How to File RTI Online

The Right to Information Act, 2005 was introduced to help citizens secure access to information under the control of public authorities and to promote transparency and accountability in the working of all public authority. As per the RTI Act, any person who desires to obtain any information can make a request in writing or online through RTI Online, by paying the requisite fee. On receiving a request for information under the RTI Act, a Central Public Information Officer or State Public Information Officer must provide the information requested or reject the request under any of the reasons specified in the RTI Act. In this article, we look at the process for requesting information through RTI online website.

Information Obtained Under RTI

Under the RTI Act, any information in any form, including records, documents, memos, emails, opinions, advices, press releases, circulars, orders, logbooks, contracts, reports, papers, samples, models, data material held in any electronic form and information relating to any private body which can be accessed by public authority can be requested.

RTI can be used to obtain any information held  by any authority or body or institution of self-government established or constituted:

• by or under the Constitution;
• by any other law made by Parliament;
• by any other law made by State Legislature;
• by notification issued or order made by the appropriate Government, and includes any-
  • body owned, controlled or substantially financed;
  • non-Government organisation substantially financed, directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate Government.

Obligation of Public Authority to Maintain Information

As per the RTI Act, all public authorities as defined above are required to maintain all records in an indexed manner – which facilitates access of the information through a network. Further, all public authorities are also required to endeavour to provide as much information to the public as possible, at regular intervals through various means of communication, including the internet, so that the public have minimum requirement to use the RTI Act to obtain information.

Some of the information required to be maintained by Public Authority under the RTI Act include:

• Particulars of the organisation, function and duties.
• Powers and duties of its officers and employees.
• Procedure followed in the decision making process, including channels of supervision and accountability.
• Norms set for the discharge of functions.
• Rules, regulations, instruction, manuals and records, held by the public authority or under its control or used by its employees for discharging their functions.
• Categories of documents held by the public authority or under its control.
• Directory of Officers and Employees.
• Monthly remuneration received by each of its Officers and Employees.
• Budget allocated to each agency, including plans and proposed expenditures.
• Manner and execution of subsidy programs.

Requesting Information under RTI Act

Any person can request information held by public authorities under the RTI Act. The request for RTI must be in writing or through Online RTI request. The request can be in English or Hindi or in the official language of the area along with the information requested and requisite fee.

On receiving a RTI request, the Public Information Officer must process the request within thirty days or reject the request stating specific reasons. When rejecting a RTI request, the Public Information Officer must provide the reason for rejection, period within which an appeal can be made against the rejection and the particulars of the appellate authority.

Information not provided under RTI

Information relating to any occurrence, event or matter which has taken place twenty years before the date of RTI request can be provided to any person making a request. Further, the public authority may allow access to information, if public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm to the protected interests.

However, public authority are not required to give any of the following information under the RTI Act:

• Information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence.
• Information which has been expressly forbidden to be published by any court of law or tribunal or the disclosure of which may constitute contempt of court.
• Information which would cause a breach of privilege of Parliament or the State Legislature.
• Information including commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property, the disclosure of which would harm the competitive position of a third party, unless the competent authority is satisfied that larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information.
• Information available to a person in his fiduciary relationship, unless the competent authority is satisfied that the larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information.
• Information received in confidence from foreign Government.
• Information, the disclosure of which would endanger the life or physical safety of any person or identify the source of information or assistance given in confidence for law enforcement or security purposes.
• Information which would impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders.
• Cabinet papers including records of deliberations of the Council of Ministers, Secretaries and other Officers. However, after a decision is made public, the material on the basis of which the decision were taken can be made public.
• Information which relates to person information the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or interest, or which would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy of individuals, unless the larger public interest justifies disclosure of such information.

NOTE :- Online RTI application can be made through RTI website.  The first step in RTI Online application is to create a username, and you have to fill all required field.

Changes made in GST 3B filing on 21st feb. 2018.

Changes made in GST-3B filing makes it easier to file 3B in simple steps.

1. Fill either CGST or SGST/UGST amount, other tax will get auto filled.
2. You can now save the Form on confirming details filled in the Table. You can fill balance details later.
3. Preview Form or download it for cross verifying saved details in any table(s) anytime.
4. No more Submit requirement to freeze details and know the liability.
5. Changes in any table can be made before making payment towards liabilities.
6. Once you proceed to payment, you can also see details of existing balances in cash and credit ledgers (Table 6.1 – Payments Table).
7. Wow! System suggested Tax Credit (ITC) is already filled for discharging liability. Be aware, it is only suggestion. You can edit the same before finalizing the Return.
8. Once you confirm ITC and cash utilization for payment of tax liability in Payments Table, system does automatic calculation for shortfall in cash ledger.
9. Once you are Ok with shortfall, System will generate pre-filled challan for shortfall and navigate to payments option.
10. Once you make online payment, system will navigate back to Payments Table.
11. Satisfied with the details filled, click “Proceed to file”, select authorized signatory, Submit with EVC or DSC. 

Your Return is filed! 

PNB Scam- A brief explanation.

PNB Scam- A brief explanation.

We all are worried today about the scam which involves one of the biggest banks of the country Punjab National Bank.  How can there be a scam of 11,400 crores without anybody noticing it? Well there are coming a lot of stories behind this & investigation is going on in full fledge, here we are making the readers aware of some key insights from the case:

PNB Scam

Normally Letter of Undertaking (LOU) are issued by banks to provide guarantee for borrowers that in case they fail to repay, the bank will pay on their behalf. Normally, the LOUs are issued for a period of 90 days, but for this particular scam, they were issued for a period of 365 days.

Before retiring, such LoUs were issued by Gokulnath K. Shetty last summer to the companies of a famous Diamond Merchant – Nirav Modi, who also happens to be the nephew of Mehul Choksi, head of Gitanjali Jewels.

The reason why it took so much time for this scam to be detected was due o the following reasons:

1. Involvement of staff – from bottom level officers to higher authorities, a lot of the lender’s people were said to be involved in this scam.
2. SWIFT, which is the international money transfer tool was not connected to the CBS (Core Banking Solution) of the Bank.
3. Failure on the part of Auditors to detect such a fraud. The Auditors are entrusted with the responsibility of keeping a full check on the transactions of the bank. Even they have failed in this case.
4. Public Sector Banks usually have requirements of routine position change of staff and compulsory transfer in 3 years. However, the same requirement seems not to be complied with otherwise it would have been easy to identify this scam earlier.

As a result of the Punjab National Bank issuing such LOUs, various other banks including Bank of India, Allahabad Bank and Union Bank have become a target of this scam. The liability of paying off these banks is coming over the shoulders of Punjab National Bank.

The PNB team is saying that it is also the responsibility of lending banks to do a cross check before lending money to borrowers simply over the LOU. However, the general principle is that credit can be extended to borrowers if they have a LOU from a Financing Institution.

Punjab National Bank is the second largest Government Bank. It is a shock to the entire economy as 11,400 crore of default is a huge blow.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is looking into this issue actively and has charged Nirav Modi, his wife Ami, his brother Nishal & Uncle Mehul Choksi. However, they have not been arrested yet. Also, Mehul Choksi has denied any involvement in the said transaction.

The jeweler has his business not just in India, but also in Hong Kong and other countries through their agent.
The PNB officials have also said to the stock exchange that some of its own officials at a single branch in Mumbai had helped Nirav Modi and others get credit through LOU without proper documentations, guarantees and with complying with the rules. The bank will not take this irrational behavior of some of its officials lightly and will make sure that the offenders are punished and prosecuted.

Also, due to this scam, the shares of the Bank have plunged to a great extent. They are facing their 52 week low point as of now. The biggest mutual funds have invested in their shares and are facing negative returns due to this fall in the share price. However, long term investors are seeing this fall in their share price as a correction and are investing heavily in their shares to make gains in the Long Term.

The matter is being investigated seriously. However, no one has taken complete responsibility in this regard as of now. Approx 5600cr of jewelry(including Diamond, Gold, other precious stones) were seized.

CBI on Friday conducted raids at 26 locations across six cities in five different states in connection with the PNB scam case. ED too has searched 35 locations across 11 states in connection with the case and seized jewellery and diamonds worth Rs 549 crore. The searches were conducted at locations connected to Modi and Choksi. All premises searched by CBI are connected to companies owned by Mehul Choksi. The companies include Gitanjali Gems, Gili India and Nakshatra Brand.

CBI sources said these three companies have 36 subsidiaries in India and abroad. The agency has carried out searches at premises connected to 18 subsidiaries in India. Of these 17 are in Mumbai and one in Hyderabad.
The searches were conducted in Maharashtra (Mumbai and Pune), Gujarat (Surat), Rajasthan (Jaipur), Telangana (Hyderabad) & Tamil Nadu (Coimbatore).

Following the CBI FIR on Choksi, ED has also identified 29 immovable properties belonging to the accused. It has summoned Modi and Choksi to its Mumbai office on February 23. It has also got orders issued from Nirav Modi’s office that their subsidiaries and showrooms in Macau, Beijing, New York and London not make any further sales.
Meanwhile, prosecution in the case of Nirav Modi has been filed under Income Tax Act for which hearing has been fixed on February 27. The Government said that the 105 bank accounts of Modi and his family and group concerns have been attached by the Income Tax department.

The accused mentioned in the fresh FIR filed by CBI include Choksi (Managing Director Gitanjali Gems); Gokulnath Shetty (retired DGM of PNB); Manoj Kharat (then single window officer of PNB); and companies Gitanjali Gems Ltd , Gili India Ltd, Nakshatra Brand Ltd; directors of the companies Krishnan Sangameshwaran, Nazura Yash Ajaney, Dinesh Gopaldas Bhatia, Aniyath Shivraman Nair and Dhanesh Vrajlal Sheth, Jyoti Bharat Vora, Anil Umesh Haldipur, Chandrakant Kanu Karkare, Pankhuri Abhijeet Warange, Mihir Bhaskar Joshi and unidentified bank officials.

Income Tax Raid – Rules & Regulations

Income Tax Raid – Rules & Regulations

The rules and regulations pertaining to income tax raid or search and seizure by the Income Tax Department was first framed by provisions related to search and seizure made in the Income Tax Act, 1956. 

In this article, we review the concept of search and seizure according to the Income Tax Act, 1961.

Officers Authorized to Issue Order for Search & Seizure
The following officers of the income tax department are authorized to issue order for search and seizure under the Income Tax Act.

1. The Director of Income Tax
2. The Chief Commissioner of Income Tax
3. The Commissioner of Income Tax
4. Any such Joint Director or Joint Commissioner of Income Tax as may be empowered by the Board.

The Director General or Director or the Chief Commissioner or Commissioner or Joint Commissioner or Joint Director who have been authorized by the Board can authorize any officer subordinate to him not below the rank of Income Tax Officer to perform a search. The officer so authorized is referred as Authorized Officer and the authorization is done by offering a search warrant in Form 45.

When Income Tax Raid can be Conducted

Under the Income Tax Act, an income tax raid can be conducted when the Officer has in his/her possession any information through which he has motive to believe that:

• A person to whom a summon with reference to Section 131(1) or a notice with reference to Section 142(1) has been served to produce books of accounts or other documents has been unsuccessful or omitted to produce or cause to be produced the said books of accounts or additional documents;

• A person to whom a summon is issued with reference to Section 131(1) or a notice with reference to Section 142(1) has been or may be issued is not possible to produce or caused to be produced any books of account or other document that will be useful for or related to any proceedings under the Act;

• A person is in control of money, bullion, jewelry or other valuable article or thing and such property represents totally or partly income or property that has not been disclosed or will not be disclosed.

Hence, an Authorized Officer would have sufficient cause to conduct a search if a person has not properly produced book of accounts with response to notices or / summons and/or the Officer has probably cause to believe the person is in possession of undisclosed income or property.

Powers of the Authorized Officer While Conducting Search

The following are the powers given to an Authorized Officer while conducting a search and seizure operation:

• Enter plus search any building, place, vessel, vehicle or aircraft where he has motive to suspect that such books of accounts, other documents, money, bullion, jewelry or other valuable article or thing are reserved.

• Break, open the lock of any door, box, locker, safe, almirah or other receptacle for exercising the powers conferred by clause (i) above where the keys thereof are not accessible.

• Search any person who (a) has got out of, or (b) is about to get into, or (c) is in the building, place, vessel, vehicle or aircraft, if the sanctioned officer has reason to suspect that such person has secreted about his person any such books of account, other documents, money, bullion, jewelry or other precious article or thing.

• Necessitate any person who is established to be in possession or control of any books of account or other documents maintained in the form of electronic records, to afford the compulsory facility to the authorized officer to examine all such books of account or other documents.

• Seize any such books of account, other documents, money, bullion, jewelry or other precious article or thing found as a result of such search. Nevertheless, the authorized officer will have no powers to seize any bullion, jewelry or other precious article or thing being stock-in-trade of the business encountered as a result of search. He will make a note or inventory of such stock-in- trade of business.

• Place marks of identification on any books of account or other documents or make or reason to be made extracts or copies there from.

• Make a note or an inventory of any such money, bullion, jewelry or other precious article or thing

PAN Card Rules and Importance

PAN Card

The Indian government has made it mandatory for all income- as well as non-income-earning individuals to possess a PAN card. PAN cards provide a unique identity for each income-earning individual and identifies individuals who have a source of income and fall under their respective tax brackets.

PAN Card for Individuals

Individuals who earn income will have their earnings classified based on the source from which they derive money. Doing so will enable the Income Tax Department of India to assess the right categories under which the individual must be tax, and the rate of tax that is applicable to the individual. The different types of income that can be earned by an individual in India include earned and unearned incomes. Earned income includes salary from profession or employers, and unearned income includes pensions, social security and retirement benefits, strike benefits, royalties, unemployment compensation, direct child support, cash gifts by anyone who does not constitute part of the individual’s family, etc.

Importance of PAN Cards for Individuals

PAN Cards are not only mandatory for all income-earning individuals, but also provide a number of benefits as follow:

• To sell or purchase immovable properties within the country.
• To purchase automobiles.
• To purchase banker’s draft, checks and pay orders.
• To purchase debentures or shares that exceed Rs.1 lac in value.
• To make deposits in excess of Rs.50,000.
• To open a demat account, avail a credit card, and starting a bank account.
• A PAN card can also be used as a valid photo ID proof.
• To enter into various financial transactions.
• To obtain cell phone and landline connection.
• PAN Cards are especially useful for NRIs as they make it relatively simple to purchase property or engage in business within the country.
• To open minor accounts.

Importance / Benefits of PAN Card for Income Tax Authorities

PAN Cards enable the authorities to estimate the overall tax generated in India. As such, it also aids in determining the rate of tax to be applied to various income classes. The Income Tax Department of India relies on PAN to track the financial transactions of all individuals, and based on the information, they calculate the rate at which you must be taxed. Following are the benefits afforded by PAN cards to the Income Tax Department of India:

• It is used as a proof of identity as it includes the holder’s name, address and photograph.
• It enables the department to determine the tax slab applicable to each individual. Individuals without PAN cards will be subject to 20% tax (Tds) regardless of which bracket they fall under.
• It makes it easier for authorities to track the income earned by individuals and apply the associated taxes in accordance.
• Since PAN numbers are unique to each PAN Card holder, there will be no concerns of misuse even if you lose the card, or if you have a change in name or address.

New PAN Rules

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Indian government has made amendments to PAN rules. Following are the key rules in the new mandate:

• All individuals who wish to make transactions like foreign travel or hotel bills in excess of Rs.50,000 will have to furnish their PAN card.

• PAN cards will be used for all transactions, even for the purchase of jewelry in excess of Rs.2 lacs, whether it is paid in cash or by card.

• PAN cards are compulsory for buying immovable property valued in excess of Rs.10 lacs. This is one of the few amendments that has been welcomed positively by the public as the previous limit for the purchase of immovable property was Rs.5 lacs, now making things easier for small home buyers.

• PAN should be mandatorily quoted for term deposits more than Rs.50,000 in one shot, or Rs.5 lacs in case they are made over a year with NBFCs, post offices and banks.

• PAN will be compulsory for all payments exceeding Rs.50,000 for prepaid instruments or cash cards in addition to acquiring shares of unlisted companies in excess of Rs.1 lac.

• PAN Cards are compulsory for opening every kind of bank account except Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana accounts.

• PAN Cards are mandatory for making cash deposits in excess of Rs.50,000, or to buy bankers cheque / pay orders / bank draft worth Rs.50,000 or more, and payment of LIC premiums exceeding Rs.50,000 per year.

Individuals who do not possess a PAN card but wish to carry out transactions that mandatorily require a PAN will be required to fill up and submit Form 60. This form requires an individual to provide personal information such as name, date of birth, address and mobile number in addition to information regarding the mode of transaction, such as cash, card, online transfer, cheque, banker’s cheque, draft, etc.

Casual Taxable Person

Who is a casual taxable person?

A casual taxable person is a person who occasionally undertakes transactions involving supply of goods or services in a state or a union territory where he has no fixed place of business. He may work in such state or union territory as a principal, agent or in any other capacity.
All such persons having some temporary work or assignment in state or union territory (not being their principal place of business and not being already registered there), should mandatorily get registered as Casual Taxable Person in such state or union territory. There is no threshold limit for registration. So, registration is mandatory irrespective of the turnover of the work/assignment in such state or union territory.

Example- An event management company having the principal place of business and registration in BIHAR gets a wedding contract in Jharkhand. They are not having registration in Jharkhand. So in order to undertake this contract, they need to get mandatorily registered in Jharkhand as Casual taxable Person before commencing their work in order to take input tax credit of SGST(State goods and service tax) of expenses incurred in Jharkhand.

Benefits of registering as a Casual Taxable Person.

If a business opts for normal registration in such cases, then they will have to file nil returns and fulfill all compliances as required of a normal registered taxpayer. Alternatively, for all such infrequent or one-time transactions, the supplier can obtain registration as a Casual Taxable Person in that state and pay the tax liability in advance on presumptive basis. This will make the buyer eligible to claim input tax credit without increasing the burden of compliance.
A casual taxable person cannot exercise the option to pay tax under composition levy.

Procedure for registration as a Casual Taxable person.In order to obtain registration as Casual Taxable Person, following points must be noted:-

• Applicant must apply for registration at least 5 days prior to commencing his work in such state or union territory.
• The normal Form GST REG-01 used by normal taxpayers can be used for applying for registration as Casual Taxable Person. There is no other separate form for applying registration as Casual Taxable Person.
• Person has to declare his Permanent Account Number(PAN), mobile number, email address, state or union territory in Part A of FORM GST REG-01, before applying for registration. The PAN will be validated online by the Central Board of Direct taxes. The mobile number and email address will also be validated by sending one time password to such mobile and email address provided in the Form.
• On successful verification of the Permanent Account Number, mobile number and e-mail address, a temporary reference number shall be communicated to the applicant on such mobile number and email address.
• After getting the reference number, the applicant should electronically submit an application in Part B of FORM GST REG-01, duly signed or verified through electronic verification code along with the documents specified in the said Form.
• The applicant is required to make an advance deposit of tax in an amount equivalent to the estimated tax liability for the period for which registration is sought.
• The registration certificate shall be issued electronically only after the said deposit appears in the electronic cash ledger of the applicant. After depositing such amount, an acknowledgement for registration shall be issued electronically to the applicant in FORM GST REG-02.

Validity and Extension of Registration as Casual Taxable Person.

The registration as Casual Taxable Person shall be valid for a period specified in the application or a period of 90 days from the date of registration whichever is earlier.
In case the Casual Taxable Person wants to extend the period of registration, he can do so by submitting an application in Form GST REG-11 before the end of the validity of registration granted to him. The registration period can be extended further by a period of not more than 90 days. The extension will be allowed only on the payment of additional estimated tax liability for the period for which extension is sought.

Returns to be Furnished by Casual Taxable Person

The Casual Taxable Person is required to furnish the following returns for the time period for which registration is granted:

• Form GSTR 1- The details regarding the outward supply of goods or services shall be provided here. This return is to be filed on or before the 10th of the following month.
• Form GSTR 2– The details regarding the inward supply of goods or services shall be provided here. This return is to be filed after 10th but before 15th of the following month.
• Form GSTR 3– The details in this return gets auto populated from GSTR 1 and GSTR 2 and it the shows the amount of tax liability. This return is to be filed after 15th but before the 20th of the following month.

Casual Taxable Person is not required to file Annual Return as required by the normal registered taxpayer.

Refund

In case the amount of advance tax deposited by Casual Taxable Person at the time of applying for registration exceeds the amount of his actual tax liability, then he shall be given refund of such excess amount of tax paid. But in order to claim such refund, he must file all the returns in respect of the time period for which registration is granted. The refund shall be claimed in the serial no 14 of Form GSTR 3.

SEC-44AA & 44AB MAINTENANCE OF ACCOUNTS & TAX AUDIT

MAINTENANCE OF ACCOUNTS & TAX AUDIT LIMIT

ACCOUNTS MAINTENANCE & TAX AUDIT LIMIT
Income Tax Act mandates professionals and businesses to obtain a tax audit from a Chartered Accountant and maintain accounts if the turnover or profit exceeds a certain amount. In this article, we look at the tax audit limit and accounts maintenance limit for businesses under the Income Tax Act.

TAX AUDIT LIMIT – SECTION 44AB

under section 44AB, a compulsory tax audit is required to be completed by a Chartered Accountant if a business has total sales turnover or over Rs.1 crore. In case of a profession, if the profession has total gross receipts of more than Rs.50 lakhs, then tax audit by a Chartered Accountant is mandatory.

In addition to the above limits based on the business turnover, businesses covered under section 44AD, 44AE, 44BB or 44BBB and claiming income to be lower than the deemed profits as specified under respective sections is also required to obtain tax audit mandatorily.

COMPULSORILY REQUIRED TO MAINTAIN ACCOUNTS
Under Section 44AA, the following types of businesses and professions are required to maintain accounts compulsorily.

EXISTING PROFESSION
In case of an existing profession, wherein gross receipts are more than Rs.1.50 lakhs in all three years immediately preceding the previous year, book of accounts must be maintained as per Rule 6F.

If the gross receipts do not exceed Rs.1.50 lakhs in the preceding three years, then the profession must maintain books of account and other documents to enable an assessing officer to compute taxable income in accordance with the Income Tax Act.

NEW PROFESSION
In case of a new profession wherein gross receipts are expected to exceed Rs.1.50 lakhs, books of accounts must be maintained as per rule 6F. If the gross receipts are not expected to exceed Rs.1.50 lakhs, then the profession must maintain book of accounts to enable an assessing officer to compute taxable income in accordance with the Income Tax Act.

EXISTING BUSINESS
An existing business where the profit exceeds Rs.1.20 lakhs or total sales or gross receipts exceeds Rs.10 lakh in any of the 3 years immediately preceding the previous year must maintain book of accounts.

NEW BUSINESS
All new business where the profit are expected to exceeds Rs.1.20 lakhs or total sales or gross receipts exceeds Rs.10 lakh must maintain book of accounts.

RULE 6F OF INCOME TAX – LIST OF BOOKS AND ACCOUNTS TO BE MAINTAINED

The following books and accounts must be maintained by all professions and businesses mandatorily, if they cross threshold limit specified under Income Tax Act.

• Cash book (i.e., a record of all cash receipts and payments, kept and maintained from day-to-day giving the cash balance in hand of each day or at the end of a specified period not exceeding a month).
• Journal, in case of mercantile system.
• A ledger.
• Carbon copies of bills (whether machine numbered or otherwise serially numbered) exceeding Rs. 25 issued by the person and carbon copies or counterfoils of machine numbered or otherwise serially numbered receipts issued by the person.
• Original bills/receipts issued to him in respect of expenditure (payment vouchers if bills/receipts are not issued and amount of expenditure does not exceed Rs. 50).

In addition to above, a person engaged in medical profession (i.e., a physicians, surgeons, dentists, pathologists, radiologists, vaids, hakims, etc.) has to maintain following items:

• A daily case register in prescribed form (i.e. Form 3C), showing date, patient’s name, nature of professional services rendered (i.e., general consultation, surgery, injection, visit, etc.,) fees received and date of receipt &,
• An inventory under broad heads, as on the first and last day of the previous year, of the stock of drugs, medicines and other consumable accessories used for the purpose of his profession.

Trademark Rules 2017

                               Trademark Rules 2017

Trademark Rules 2017 are a welcome step and were long awaited. There was a need to have more robust, efficient and user-friendly framework for Trademark.

Trademark Rules 2017 will encourage one and all to seek protection of their trade marks. Convenience and E- filing has been promoted by certain major changes, which can be listed as follows:

1.    Digital India: What an example of this era! To promote paperless system in line with the Digital India campaign, any physical filing of an application or document with the Trade Marks Office shall entail an additional fee of approximately 10% and in some cases, physical filings are not even permitted. The Trade Marks Office will now be serving documents electronically via email.

2.    Convenience of Cost: The fee for all activities has increased substantially – with a 100% or more increase for filing applications and renewing registered marks. BUT important to note that for promoting ‘start-ups’ and ‘small entities’ and Individuals, rebate of 50% fee has been granted. Further the excess space fee provision for more than 500 characters has been removed.

3.    How convenient: There were 74 different Forms under the old Rules for activities connected with the life cycle of a trade mark – filing, registration, renewal, oppositions, assignments etc. Now these have been replaced with 8 comprehensive Forms.

4.    An Affidavit with supporting documents would be required for those trade mark applications which need to be filed with a claim of use.

5.    Status: “Well-Known” have been incorporated. Any person, by filing an appropriate form with fees 1 Lakhs or equivalent along with a Statement of case supported by documentary evidence, can request the Registrar to determine its mark as ‘well-known’. Before determining a trade mark as “well-known”, the Registrar may invite objections from the general public to be filed within thirty days from the date of invitation of such objections.

6.    The Registered proprietors can now file renewal requests within one year before the date of expiration earlier it was six months.

7.    It has been amended, now no extension in filing evidences in Opposition proceedings for the speedy disposal.

8.    This rule allows applicants to fast track the processing of their trade mark applications, which now would not only involve a speedier examination process, but also faster processing at every subsequent stage until grant of registration, as applicable.

9.    Counterstatement filed in response to Notice of Opposition available online obviates its official service requirement.

10.  Time for filing ‘evidence in support of opposition’ and ‘evidence in support of application’ is two months. Time for filing ‘evidence in reply’ is one month. All timelines were earlier extendible by one month which is no longer.

11.  Each party can apply for a maximum of two adjournments of a hearing.

12.  In cancellation actions, if a registered proprietor does not file a counter statement within the prescribed time period, the applicant applying for cancellation can file evidence without waiting for the Registrar’s formal intimation. Also, an impugned registration will not be cancelled simply because its registered proprietor does not file a counter statement within time.

13.  In uncontested cases, if an applicant/ opponent does not want to pursue an application/opposition, it should be specifically withdrawn and not abandoned; otherwise the Registrar can award costs which would be in excess of what it would cost to formally withdraw the application/ opposition in question.

14.  In case of revocation of authorization of agent by an applicant or opponent, or withdrawal by an agent from any proceedings, the applicant or opponent must provide a fresh address for service in India within a period of two months. If not, the application/opposition will be deemed abandoned.

15.  Hearings: Provision for attending hearings through video conferencing or other audio visual communication devices has been introduced.

Types of GST Ledgers.

Types of GST Ledgers.

Here in this article, we discuss about different types of ledgers in GST maintained by GSTN.

GST Ledgers

Three different ledgers are maintained by the GSTN for tracking the payments, credits and liabilities of a person registered under GST.

1. Electronic Tax Liability Ledger

The liabilities of a taxpayer under GST are maintained in the electronic liability register. It contains tax due on filing a GST return, interest, penalty and demands.

2. Electronic Cash Ledger

Whenever the taxpayer makes a GST payment through online banking, credit or debit card, wire transfer or over the counter payment, the amount paid is reflected in the electronic cash ledger.

GST tax payment of over Rs.10,000 must be made through banking channels only. While making the GST payment, the taxpayer must provide the heads under which payments are to be credited, namely major heads of CGST, SGST, IGST and minor heads like tax, interest, penalty, fees and others. Based on the tax challan and heads under which payment was made, the electronic cash ledger will display the balance available under the various combinations of the major-minor head.

3. Electronic Credit Ledger

All the taxes paid by the taxpayer on the inputs would be recorded in the electronic credit ledger. Electronic credit ledger would be auto-populated based on the GSTR-1 and GSTR-2 returns filed by all taxpayers registered under GST.The credit in the electronic credit ledger can be used to offset GST liability in the following manner:

IGST Credit- After the IGST input tax credit is used for payment of IGST, the remaining input tax credit can be used to pay tax liability under CGST and at last SGST.

CGST Credit- The CGST input tax credit can be used to pay IGST liability. However, CGST credit cannot be used to setoff the SGST liability.

SGST Credit- SGST input tax credit cannot be used to pay the CGST liability but can be used to pay the liability under IGST

All the payments under GST have to be made by either using the input tax credit available in the electronic credit ledger or through the electronic cash ledger. A unique identification number shall be generated for each debit or credit to the electronic cash or credit ledger.

Interest on Delayed Payment

All taxable persons must first pay the taxes and other dues (includes interest, penalty, fee or any other amount payable) of previous tax periods and thereafter for the current tax period.

In case of delayed payment, interest will be levied at the rate of 18% per annum. In case of excess ITC claimed / excess reduction in output tax liability by taxpayer, interest will be charged at 24% per annum.

AADHAAR: Frequently Asked Questions

  AADHAAR: Frequently Asked Questions

Q1.UIDAI has all my data including biometrics, bank account, PAN, etc. Will it track my activities?

• Absolutely false. UIDAI database has only minimal information that you give at the time of enrolment or updation. This includes:
• Your name, address, gender, date of birth
• Ten finger prints, two IRIS scans, facial photograph
• Mobile number and email ID.
• Rest assured, UIDAI does not have your information about bank accounts, shares, mutual funds, financial and property details, health records, family, caste, religion, education, etc and will never have this information in its database.
• In fact, Section 32(3) of the Aadhaar Act 2016 specifically prohibits UIDAI from controlling, collecting, keeping or maintaining any information about the purpose of authentication either by itself or through any entity.

Q2.But when I link my bank accounts, shares, mutual funds and my mobile phones with Aadhaar, will UIDAI not get these information?

• Absolutely Not. When you give Aadhaar number to your banks, mutual fund companies, mobile phone companies, they only send Aadhaar number, your  bio metrics (given at the time authentication) and your name etc. to UIDAI for verification for your identity. They do not send your bank account details to UIDAI.
• So far as UIDAI is concerned, it responds to such verification requests by replying either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.
• In few cases, if the verification answer is ‘Yes’, your basic KYC  details (name, address, photo etc) available with UIDAI, are sent to the service provider.

Q3.Can someone hack into my bank account if they get to know my Aadhaar number?

• Absolutely false. Just like by merely knowing your ATM card number, no one can withdraw money from the ATM machine; by knowing your Aadhaar number alone, no one can hack into your bank account and withdraw money.
• Your bank account is safe if you don’t part with your PIN/OTP given by banks.
• Rest assured, there has not been a single case of financial loss due to Aadhaar. 

Q4.Why am I being asked to link all my bank accounts with Aadhaar?

• For your own security, it is necessary to verify identity of all bank account holders and link them with Aadhaar to weed out the accounts being operated by fraudsters, money-launderers, criminals etc.
• When every bank account is verified and linked with Aadhaar and then If anyone fraudulently withdraws money from your account, through Aadhaar such fraudster can easily be located and punished.
• Therefore, by linking your bank accounts with Aadhaar, your accounts becomes more secure and not the other way around.

Q5.Why am I being asked to verify and link my mobile numbers with Aadhaar?

• For your own security and security of our country, it is necessary to verify identity of all mobile subscribers & link them with Aadhaar to weed out mobile numbers being operated by fraudsters, money-launderers, criminals etc.
• It has been found that most criminals and terrorists get SIM cards issued in the name of fictitious and even real people without their knowledge and use them for committing frauds & crime.
• When every mobile number is verified and linked with Aadhaar, then fraudsters, criminals, and terrorists using mobiles can be easily identified and punished in accordance with law.

Q6.Can the mobile company store my biometrics taken at the time of SIM verification and use it for other purposes later?

• No one, including, mobile phone companies can store or use your biometrics taken at the time of Aadhaar verification.
• The biometrics are encrypted as soon as Aadhaar holder places his finger on fingerprint sensor and this encrypted data is sent to UIDAI for verification.
• Regulation 17(1)(a) of the Aadhaar (Authentication) Regulations 2016, strictly prohibits any requesting entity which includes mobile phone companies, banks etc from storing, sharing or publishing the finger-prints for any reason whatsoever and neither shall it retain any copy of such fingerprints.
• Any violation of this provision is a punishable offence under the Aadhaar Act 2016.

Q7.Do NRIs need Aadhaar for banking, mobile, PAN and other services?

• Aadhaar is only for residents of India. NRIs are not eligible to get Aadhaar.
• The respective service providers like banks and mobile companies have laid down NRI-specific exemptions.
• NRIs should simply tell the banks and other service providers such as credit card companies etc that they are not required to provide Aadhaar numbers by virtue of being non-resident Indians.

Q8.Aren’t the poor being denied essential services like pension & ration for want of   Aadhaar?

• No. It is clearly mentioned in Section 7 that until a person is assigned an Aadhaar number, he/she cannot be denied ration or pension or such other entitlements for want of Aadhaar and the concerned department should verify the identity of the person using alternate means of identification as per the relevant notification.
• If any government official of a department denies the benefits or services for lack of Aadhaar or failure of verification for technical reasons contrary to the relevant notification, a complaint should be lodged against the higher authorities of those departments for such unlawful denials.
• Complain to higher authorities in case of denial of services

Q9.Why are some agencies not accepting eAadhaar and insist on original Aadhaar?

• eAadhaar (downloaded Aadhaar) from UIDAI website is as legally valid as original Aadhaar issued by UIDAI. Both should be acceptable by all Agencies.
• In fact, downloaded eAadhaar, mAadhaar profile has updated address etc of the Aadhaar holders and therefore should be preferable.
• If anyone refuses to accept downloaded eAadhaar, the Aadhaar holder may lodge complaints with higher authorities of those departments/ agencies.
• All agencies should accept eAadhaar/ mAadhaar. They are equally valid.

Q10.How has Aadhaar benefited the common man?

• Aadhaar has benefited a common person in innumerable ways. Foremost is with a credible identity.
• Aadhaar has empowered by now more than 119 crore residents with a verifiable identity. Today, the fact is that, Aadhaar inspires more confidence and trust than any other identity document in India.
• For example, if you are an employer, which identity document will you prefer from your prospective employees? Or, just ask your maid servant, household help, driver, poor living in slums & villages as to how they are using Aadhaar to prove their identity to get jobs, open bank accounts, for rail travel, and to get various entitlements & government benefits directly into their bank accounts without middlemen. Ask them and they will tell you how empowered they are by having Aadhaar.
• Aadhaar is empowering people with a trusted verifiable identity.

Q11.Is it true, as we keep hearing in media that Aadhaar data was breached?

• Aadhaar database has never been breached during the last 7 years of its existence. Data of all Aadhaar holders is safe and secure.
• Stories around Aadhaar data breach are mostly cases of mis-reporting.
• UIDAI uses advanced security technologies to keep your data safe & secure and keeps upgrading them to meet emerging security threats & challenges.
• Aadhaar data is fully safe and secure at UIDAI