Accountancy
A test of three Acts -- II
SECTIONS 59 to 61 of the Indian Contract Act lay down the rules for the appropriation of payments. Section 59 provides that if the debtor owes several debts to a creditor, he has a right to request the creditor to apply the payment to the discharge of so me particular debt. If there is no express instruction as to appropriation, there may be circumstances, which imply that the debtor intended appropriation to a particular debt.

Skeletons in the cupboard
PROGRAMMES and practices designed to prevent fraud can reduce its occurrence, but they will not eliminate it. Even companies with excellent deterrence programmes are still at risk of fraud. A study by KPMG reported that 63 per cent of companies had exper ienced at least one incident of fraud in the last two years (KPMG Peat Marwick Thorne, Fraud Awareness Survey, March 1992). Given that the median loss from some types of fraud exceeds $200,000, even one act of fraud can be highly expensive. When the pote ntially negative impact on employee morale and shareholder confidence is factored into the equations the costs can be devastating.

Book Review
Law bytes
COMPUTER law is that branch of law which regulates the technological aspects of information. Thus, for example, aspects of defamation which arise uniquely from information processing activities will fall under computer law. The IT transformati on in society has given rise to qualitatively different types of legal issue.

Taxation
Dealing with tax tangles -- II
THE PROVISO to Section 139(1) prescribes six conditions. And any person who satisfies any one of these should file a return in Form 2C, under what is popularly known as the `New Economic Criteria' scheme.

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