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Auditing and Assurance Standards Board | The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India | 7th September 2022: External Confirmations through Third Party Vendors External confirmations have been an important and integral part of audit procedure in order to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence in line with requirement prescribed in various Standards on Auditing (SAs). Over the years, auditors have been using external confirmations to obtain account balances confirmation from various parties (confirming parties) including banks. However, it has come to the notice of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) that, in recent years, auditors are facing various difficulties in obtaining external confirmations from banks. One of the major concern in this regard is that some banks are using services of third-party vendors to provide confirmations on their behalf to auditors. Use of third-party vendors leads to the risk that the information provided by third-party vendors m...

  Once the enrollment application is submitted on the GST portal, it takes a certain specified time to get approved. In the meantime, an applicant can track his application status online by using the Application Reference Number (ARN). GST registration application may be approved, rejected or the officer may ask to submit some clarification also. What is ARN number? Application Reference Number (ARN) is a 15 digit unique number generated after submission of a registration application on the GST portal. It can be used to track the application status. If the applicant doesn’t receive ARN within 15 minutes of submission of the application, an e-mail will be sent to him with detailed instructions for further course of action. Format of ARN: AA - Alphabets 09 - State Code 10 - Month 21 -Year 555555 - Six Digits System Generated Code 1- CheckSum Digit  Steps to track the status of registration application on GST portal This is a pre-login option available to users who have applied f...

  New Delhi:   An Income Tax raid has been conducted at the Gurmail Medical Stores in Ludhiana today. Highly placed sources in the department confirmed that about 150 IT sleuths, staff, police personnel are part of the team that is conducting raids at total 35 premises of Gurmail Medical Stores. These include shops on Pakhowal Road, Near Mohan Dai Hospital, Medicity Hospital, etc. A senior official, wishing not to be named, said the raid were conducted under the directions of Principal Director, Income Tax. “The raids on premises are expected to continue for another 24-36 hours till the department gets each and every detail of the transactions made. There are doubts that huge investments are also made by them in connivance with political bigwigs. More than 50-60 vehicles of IT department with staff have arrived from Jalandhar, Patiala, etc., to conduct the raids,” said the official. Meanwhile panic gripped the entire Pindi street (wholesale market of medicines) here as soon as...

  The Income Tax Department has issued notice to industrialist Anil Ambani to prosecute him under the Black Money Act for allegedly evading Rs.420 crore in taxes on undisclosed funds worth more than Rs 814 crore held in two Swiss bank accounts. The department has accused Ambani with “wilful” tax evasion, alleging that he “deliberately” withheld information about his financial interests and overseas bank account information from Indian tax officials. A show cause notice in this context was issued to Ambani early this month. When this report was filed, Ambani’s office still hadn’t responded to a question regarding the situation. According to the government, he could face legal action under Sections 50 and 51 of the Black Money (undisclosed foreign income and assets) Imposition of Tax Act of 2015, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine. The businessman has been accused with avoiding taxes for the assessment years 2012–2013 through 2019–2020 by holding undecla...

  ICAI Announcements:   The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) through its Committee on Career Counselling and with the support of Eastern India Regional Council (EIRC) of ICAI signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 19th August, 2022 with the School Education Department, Mizoram, Government of Mizoram to advance commerce education among secondary and higher/senior secondary students in public and public-aided schools. Five years have been agreed upon for the term of this MOU. The Outreach meeting was also planned with the Mizoram High Secondary and Higher Secondary School Principals and Headmasters. Dr. Lalzirmawia Chhangte, IAS, Secretary of School Education for Mizoram, served as the event’s chief guest. CA. Hans Raj Chugh, Chairman Committee on Career Counseling, CA. Purushottam Khandelwal, Vice-Chairman, CA. Ravi Kumar Patwa, Chairman EIRC, and CA. (Dr.) Jai Kumar Batra, Secretary, were all there to represent the ICAI. The ICAI Secretary and the Mizo...

  New Delhi:  Retirement fund body Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has started an investigation into possible wrongdoing by its staff at a Mumbai suburban office, which could involve estimated losses of up to Rs 1,000 crore for the organisation. Citing people with knowledge of the matter, ET reported that the modus operandi is believed to be creating fake accounts and transferring funds or settling claims in defunct firms such as cash-strapped Jet Airways which later went into the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for transfer of ownership. “We expect EPFO losses due to this particular fraud to mount to up to Rs 1,000 crore, arising due to violation of rules and tax evasions,” Prabhakar Banasure, a member of EPFO’s central board of trustees, told the financial daily, highlighting that “offenders should be punished for doing injustice to members’ life savings and maligning this apex retirement body.” EPFO payroll data: 18.33 lakh jobs generated in June Official...