based on an abusive tax avoidance scheme that were a gross violation of Indian tax laws, thereby depriving Cairn’s alleged investments of any protection under the India-UK bilateral investment treaty; and (iii) the award improperly ratifies Cairn’s scheme to achieve Double Non-Taxation, which was designed to avoid paying taxes anywhere in the world, a significant public policy concern for governments worldwide. This proceeding is pending. The Government is committed to pursuing all legal avenues to defend its case in this dispute worldwide.

It is also stated that the CEO and the representatives of Cairns have approached the Government of India for discussions to resolve the matter. Constructive discussions have been held and the Government remains open for an amicable solution to the dispute within the country’s legal framework.

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RM/MV/KMN

(Release ID: 1721039)

 

HC stays the operation of faceless assessment order passed and as well as the penalty proceedings initiated u/s 274 read with 270A of the Act. HC considers assessee's submission that in reply of show cause notice w.r.t. draft assessment the submissions were filed and a hearing was requested. However, without considering his request for hearing, notice of demand for Rs.669.31 crores and penalty proceedings have been initiated.

Click here to read and download HC order

 

OFFICE OF THE COMPTROLLER AND AUDITOR GENERAL OF INDIA

9, DEEN DAYAL UPADHYAYA MARG, NEW DELHI – 110 002

Empanelment of Chartered Accountant firms/LLPs for the year 2021-2022

Online Applications are invited from Chartered Accountant firms/LLPs who desire to  be empanelled with the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India for the year 2021-2022 for the purpose of appointment of auditors of Companies as per  Sections 139 (5) and 139(7) of the Companies Act 2013 and of Statutory Corporations/Autonomous Bodies as per the provisions of their respective Acts. The online application along with detailed instructions in this regard will be available on the website www.cag.gov.in from 1 January 2021 to 15 February 2021. The applicant  firms/LLPs will have to fill/update the data showing the status of their firm as on 1  January 2021. After filling/updating the data, the firms/LLPs will be required to generate online acknowledgement letter for the year. If the firms/LLPs fail to generate online acknowledgment letter, their application would not be considered for empanelment. The firms/LLPs will be required to submit a print out of the acknowledgement letter generated online and also hard copies of the documents in support of their online application in this office by 26 February 2021.

sd/-

Sr. Administrative Officer/CA-V

 

HC stays the operation of faceless assessment order passed and as well as the show cause notice (SCN) for penalty u/s 274 r.w.s 270A and 271AAC. HC considers assessee's submission that in reply of SCN w.r.t. draft assessment order dt. 15th April 2021 the submissions were filed and a hearing was requested. However, without considering his request for hearing, assessment order on 21st April, 2021 raising a demand of Rs. 374,02,52,160/-  has been passed and the penalty proceedings have been initiated.

Click here to read and download HC order

 

Government of India

Department of Revenue

Ministry of Finance

Central Board of Direct Taxes

New Delhi, 20th May, 2021

PRESS RELEASE

Launch of new e-filing Portal of the Income Tax Department - Non-availability of  e-filing services from 01.06.2021 to 06.06.2021

            The Income Tax Department is going to launch its new e-filing portal www.incometax.gov.in on 7^th June, 2021. The new e-filing portal (www.incometax.gov.in) is aimed at providing taxpayer convenience and a modern, seamless  experience to taxpayers:

• New taxpayer friendly portal integrated with immediate processing of Income Tax Returns(ITRs) to issue quick refunds to taxpayers;
• All interactions and uploads or pending actions will be displayed on a single dashboard for follow-up action by taxpayer;
• Free of cost ITR preparation software available online and offline with interactive questions to help taxpayers fill ITR even without any tax knowledge, with pre-filling, for minimizing data entry effort
• New call center for taxpayer assistance for immediate answers to taxpayer queries with FAQs, Tutorials, Videos and chatbot/live agent;
• All key portal functions on desktop will be available on Mobile App which will be enabled subsequently for full anytime access on mobile network;
• New online tax payment system on new portal will be enabled subsequently with multiple new payment options using netbanking, UPI, Credit Card and RTGS/NEFT from any account of taxpayer in any bank, for easy payment of taxes.

In preparation for this launch and for migration activities, the existing portal of the Department at www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in would not be available to taxpayers as well as other external stakeholders for a brief period of 6 days i.e. from 1^st June, 2021 to 6^th June, 2021.

In order to avoid any inconvenience to taxpayers, the Department will not fix any compliance dates during this period. Further, directions have been issued to fix hearing of cases or compliances only from 10^th June, 2021 onwards, to give taxpayers time to respond on the new system. If, any hearing or compliance which requires submissions online has been scheduled during this period, the same will be preponed or adjourned and the work items would be rescheduled after this period.

The Department has also intimated external entities including Banks, MCA, GSTN, DPIIT, CBIC, GeM, DGFT who avail services of PAN verification etc. about the non-availability of the services and to request them to make arrangements to ensure that their customers/stakeholders are apprised, so that any relevant activity can be completed prior to or after the blackout period.

Taxpayers are encouraged to complete all their urgent tasks involving any submission, upload or downloads before 1^st June, 2021 to avoid any difficulty during the blackout period.

            The Department requests the patience of all taxpayers and other stakeholders during the switch over to the new e-filing portal and the subsequent initial period while they get familiarized with the new system. This is another initiative by CBDT towards providing ease of compliance to its taxpayers and other stakeholders.

(Surabhi Ahluwalia)

Commissioner of Income Tax

(Media & Technical Policy)

Official Spokesperson, CBDT