“A step was taken in the last Budget to encourage Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and Infrastructure Investments Trusts (INViTs) by providing partial pass through to them,” Jaitley said in his Budget speech.

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n a fillip to investments in realty and infrastructure sectors, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday rationalised capital gain tax regime for the sponsors of newly-created business structures REITs and INViTs. In September 2014, market regulator SEBI had notified norms for listing of REITs and INViTs that would help attract more funds in a transparent manner into the real estate and infrastructure sectors. “A step was taken in the last Budget to encourage Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and Infrastructure Investments Trusts (INViTs) by providing partial pass through to them,” Jaitley said in his Budget speech. These two trusts, which can be listed on stock exchanges, would help channelise both domestic and overseas investments into real estate and infrastructure projects in the country. Stating that these collective investment vehicles have an important role to revive construction activity, the Finance Minister said that a large quantum of funds is locked up in various completed projects which need to be released to facilitate new infrastructure projects to take off. “I therefore propose to rationalise the capital gains regime for the sponsors exiting at the time of listing of the units of REITs and INViTs, subject to payment of Securities Transaction Tax (STT). The rental income of REITs from their own assets will have pass through facility,” Jaitley said. Real estate developers and property consultants have been demanding further tax clarity in REITs to ensure the launch of this trust for commercial assets. “In respect of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and Infrastructure Investment Trusts (INViTs), it is proposed to provide that the sponsor will be given the same treatment on offloading of units at the time of listing as would have been available to him if he had offloaded his shareholding of special purpose vehicle (SPV) at the stage of direct listing,” Jaitley said. Further, the rental income arising from real estate assets directly held by the REIT is also proposed to be allowed to pass through and to be taxed in the hands of the unit holders of the REIT, he added. REITs, a new investment avenue in India on the lines of one in developed markets like the US, UK, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore, can be listed and trading would be allowed in units of REITs like any other security on stock exchanges. INViTs are also set up for similar purposes. The tax incentives on would give much needed relief to the real estate sector, which is facing a huge slowdown in demand from last few years that had led to liquidity crunch and delay in completion of existing projects.
PTI

To check black money menace, the government today announced 10-year imprisonment for hiding foreign assets, along with a host of other tough measures including dis-incentivising of cash dealings in real estate and other transactions.

Besides framing new legislations, the government will also take steps to incentivise use of credit and debit cards and putting a cap on cash transactions, while quoting PAN will be mandatory for all sale and purchase of over Rs 1 lakh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in his Budget speech.

Presenting his first full-year budget, Jaitley said the first and foremost pillar of his tax proposals is to enacting a new law to effectively deal with the problem of black money which eats into the vitals of our economy and society.

“To this end, I propose to introduce a Bill in the current Session of Parliament,” he said.

Under the proposed law, concealment of income and assets and evasion of tax in relation to foreign assets will be prosecutable with rigorous imprisonment of up to 10 years. Further, the offence will be made non-compoundable and the offenders will not be permitted to approach the Settlement Commission.

As regards curbing domestic black money, a new and more comprehensive Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Bill will be introduced in the current session.

“This law will enable confiscation of benami property and provide for prosecution, thus blocking a major avenue for generation and holding of black money in the form of benami property, especially in real estate,” Jaitley said.

He also proposed to amend the Income-tax Act to prohibit “acceptance or payment” of an advance of Rs 20,000 or more in cash for purchase of immovable property.
“Quoting of PAN is being made mandatory for any purchase or sale exceeding the value of Rs 1 lakh. The third party reporting entities would be required to furnish information about foreign currency sales and cross border transactions,” he said

Jaitley further said that a provision is also being made to tackle splitting of reportable transactions. To improve enforcement, CBDT and CBEC will leverage technology and have access to information in each other’s database.

The Finance Minister said one way to curb the flow of black money is to discourage transactions in cash.

“Now that a majority of Indians have or can have, a RUPAY debit card, I, therefore, proposes to introduce soon several measures that will incentivise credit or debit card transactions, and disincentivise cash transactions,” he added.

Jaitley said problem of poverty and inequity cannot be eliminated unless generation of black money and its concealment is dealt with effectively and forcefully.

The proposed new law will entail penalty of 300 per cent for concealment of income and assets, while not giving offenders permission to approach the Settlement Commission.

Among others, non-filing of returns or filing with inadequate disclosure of foreign assets will be liable for prosecution with rigorous punishment of up to 7 years.
Income tax assessee will be required to mandatorily specify the date of opening of foreign account while filing return of income.

“The offence of concealment of income or evasion of tax in relation to a foreign asset will be made a predicate offence under the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA),” he said.

Also enforcement agencies will be given power to attach and confiscate unaccounted assets held abroad and launch prosecution against persons indulging in laundering black money.

Jaitley said the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA) is also being amended.
PTI

Three suspected Islamists were today arrested in Bangladesh in a pre-dawn raid, as authorities intensified a crackdown on extremists following the brutal killing of American blogger Avijit Roy in the capital.

Acting on a tip-off, elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) conducted a pre-dawn raid at a five-storey building in the northeastern port city of Chittagong and arrested three suspected militants.

“We have seized 30 grenades…It appears they (militants) could have made some 300-400 bombs with the explosives we found at the den,” RAB’s commanding officer in Chittagong Lt Col Mista Uddin told reporters in a primary briefing.

Huge cache of explosives and weapons was seized from their possession, he said, adding that more details, including the identity of the Islamist outfit, would be given at a press conference later.

The raid came two days after Roy known for his critique of religious extremism was hacked to death in the Dhaka University area by machete-wielding assailants who attacked the Bangladeshi-origin writer.

Roy was returning from a book fair with his wife on Thursday evening when the attack occurred. His wife and fellow blogger Rafida Ahmed Banna was seriously injured as she tried to defend him.

The killing that apparently took place right in front of a police barricade put up to restrict vehicular movement on the adjacent road for the ongoing book fair sparked countrywide protests and international condemnation.

A bio-engineer and naturalised US citizen, Roy also earned a repute of being a writer, He was here to attend Bangladesh’s annual February or Ekushey Book Fair in memory of 1952 Language Movement martyrs.

Roy’s family and friends said Islamist radicals had been threatening him in recent weeks because he maintained a blog ‘Mukto-mona’ or ‘Freemind’ that highlighted humanist and rationalist ideas and condemned religious extremism.

“They (Islamists) are behind the murder of my son,” Roy’s octogenarian father famous physicist Ajay Roy earlier said after coming out of a police station filing a murder case.

Doctors who carried out the autopsy on the body said professionals appeared to have carried out the murder as they struck three blows “very expertly and with ferocity” on Roy’s head, causing his death from profuse bleeding.

Police said they were investigating the involvement of Ansarullah Bangla Team, an Islamist extremist group based in Bangladesh, that claimed responsibility for the murder.

In an internet posting months ago, they had said: “It is not possible to kill Avijit at the moment since he lives in the US. But he will be killed when he will come to Dhaka.”

A twitter account in the name of ‘Ansar Bangla 7’ described Roy’s murder as an ‘achievement’, saying “A great success today here in #Bangladesh. Target is Down” while a series of subsequent tweets called the murder as a punishment for his “crime against Islam”.

Today’s was the second such raid since February 22 when RAB unearthed a militants’ training camp at rugged Banshkhali area in the Chittagong region and arrested five persons along with huge amount of firearms and training equipment.

Meanwhile, civil society figures and youngsters staged rallies here while major newspapers carried editorials, demanding justice.

This was the second such murder of a writer at the February Book Fair scene since the attack on famous Bangladeshi writer and Dhaka University professor Humayun Azad who subsequently died of his wounds in Germany.

The militants later also killed another blogger Rajib Haidar in 2013 here.

The US condemned Roy’s murder in the “strongest terms”, calling it “horrific in its brutality and cowardice”.

British High Commissioner in Dhaka Robert Gibson tweeted: “shocked by the savage murder of #AvijitRoy as I am by all the violence that has taken place in #Bangladesh in recent months.”

The Centre for Inquiry, a US-based nonprofit group Roy wrote for, said it was “shocked and heartbroken” by the murder, adding “Dr Roy was a true ally, a courageous and eloquent defender of reason, science, and free expression, in a country where those values have been under heavy attack”.

Media group Reporters Without Borders rated Bangladesh 146th among 180 countries in a ranking of press freedom last year.

The killing came amid a continued unrest since January 6, when Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of former prime minister Khaleda Zia launched a violent non-stop nationwide blockade. Over 110 people have been killed since then, mostly in arson attacks on buses and trucks by suspected blockaders.

Security experts have expressed fears that the focus of law enforcement agencies in tackling the unrest has created space for the extremist elements to reorganise or regroup after years of anti-militancy security clampdown virtually destroyed their networks.

Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) earlier this month came up with a report, saying the extremists and criminal networks could exploit the resulting political void caused by extreme hostility between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ruling Awami League (AL) and her archrival Zia’s BNP.

“Violent Islamist factions are already reviving, threatening the secular, democratic order. While jihadi forces see both parties as the main hurdle to the establishment of an Islamic order, the AL and the BNP perceive each other as the main adversary,” the ICG report read.
PTI

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday condoled the death of NCP leader R R Patil saying his death left a “void” in Maharashtra’s politics.

“My thoughts are with Shri R R Patil’s family. (I) am saddened to know of his demise, which leaves a void in Maharashtra politics,” Modi tweeted.

Patil died in Mumbai from cancer at the age of 57. Patil, who was Maharashtra’s home minister during the 26/11 terror attacks, breathed his last at Lilavati Hospital where he was on life support, hospital sources said.

The NCP leader, a six-term MLA from Tasgaon in Sangli district, is survived by his mother, wife, and two daughters.

PTI

Mumbai: Bollywood star Salman Khan did not possess a driving license when his car met with an accident in 2002, an officer at Regional Transport Office (RTO) today informed the Sessions court hearing the hit-and-run case.

The witness, who is an assistant inspector at RTO, told Session Judge D W Deshpande that the actor had obtained driving license only in 2004 and did not have the license when the incident took place.

The witness produced the records of the actor’s driving license before the court when he was examined by Public Prosecutor Pradeep Gharat.

Another witness who is a police sub-inspector told the court that he had accompanied Salman to J J hospital for blood test. The witness said that the actor was taken to doctor Shashikant Pawar for the blood test to find out whether he had consumed alcohol.

These two witnesses were examined today in the trial court which is conducting hearing on a day-to-day basis. More than 20 witnesses have already been examined and a few more are left.

On September 28, 2002, the actor’s car rammed into a bakery in suburban Bandra, killing one person and injuring four others sleeping outside.

The case, dragging on for over a decade, took a twist when a city Magistrate, after examining 17 witnesses, held that the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder was made out against 49-year-old actor, and referred the case to the sessions court.

The charge of culpable homicide attracts a 10-year sentence. Earlier the charge against Salman was causing death by negligence, which entails imprisonment of up to two years.

PTI