Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2016:
The Parliament has passed the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2016 which has already been passed by the Rajya sabha during the winter session of Parliament. The Maternity Benefit Act 1961 protects the employment of women during the time of her maternity and entitles her of a ‘maternity benefits’ including full paid absence from work – to take care for her child. The Act is applicable to all establishments employing 10 or more persons. The amendments will help 1.8 million (approx.) women workforce in organised sector. Salient Features of the Bill includes Maternity leave available to the working women to be increased from 12 weeks to 26 weeks for the first two children and every establishment with more than 50 employees to provide for crèche facilities for working mothers and such mothers will be permitted to make four visits during working hours to look after and feed the child in the crèche. Further, the employer may permit a woman to work from home if it is possible to do so.
CBDT
CBDT has issued a press release stating that India and Belgium have signed a Protocol amending the existing Agreement for Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with respect to Taxes on Income. The Protocol will broaden the scope of the existing framework of exchange of tax related information which will help curb tax evasion and tax avoidance between the two countries and will also enable mutual assistance in collection of taxes. Fighting the menace of Black Money stashed in offshore accounts has been a key priority area for the Government.
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