A division bench of Justices AS Dave and Biren Vaishnav of Gujarat High Court has ruled that misconduct proceedings cannot be initiated against advocates, chartered accountants, and cost accountants under the Gujarat VAT Act. The bench also ruled that the respective professional bodies — Bar Council, ICAI, and ICWAI— are the authorities empowered to prosecute these professionals for any misconduct. The decision came in response to a petition filed by Pravin Modh against the miscon...

As a measure to tackle the increasing rate of obesity, Kerala is all set to introduce the first ever 'fat tax' to be levied on junk and fast food items. In his budget speech, Kerala's Minister of Finance proposed a tax of 14.5% to be levied on junk food including items like burgers, pizzas, sandwiches, doughnuts, tacos, etcetera. While eating out at fast food restaurants like McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Domino's and others will become more expensive in Kerala, the recently elected...

Delhi government today said VAT collection in the ongoing financial year has crossed Rs 20,000 crore, close to its revised target of Rs 21,000 crore. The government in its first Budget had set Rs 24,000 crore as the target but later, on the grounds of unsteady collection, it was toned down to Rs 21,000 crore. VAT Commissioner SS Yadav said total tax collection in the current financial year crossed Rs 20,000 crore mark on March 25 and that the amount was Rs 2,000 crore higher than last fina...

In a first for the city, Delhi government's Value Added Tax department has decided to bring all big and small players on e-commerce platforms under the scanner to check evasion of tax. A notification is under way to make it mandatory for all online portals like Flipkart and Snapdeal to file tax returns quarterly. All dealers operating through these platforms will also be expected to file their returns. Failure to do so will evoke action. The department has prepared a detailed set of gu...

The Delhi government provided a big relief to the city traders by allowing them to carry forward input tax credit to next financial year and extending the last date of submission of R-9 forms for last three years, up to June 30. The government's move comes with an aim to simplify business for the traders in the national capital, an official release said . As per the existing provisions, a trader can carry forward the excess tax credit during the same year only. The traders perceiv...