WHO

On Friday, the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) labelled aspartame as “possibly carcinogenic to humans”. Soon after, the global health body’s Joint Food and Agriculture Organisation/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), said there was no reason to change guidance.

The net direct tax collection of Rs 3,79,760 crore included corporation tax (CIT) at Rs 1,56,949 crore (net of refund) and personal income tax (PIT) including securities transaction tax (STT) at Rs 2,22,196 crore (net of refund). The gross collection of direct taxes (before adjusting for refunds) for 2023-24 stands at Rs 4,19,338 crore as compared to Rs 3,71,982 crore in the corresponding period of last fiscal, registering a growth of 12.73 per cent over collections of 2022-23.

In the module, discrepancies on account of risks associated with a return are displayed to the tax officers, who are provided with a workflow for interacting with the taxpayers through the GSTN common portal for communication of discrepancies. Implementation of this automated return scrutiny module has commenced with the scrutiny of GST returns for 2019-20, and the requisite data for the purpose has already been made available on the officers' dashboard, official sources said.

"CBIC has noted difficulties being faced by members of the trade in making duty payments over the customs automated system. It maybe noted that an upgraded and modern system of payment is live since April 1, 2023," it said in a tweet. The board further informed that it's technical teams "are working overtime to fix some teething issues and the problems being temporarily noticed will be resolved at the earliest".

This will lead to those trading in futures and options (F&O) paying higher STT. In a way, the move is likely to discourage F&O traders, as government aims to tax them more since turnover is high in such transactions.

From April 1, converting physical gold to electronic gold receipts won't be considered as a transfer and therefore will not attract any capital gains tax. Similarly converting electronic gold receipt to physical gold also will not attract any capital gains tax. Electronic gold receipts are depository gold receipts that can be traded on the stock exchanges.

Volatility has risen since 2019 and hit an 11-year high in 2022. Expectations as measured by pre-budget equity market performance are important in determining what the market does immediately after the budget. The market falls on two of three occasions in the 30 days post the budget. The probability of such a fall rises to 80 per cent if the market has risen in the 30 days preceding the budget.

On the revenue side, lower tax buoyancy could be partly countered by higher RBI dividend and still-healthy assumption of divestment proceeds. "We watch for possible changes to capital gains tax structure and new personal tax regime, extension of concessional 15% tax rate for new manufacturing units, and higher import tariffs on PLI-related products," the report said.

This collection is 86.68 per cent of the total budget estimates of direct taxes for 2022-23. Refunds amounting to Rs 2.40 lakh crore have been issued between April 1, 2022 and January 10, 2023, which are 58.74 per cent higher than refunds issued during the corresponding period of last year.

With such a surge in tax collections, government would look to unleash reforms in the coming 2023-24 fiscal, especially as far as tax administration is concerned. Already there are indications that the government may enhance tax exemption limit to Rs 5 lakh per annum from the current Rs 2.5 lakh per annum.