Assertive Akhilesh steps out of Mulayam’s shadow Cong loses Arunachal, 42 MLAs join regional party

The Congress is out of power in Arunachal Pradesh again after all but one of its MLAs joined a regional party on Friday, barely two months after the party’s government was restored by the Supreme Court.

The fresh crisis for the Congress could potentially lead to another prolonged turmoil in one of the most politically fickle states in the country that has seen chief ministers play musical chairs and legislators hop from one party to another over the years.

Forty-three MLAs led by chief minister Pema Khandu joined the Peoples Party of Arunachal (PPA), leaving the Congress with only former chief minister Nabam Tuki.

The 43 includes assembly speaker TN Thongdok.

The Congress, which accused the BJP of engineering the defection, described the PPA as the “illegitimate child” of the saffron party.

Financial consultants, including chartered accountants (CAs), will have to provide their names and registration numbers while filing their clients’ income tax declaration from next year, a move aimed at ensuring ethical practices and better compliance.

The government will make changes in the Income Tax Return (ITR) forms to include such information, Rani Singh Nair, chairperson of the Central Board of Direct Taxes, told HT on Friday. This will help crack down on fake consultants and save genuine tax payers from trouble, she said.

However, the onus of the ITR details will remain with the taxpayer. Fake tax professional will be called out and reported to the relevant regulatory body.

India has 7.4 crore-odd tax-payers. A large number of salaried individuals and businessmen take the help of tax lawyers or chartered accountants who charge anything between Rs500 to Rs5,000 for ITR filings. “Grievances have been received from taxpayers that some tax professionals are not carefully submitting the details in the ITR and sometime neither respond to notices/ communications issued by the department nor bring it to the knowledge of the tax payer,” Nair said.

Taxpayers will be able to verify the credentials of tax preparers from the department’s website or from the relevant institute where the complete details of the professionals are available.