Page 2 - It Act

CAIT members meet FM, demand deferment of I-T Act clause related to MSMEs

Representatives of traders' body CAIT on Wednesday met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and demanded that implementation of a clause in Income Tax Act related to MSMEs payment rule be deferred by a year to April 2025. In a release, Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said a delegation led by its Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal conveyed the traders' concerns to the finance minister and suggested a solution during the meeting. In its memorandum, CAIT welcomed the government's decision, highlighting the significance of ensuring timely payments to the MSME sector within 45 days to maintain uninterrupted cash flow for traders. However, given the "lack of clarity" surrounding the applicability of the law to traders and other related provisions, CAIT called for suspension of implementation of Section 43 (b)h of the Income Tax Act until sufficient clarification and information dissemination are achieved nationwide. "CAIT further appealed to the government to postpone the ...

Bombay HC gives split verdict in case challenging FCUs under IT Rules

Justice Patel ruled in favour of the petitioners, striking down the rule and Justice Gokhale dismissed the petitions, and upheld the rule

Zydus Lifesciences arm gets Rs 284.58 cr income tax demand notice

Zydus Lifesciences on Tuesday said its arm Zydus Healthcare Ltd has been served an income tax notice demand of Rs 284.58 crore for for the assessment year 2023-2024. Zydus Healthcare Ltd (ZHL), a wholly-owned subsidiary, has received an intimation under section 143(1) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (IT Act), determining demand of Rs 284.58 crore, Zydus Lifesciences said in a regulatory filing. The intimation is for the assessment year 2023-2024 from the CPC, Income Tax Department, it added. The demand is determined due to "apparent mistakes while processing its return of income", it said. "The company strongly believes that once the rectification will be made, the entire demand will be deleted," Zydus Lifesciences said. ZHL has already disagreed with demand on the e-filing portal of the Income Tax Department. It is also going to file Rectification Application under section 154 of the IT Act, before the CPC as well as before the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer against the said ...

Children addicted to social media, user age limit needed: Karnataka HC

The court noted that some content should not only be banned from the social media but from the internet

Centre issues directions for blocking 3,470 URLs this year: MoS IT

The central government issued directions for blocking 3,470 URLs in 2023 under provisions of the IT Act, Parliament was informed on Wednesday. Section 69A of the IT Act provides power to the central government to issue directions to block any information if it is necessary to do so in the interest of sovereignty and integrity, defence of India, security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States or public order, Minister of State for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. "The Central Government has issued directions for blocking of 6,096, 6,775 and 3,470 URLs in the year 2021, 2022 and 2023, respectively," the minister added. He was specifically replying to a question on orders served by the government to social media platforms to take down content, hampering the digital safety of citizens since 2021. The policies of the government are aimed at ensuring an open, safe and trusted and accountable internet for all digital nagriks, he said. The IT

Karnataka HC imposes a fine of Rs 50 lakh on Twitter for non-compliance

The court has also refused Twitter's request to stay the Centre's orders to block some accounts on its platform with tweets related to coronavirus and farmers' protests

IT Rules amendments don't offer protection to parody, satire: Bombay HC

The amendments to the Information Technology Rules, prima facie, do not seem to offer protection to parody and satire, the Bombay High Court said on Monday while hearing a petition filed by stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra. The HC bench also said Kamra's petition challenging the amendments was maintainable. On April 6, the Union government promulgated certain amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, including a provision of a fact check unit to identify fake or false or misleading online content related to the government. Kamra, in his petition, claimed the new rules could potentially lead to his content being arbitrarily blocked or his social media accounts being suspended or deactivated, thus harming him professionally. He has sought that the court declare the amended rules as unconstitutional and give a direction to the government to restrain from taking action against any individual under the rules. The Union .

Misleading information has potential to fan separatist push: Central govt

False and misleading information has the potential to fan separatist movements and intensify social and political conflict, the Central government told Bombay High Court on Friday while responding to stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra's petition challenging an amendment to the Information Technology Rules. Citing a study, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), further said false news travelled six times faster than the truth, necessitating the 2023 amendment to the IT Rules. It, however, said that the impending fact check unit may only direct removal of false or misleading information pertaining to government policies and programmes, and not any satire or artist impression. Kamra, in his petition, claimed that the new rules could potentially lead to his content being arbitrarily blocked or his social media accounts being suspended or deactivated, thus harming him professionally. The stand-up comedian has sought the court to declare the amended rules as ...

No penalty under 271C for belated remittance of TDS after deduction: SC

The Supreme Court Monday held that no penalty shall be leviable under section 271C of the Income Tax Act over mere belated remittance of the tax deducted at source (TDS) after its deduction by the assessee concerned. The top court noted that section 271C of the Act deals with penalty for failure to deduct TDS. It said as per settled position of law, the penal provisions are required to be construed strictly and literally and as per the cardinal principle of interpretation of statute and more particularly, the penal provision, "the penal provisions are required to be read as they are." "Nothing is to be added or nothing is to be taken out of the penal provision. Therefore, on plain reading of section 271C of the Act, 1961, there shall not be penalty leviable on belated remittance of the TDS after the same is deducted by the assessee," a bench of Justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar said. It said section 271C of the Income Tax Act is quite categoric and its scope and extent of applicat

Self-regulating body to work at arm's length from gaming industry: IT min

Rajeev Chandrasekhar added that many of the burning issues around online user harm, safety and trust, safeguarding children from addictive intermediaries or platforms will be addressed

Laws and order

Decriminalisation will improve business environment

India's requests to Meta for user data up slightly at 55,497 in H1 of 2022

Requests from governments across the globe for user data were up 10.5% to 237,414

Laid off? Seek advice before claiming tax exemption on severance pay

You can claim only if the payout is voluntary and you have documentary proof to this effect

Tax authorities want IT professionals to declare income from 'moonlighting'

The concerns from tax authorities have come at a time when there is an ongoing debate on how far 'moonlighting' by employees can be allowed.

Reasons to block must be recorded, communicated to users: Twitter to HC

The high court was hearing the plea challenging the blocking of 39 URLs by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in 2021

Govt to set up social media grievance appellate committees within 3 months

The committees will be established with the aim of providing users of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter with an alternative dispute resolution method

Gifts received from non-relatives of above Rs 50,000 a year are taxable

Gifts from employer become taxable once their value exceeds Rs 5,000; bonus is also taxable

Govt not empowered to issue orders to block accounts: Twitter to HC

Council for microblogging site emphasises that Section 69A (power to intercept electronic communication) of IT Act does not spell out mass blocking of accounts

No citizen can be prosecuted under Section 66A IT Act: Supreme Court

The section relating to restrictions on online speech was declared unconstitutional on grounds of violating the freedom of speech guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India.

No citizen can be prosecuted under scrapped section 66A of IT Act: SC

The Supreme Court Wednesday directed no citizen can be prosecuted under section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, which it had scrapped way back in 2015. Under the annulled section, a person posting offensive content could be imprisoned for up to three years and also fined. Underlining that liberty of thought and expression is of "cardinal" significance, the top court had on March 24, 2015 done away with the provision, saying "the public's right to know is directly affected by Section 66A of the Information Technology Act". A bench headed by Chief Justice U U Lalit said in all cases where citizens are facing prosecution for alleged violation of section 66-A of the Act, the reference and reliance upon the said provision shall stand deleted. "We direct all Director General of Police as well as Home Secretaries of the states and competent officers in Union Territories to instruct the entire police force in their respective states/Union Territories not to register any compla