The government is expected to end the benefits under Section 10A and 10B of the Income Tax Act.
Small and medium information technology companies operating out of the Software Technology Park of India (STPI) and who have not relocated their business operations to the special economic zones (SEZs) could stand to lose a substantial part of their tax holidays after the forthcoming Budget.
This Budget, the finance ministry may consider a proposal for a seed fund that would provide financial support to states willing to sell items other than foodgrain, sugar and kerosene through the public distribution system (PDS). The move, experts believe, will help reigning in food inflation that remains in double digits, despite moderation.
To fund infrastructure projects in the public-private-partnership model, the forthcoming Budget could lay down some broad contours on the setting up of debt funds, which will provide investment for the core sector.
There will be capital gains tax of 20 per cent with indexation.
As a bonanza to southern states, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is expected to allocate funds worth Rs 6,000 crore (Rs 60 billion) for Chennai and Bangalore Metro rail systems in the forthcoming Budget.
Officials said the proposal and funding could be included in the coming budget and preliminary discussions have been held with finance ministry officials.
A finance ministry official said since the service tax was capped at Rs 100 for domestic and Rs 500 for international travel, in many cases, the credit of tax paid on inputs used to provide services was more than the service tax paid by the airline.
G-20, the grouping of developed and emerging market economies, will focus on food security but issues concerning India like rising prices of vegetables may not come up for discussions at a meeting in Paris next week.
The government may have to wait a little longer to get a trail of illegal money stashed by Indians in Liechtenstein.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and other finance ministry officials have reached the last leg of pre-Budget consultations.
After increasing the direct tax collections target in 2010-11 by Rs 20,000 crore (Rs 200 billion), the finance ministry now plans to raise the indirect tax receipts by at least Rs 10,000 crore to Rs 3,25,000 crore (Rs 100 to Rs 3,250 billion) for the same period.
The move is aimed at freeing up about Rs 3 lakh crore (Rs 3 trillion) in tax value locked up in appeal.
They've proposed a sub-committee under the proposed GST Council or the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers to resolve any disputes in the tax's implementation.
Parliament's Standing Committee on Finance has criticised the government for not doing a review of the tax exemptions given to Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and an evalutation of the losses due to these.
If a foreign company pays interest on loan for carrying out operations in India it will be allowed tax exemption under the Income Tax Act, 1961, a tax tribunal has ruled.
The ruling, in favour of the government, will protect over Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) of revenue the tax department was expecting from the service.
Rollout likely to be pushed to next financial year.
Among a host of things, the Centre is planning to empower stock exchanges to collect the duty and pass it on to the states. This will be a major shift from the existing structure where states directly collect the duty, whose rate varies from one state to another.
The country will get more voice in decision-making at IMF.
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