CA Seebak

The business model and various types of contracts signed under the Indian Premier League, the new cricket venture, have come under the lens of the Service Tax Department.

Under IPL, eight privately owned teams from different cities, with a mix of foreign and local stars (chosen through the auction route), are playing Twenty20, a short format of the game lasting 3-4 hours.

Official sources said that the Director-General of Service Tax in Mumbai has shot off a letter to field formations asking them to collect information about the contracts entered into by sponsors, team owners, franchisees, advertisers etc.

“The exercise is at a very preliminary stage. Only information has been sought. The department is getting hold of the various contracts to examine whether any of the activities would attract service tax or not. It is yet to be ascertained if service tax will apply or not,” sources added.

It was pointed out that the issue of sending notices does not arise at this stage. Although services in relation to sports events do not come under the ambit of sponsorship services, the issue of sponsoring a cricket team may attract attention of the department.

Currently, over 100 services are under the service tax net. The Centre’s service tax revenues have seen a steady climb over the last decade on the back of increased share of services in the overall gross domestic product of the country

 

RBI/2007-08/280

DGBA.GAD. No. H. 10875 / 42.01.038 /2007-08                                               April 10, 2008

The Chairman & Managing Director/Managing Director

State Bank of India and its Associates/

All Nationalised banks/ Axis Bank Ltd/

HDFC Bank Ltd/ ICICI Bank Ltd/ IDBI Ltd/

J&K Bank Ltd.

Dear Sir,

Mandatory electronic payment of tax by certain Categories of taxpayers w.e.f. 1.4.2008

 

As you are aware, the Central Board of Direct Taxes vide their Notification No. 34/2008 dated 13-3-2008 (copy enclosed) have made electronic payment of taxes mandatory for the following categories of tax payers w.e.f. 01.04.2008 :

a. A company

b. A person (other than a company), to whom provisions of Section 44AB are applicable.

 

2. In this regard the following instructions may be kept in mind while implementing the Government Notification:

 

 

i) the status of all corporate taxpayers can be identified from the name itself. Further, the 4th digit of the PAN of all corporate assessee would necessary be "C". Physical challans from such assessees shall not be accepted across the counter.

 

ii) In case of tax payers covered under Section 44AB, there should be no insistence of any proof of eligibility to pay tax through physical challans at the bank counters. The responsibility of making e- payment rests primarily with the taxpayer. Hence, the word of taxpayers should be taken as final.

 

iii) the acknowledgement for e-payment should be made available immediately on screen by the bank concerned.

 

iv) the transaction id of e-payment should be reflected in the bank's statement.

 

v) each bank should prominently display on its e-payment gateway page, the official /s to be contacted in case the taxpayer faces any difficulty in making the payment, completing the e-transaction, generating the counterfoil etc.

 

vi) each bank should give the ITD and NSDL a list of officials with contact particulars, to be contacted if required for any problems faced by ITD or taxpayers.

 

 

4. Necessary instructions may be issued to your branches concerned.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

(M.T.Varghese)

General Manager