The Rajya Sabha on Thursday returned Finance Bill, 2015-16 already passed by the Lok Sabh, thus completing the budgetary exercise for the fiscal year.
Replying to the debate on the Bill in the Upper House, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced a high-level committee for looking into the controversial issue of payment of Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs).
“MAT applicable to FIIs as well as few other tax issues, which are essentially legacy issues, we have decided to refer to a committee headed by justice A P Shah, the chairman of the Law Commission, Mr. Jaitley said. Following a decision of the Authority of Advance Ruling, I-T department has slapped 68 notices on foreign portfolio investors saying they have to pay 20 per cent MAT totalling Rs. 602.83 crore on untaxed capital gains they made over the past three years.
