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  Whenever any change in the IT Act is contemplated it should be put through only one filter which is "simplification" of the tax. Revenue considerations, whether an increase or decrease, not to enter as a filter for any piecemeal or Adhoc changes during the course of the year.  Simplification, reduction of tax, widening of tax base may be used as multiple filters for once a year changes in the Budget. Many times an amendment is done in the name of maximizing tax revenues and plugging loopholes. This is a pure travesty of truth. Instead, Govt should move towards simplification and ease of compliance. This obsession with revenue maximization is a colonial hangover. Very often IRS officers and CBDT also complain about CAG Damocles sword over their heads if they don't plug loopholes. Indirectly such a plethora of amendments and tinkering goads loophole industry to become more innovative.CAs, lawyers enjoy and thrive on this.More the loopholes and more the plugging.More they ...

VUCA 1.0 talked about Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity in the countries around the world and how this VUCA gets multiplied over the years with a purposeful push towards chaos. The laws of thermodynamics are called into play to describe what was chaos yesterday which has moved into the chaos of today and which will move into the chaos of tomorrow, with entropy increase. But to tackle VUCA 1.0 , I prescribed the following:   In a VUCA WORLD     - V olatile environment requires V ision to look beyond the immediate and prioritise     - U ncertainty   needs calm U nderstanding of the situation to be purpose driven      - C omplexity   demands C apability of mind to look at locks & keys      - A mbiguity   calls   for   A gility in the workplace to innovate, grow and excel. In VUCA 2.0 Bill George in his HBS article gives out a solution model instead o...

What do we know about EIA draft 2020? But even before we read it, we want to register our opposition to the draft. Does this attitude not reek of cynicism. Former UPA minister Mr.jairam Ramesh shot out a letter to Minister for Environment in Central govt,Mr.Prakash Javadekar saying that draft EIA allows post facto approvals going against the principle of assessment before projects are put up. There are some fundamental flaws in the assumptions behind the accusations against the draft. 1)Under the current EIA everything is hunky dory and the revised draft now is going to spell doom to the environment. For that, they are side by side quoting that LG Polymers gas leak disaster saying that this project has not obtained EIA clearances for the project still. These people, conveniently forgetting that this project has been put up as per current guidelines and not under the draft now presented, quote LG Polymer as an example of a violation of Environment Act. If the project had come up ...

Pl. see the below page from the Central Govt published data. link Regular IT assessments done by Dept is yielding only 7 to 8% of total Gross Direct tax collected where as Adv. Tax, TDS and SA Tax is 92% i.e the voluntary compliance . Is there not a strong case for abolishing Assts for atleast individuals who have good track record of say 10 continuous years and have limited scrutiny assessments only for Corporates/Companies with incentives for exemption from assessments if they remit Tax at least 15% more year on year.This will take care of tax buoyancy ratio and reduce assessment costs drastically. Mr.Sunil Jain of FE recently sent a tweet to FM saying that IT dept is following up with him on some assessment notice despite complying with it and paying tax. Everyone of us have similar experiences on IT assessments despite computerisation. Straightaway all these scrutiny assessments can be called " IT Harassments "-no euphemism. But it sho...