Reservations expressed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) notwithstanding, North Block, the finance ministry headquarters, is going ahead with its plans to set up a full-fledged Debt Management Office (DMO) to manage the government debt.
Finance ministry officials said the issue had been raised several times before, but this time it was serious in the wake of huge differential between the two fuel options.
Insiders say some issues that demand immediate attention include improving asset quality and conservation of capital.
With the finance ministry facing the risk of missing its tax collection target this year, it has turned down a proposal to reduce duties on petroleum products to reduce the impact of rising crude prices on profitability of oil companies.
With the setting up of the watchdog Competition Commission of India (CCI) and introduction of new legislation like the Direct Taxes Code and the Goods & Services Tax scheduled next year, private companies and consultancies are looking at the government pool of civil servants to meet their requirements.
After getting periodic extensions, the 14-year-old tax-refund scheme is finally coming to an end in June.
The victory of the Congress and its allies in three out of five states may make it easier for the United Progressive Alliance government to move forward on the Goods and Services Tax.
Bankers' committee suggests banks lend to meritorious students without collateral.
Sharp increase is a major departure from those during former chairman O P Bhatt's regime.
To better track generation of black money in the system, the finance ministry is planning to streamline third-party information provided on high-value transactions.
The finance ministry is also collating the data on entire food supply chain to identify the bottlenecks in the process.
In its drive against tax evasion, the finance ministry is planning to add to the list of high-value transactions required to be reported to the revenue department in annual information returns (AIRs).
Ministry wants to take views of industry on the issue, before giving its opinion to the Securities & Exchange Board of India.
Microfinance companies have been facing a crisis after a crackdown by the Andhra Pradesh government last year in response to allegations they were charging high rates and using coercive recovery practices.
French auction was tried for two issues - NTPC Ltd and Rural Electrification Corporation - in 2009-10.
Says it is worried a general pardon will send wrong signal
Bahrain has of late emerged as a regional hub for banking because of low tax rates and easy regulations. At present, 409 banks and financial institutions have operations there.
It is now clear that the revised takeover code and the Bimal Jalan committee report will not be implemented soon and in the same form, since the finance ministry wants to seek industry views on these two sets of recommendations this month, before the market regulator could take a decision.
In the Budget for 2011-12, the government revised the tax mop-up target for 2010-11 to Rs. 4.46 lakh crore for direct taxes and Rs. 3.36 lakh crore for indirect taxes.
Finance ministry has halved the tax rate on foreign dividend from 30 per cent to 15 per cent, but the rebate is allowed only for the financial year 2011-12.