Committee receives less than 10 applications under retro law

A high-level committee, set up by CBDT to scrutinise all Income Tax cases arising out of the retrospective tax amendment, have received less than 10 applications so far, a top finance ministry official said.
"The high-level committee to scrutinise all Income Tax cases arising out of the retrospective tax has received less than 10 applications so far," Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairperson Anita Kapur told reporters here.
Last year, the government set up a four-member committee, headed by the Joint Secretary of the Foreign Tax and Tax Research-I unit of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to scrutinise all such cases arising out of the retrospective tax amendment.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced this new mechanism in his Budget 2014-15 speech on July 10.
Talking about enhancing international cooperation to combat black money cases, the CBDT Chairperson said that global automatic exchange of information has begun and India will very soon start getting information on tax evasion.
"We have entered into an agreement with USA, called the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), and it is to be formally signed soon. It will deal with all major elements of taxation between the two countries. From September, we will start getting information from the US authorities on a reciprocal basis," Kapur said.

"FATCA will address certain special cases of individuals getting consultancy fees in either country," she said.

Refuting charges that the government is holding up tax refunds, Kapur said that the figures under this category in the first two months of the current fiscal stood at Rs 39,147 crore against similar figures of Rs 32,366 crore in the same period of the last financial year.
The CBDT Chairperson further said that the department has received around 500 applications for settlement of tax-related issues under the Advance Pricing Agreement(APA) rules.
APA is a pact, usually for multiple years, between a taxpayer and a taxing authority (Central Board of Direct Taxes in India) on an appropriate transfer pricing methodology for a set of international transactions in future.

She added that the government will soon announce compliance window for those having unaccounted foreign income and assets so that they can initially escape prosecution under the Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets (Imposition of Tax) Act, 2015.
"That is a work in the making," she said.
Replying to a question on an Indian arbitrator quiting the Vodafone tax case, the CBDT chief said they were "in the process" of appointing a replacement soon.