GST made India more tax-compliant society: President
New Delhi, July 1: President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday said the Goods and Services Tax (GST) had made India a more tax-compliant society while also enhancing the ease of doing business.
On the first anniversary of the implementation of the GST, the President said the new tax regime helped India achieve many goals including creation of a common platform across the country for registration, duty payments, filing of returns and refund of taxes.
"GST has also enhanced reliance on technology and reduced scope for subjectivity," he said at the inauguration of the platinum jubilee celebrations of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), an official statement said.
Kovind also said the GST rollout has been part of a sustained effort over the past few years to formalise the economy, enforce rule of law, promote transparency in financial and business transactions, and make India much more of a tax compliant society.
Stressing that adherence to a fair taxation system is much more than merely providing revenue to the government, he said: "Taxes are what we pay to get social benefits in the form of public goods and services, health and education facilities, better infrastructure, law and order, and secure borders.
"It is crucial that this responsibility is shared by the widest possible number of citizens -- whether they pay taxes directly or indirectly."
The President said that chartered accountants had a key role in advancing such a culture and while as professionals, it is their legitimate right to advise their clients on tax planning, "but there is a fine line between intelligent tax planning and tax dodging and tax evasion", and they were custodians of that fine line.
Maintaining such propriety is not just a legal duty for all tax payers and for all taxation and financial professionals, there is also a morality added to it, he added.
"When banking scandals take place, when large borrowers abscond and leave their banks in the lurch -- or, as in the case of Satyam some years ago, when promoters themselves embezzle funds and carry out fraud -- it represents a breach of faith.
"It amounts to a betrayal of not only corporate ethics but of honest fellow citizens and of our collective value system. White collar crimes don't leave behind a smoking gun; they leave behind broken hearts and a shaken confidence," Kovind said.
"When such episodes occur, it would be in order to introspect. It would be relevant to ask if those responsible for auditing balance sheets have truly done their duty, or if they have contributed to the sorry situation."
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Israel launches first airstrike on Lebanon since ceasefire, accusing Hezbollah of breaching truce
Beirut, Nov 28: The Israeli military on Thursday said its warplanes fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.
There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel's aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said they were violating the ceasefire agreement, without providing details. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.
The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah members are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers.
On Thursday, the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon's state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.
The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire.” It said troops “opened fire toward them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”
Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.
A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese Hezbollah group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.
Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.
More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.
Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.
In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.
