The government would soon bring the tax refund scheme for exporters before the Union Cabinet and would notify it, Commerce and Industry minister Piyush Goyal informed Rajya Sabha on Friday. Replying to supplementaries during the Question Hour, the minister said the government is also engaged in codifying various laws relating to labour into a far more crisper, well defined, easy to navigate and understand set of labour codes and the same would also come up before Parliament soon for approval....

The tax department has incurred an expenditure of Rs 42,903 crore on interest payments on income tax refunds during the 6-year period ended 2013-14 without approval of Parliament, official auditor CAG said. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), in its report, said as in the past, the Budget for 2013-14 made no provision for interest on refunds and an expenditure on interest on refunds amounting to Rs 6,598 crore was incurred by CBDT, in contravention of provisions of the Constitution. ...

Income tax refunds to the tune of over Rs 1.19 lakh crore is pending for the last three fiscals, starting 2012-13, Parliament was informed on Tuesday.  "Income-tax refunds amounting to Rs 1,19,964.13 crore relating to last three assessment years are pending as on March 5, 2015," minister of state for finance Jayant Sinha said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.  The pending amount for current fiscal so far is Rs 68,032.21 crore; Rs 43,963.42 crore in 2013-14 and...