Govt may not extend sunset clauses for tax exemption

Government may not extend sunset clauses with regard to tax exemption and phase out investment- linked and area based deductions as part of exercise to reduce corporate tax to 25 per cent from 30 per cent over the next four years.
"The provisions having a sunset date will not be modified to advance the sunset date. Similarly, the sunset dates provided in the Act will not be extended," the CBDT said while unveiling the proposed roadmap for phasing out of deductions under the Income Tax Act.
It has invited comments on the proposal withing 15 days.
In case of tax incentives with no terminal date, a sunset date of March 31, 2017 will be provided either for commencement of the activity or for claim of benefit depending upon the structure of the relevant provisions of the Act.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced in his last Budget speech that the rate of corporate tax will be reduced from 30 per cent to 25 per cent over the next four years along with corresponding phasing out of exemptions and deductions.
This, he had said, was a step towards simplification of tax laws, which is expected to bring about transparency and clarity.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) further said that "profit linked, investment linked and area based deductions will be phased out for both corporate and non- corporate tax payers".
(Reopens DEL40)
After the shock demonetisation of 500 and 1,000 rupee

notes on November 8, the government had asked holders of such currency bills to deposit them in bank accounts by December 30. An estimated Rs 15.44 lakh crore worth such high denomination notes were in circulation.
While the RBI has not made it public the exact amount of junked notes that were deposited, there are reports that close to Rs 15 lakh crore has already come back.
The tax department, in order to crack down on money laundering, has asked banks to report deposits in any account aggregating Rs 10 lakh in a year, as well as cash payments of Rs 1 lakh or more on credit card bills.

Also banks have been asked to furnish data about deposits exceeding Rs 2.5 lakh made during November 9-December 30 period. They have also asked banks to collect PAN details of all account holders, except in case of Jan Dhan accounts.
Also it has come to the notice of the government that an estimated Rs 3-4 lakh crore of tax-evaded income could have been deposited during 50-day window that ended on December 30.
After in-depth analysis, these reports have been disseminated to Income Tax Department, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and other Law Enforcement Agencies.
Starting from November 8, 2016 various reports were called for from the banks based on different threshold of cash deposits made by different categories of persons. The reports were collated and analysed based on intelligence which has been available in the government data bases.

Also, the I-T Department and ED have been provided with the details of cash deposits of more than Rs 16,000 crore in different accounts of various kinds of Cooperative banks.