The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh just after publishing the draft of General Anti-Avoidance Rule (GAAR) guidelines, which is attracting severe criticism from Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) and industries as they fear that it would block the money flow from abroad, said that he has not approved it and it is just a draft, published for seeking comments from all parts of the societies.
The Prime Minister Office (PMO) has also released a clarification in this regard stating 'it was released by Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT)', which is a department under Ministry of Finance, which has not got PM's approval and has been published for seeking consultation. It will be finalized only after the Prime Minister's nod.
"The GAAR guidelines that have been put up on the government website from the official level of the Finance Ministry and shared with some stakeholders are only Draft Guidelines and have been put out for receiving wide-ranging feedback and for discussion purposes only," said a PMO release.
"These have not been seen by the Prime Minister and will be finalised with the approval of the Prime Minister, who holds the Finance portfolio, only after considering the feedback received," the release adds.
The government Friday published draft rules of the GAAR that seeks to empower taxmen to clampdown on deals and income suspected to have been structured in a particular way only to avoid paying taxes.
The draft guidelines are put on the finance ministry and income tax department websites. Comments and suggestions on the issue have been invited till July 20, 2012.
The CBDT clarified that the proposed rules, which aims at checking loopholes in the taxation system and trace tax evaders, will be implemented from April 1, 2013.
Pranab Mukherjee had proposed the new rules in the union budget for 2012-13 presented in March.
However, implementation of the rules was deferred by a year following widespread protests from business community, especially overseas investors.
--With Agencies Inputs--
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