No cash? Go to a shop, not ATM! (RBI)

Keeping in line with its objective of customer convenience, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) came out with an innovative announcement on Wednesday. According to the announcement, you can now swipe your debit card at any point-of-sale terminal, and withdraw up to Rs 1,000 per day. Point-of-sale (POS) terminals are those machines used to swipe debit/credit cards at shops, restaurants, malls etc.

Following are the conditions notified by RBI:

1. This facility is available only against debit cards issued in India.

2. The maximum amount that can be withdrawn at POS terminals is fixed at Rs 1,000 per day.

3. This facility may be made available at any merchant establishment designated by the bank after a process of due diligence.

4. The facility is available irrespective of whether the card holder makes a purchase or not.

5. In case the facility is being availed along with the purchase of merchandise, the receipt generated shall separately indicate the amount of cash withdrawn.

6. Banks offering this facility shall put in place a proper customer redressal mechanism. Complaints in this regard will fall within the ambit of the Banking Ombudsman Scheme.

7. Banks offering this facility shall on approval by their respective Boards obtain one time permission of Reserve Bank of India, Department of Banking Operations and Development under Section 23 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949

Satyam, Raju owe govt Rs 541 cr in IT dues

The government on Friday said IT firm Satyam Computer Services, its founder B Ramalinga Raju and his family-promoted firm Maytas Group along with its other group companies owe Rs 541 crore in income-tax dues.

In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam said, "As of now, the outstanding demand pending for recovery in the entire group is Rs 541 crore."

Out of the total dues, Satyam Computer, which has now been re-branded as Mahindra Satyam, alone owes a hefty Rs 532 crore to the income-tax department.

Maytas Group promoted by the two sons of Raju, owes Rs 2.8 crore. Other than that, Ramalinga Raju and his other relatives need to pay about Rs 29 lakh, Palanimanickam said.

Moreover, other companies of the Satyam and Maytas groups need to pay another Rs 5.38 crore, he added.

Asked whether the income-tax authorities have re-opened the income tax assessment in respect of Raju and all other companies in which he was associated along with Satyam Computer, the Minister said "yes."

He added that all the cases in which assessment have been re-opened are pending to be finalised by December 31, 2009.

The income-tax department is gathering information for finalising the pending assessment.

"The position regarding the amount of tax leviable in such cases can be quantified only on the completion of assessments, which would be finalised by December 31," Palanimanickam said.

He also said that the department may conduct special audit of the firms if required.

"As the assessment are still open, the decision to conduct special audit will be taken, if required, on the basis of examination of information in these pending cases," he said.

Satyam Computer plunged into a crisis following admission by its founder B Ramalinga Raju in January of overstating the firm's profits

Top 100 tax defaulters owe Rs 1.41 lakh crore

Country's largest state-owned bank State Bank of India (SBI), automobile giant Tata Motors and oil major Indian Oil Corporation, besides Sahara India and its promoter Subroto Roy figure in the list of top 100 tax defaulters in the country.

Disclosing the list of defaulters in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, the Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam said in a written reply that top 100 tax defaulters owe to the exchequer Rs 1.41 lakh crore - more than three times the amount the government spends on National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) scheme annually to provide employment to Below Poverty Line families.

The Centre is taking various steps to recover the outstanding dues, the Minister said, adding that the government has requested the adjudicating authorities like ITAT and Settlement Commission "to dispose of high demand cases expeditiously."

As per the list, disgraced stud farm owner Hassan Ali Khan tops the list of tax defaulters with an outstanding arrear of more than Rs 50,000 crore.

The list of tax defaulters also includes stock broker late Harshad Mehta and his associates and other brokers like AD Narrotam and Hiten Dalal.

While the SBI owes Rs 333.6 crore in taxes, Tata Motors and Indian Oil Corporation have to pay Rs 206.5 crore and Rs 210.3 crore to the treasury.

As regards Sahara, many of its group companies figure in the list of defaulters, while its promoter Roy owes Rs 230 crore to the exchequer.

Among leading public sector undertakings, BSNL has a tax demand of about Rs 2,417 crore, while NTPC faces a demand for Rs 622 crore. VSNL Ltd (now Tata Communications Ltd) has a tax demand of about Rs 505.5 crore.

Among Sahara group companies, Sahara India and Sahara Airlines (now Jetlite) figure among tax defaulters apart from Sahara India Financial Corporation Ltd.

Besides, corporates which owe taxes to the government are Coca Cola India (Rs 600 crore), Baron International (Rs 589 crore), Oracle Corporation (Rs 558 crore), Rolex Holding Ltd (Rs 558 crore), Aaditya Luxury Hotels (564 crore) and Reliance Energy (Rs 176 crore).

Nokia, Daewoo Motors, Bunge India Ltd, Tata Industries, Satyam Computers and IBM Pvt Ltd are other companies which have been named on the list.

The Minister said that these tax demands also include those which are difficult to recover for various reasons like demands notified under Special Court, inadequate assets and companies under litigation.

However, among special measures being taken by the government to expedite recovery of default taxes includes monitoring of the recovery of amount in large cases by a Task Force. "Invariably arrear demand above Rs 25 crore is monitored by CBDT and between 10 crore and 25 crore by CCIT/DIT (Recovery)," the Minister said