Cos not filing returns on time to face legal action

The government will take legal action against a third of the total listed companies in the country for not filing their annual returns on time, minister for corporate affairs Prem Chand Gupta told the Parliament. The minister said at the end of March 2008, out of the total 9,837 listed companies, 3,401 had not filed annual returns. “Action is being taken by the government as warranted under law wherever defaults in filing the annual returns are noticed,” Mr Gupta said in response to a question in the Lok Sabha

I-T dept to share info on tax evasion with MCA

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has asked the income-tax department to provide all information on tax evasion by listed companies so that it can see whether these firms have violated the provisions of Companies Act as well. “MCA is trying to develop a system that whenever the I-T department finds any such case where there is income-tax evasion or any practice of showing wrong amount in financial statements, the department would inform us also,” a senior ministry official said. He said usually such things involve violation of Companies Act too, which calls for probe in such companies from MCA as well. A large number of cases have been there where the companies evading tax also enter into practices like inflating their accounts or fudging financial statements, which amounts to flouting of Companies Act, the official added.

Source: The Economic Times