Any reduction on purifiers would need consensus among state finance ministers.
Total pending Customs arrears, including amounts under litigation, court stays and cases where the appeal period has not expired, stood at about Rs 1.36 trillion at the end of December 2024.
The deployment of the army in all sectors along the Line of Actual Control, the de facto border between India and China, is 'robust, well poised and prepared to deal with any emerging contingency'.
The largest tranche came in July, in the wake of Operation Sindoor, with the DAC according acceptance of necessity -- or initial approval -- for 10 capital acquisition proposals amounting to approximately 1.05 trillion through indigenous sourcing.
The GST Council at its next meeting may consider a reduction in taxes on air and water purifiers as air quality across the country worsens and access to safe drinking water remains uneven.
App-based communication services providers and Indian telcos are at loggerheads over the SIM-binding directions issued by the department of telecom, which are to be complied with by the end of February 2026.
To digitise Customs processes, the Union finance ministry is planning to integrate the Indian Customs Electronic Gateway (ICEGATE), Risk Management System (RMS), and Indian Customs Electronic Data Interchange System (ICES) into a single unified national Customs platform, according to government sources.
A national rollout will take place after the pilot test in which SBI, PNB, Axis Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, Canara Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and Punjab & Sind Bank are participating.
As the new Income Tax (I-T) Act, 2025 moves towards implementation from April 1, 2026, the finance ministry is reviewing and simplifying the compliance forms used by charitable institutions. Debjyoti Das, principal chief commissioner of income tax (exemption), said the new Act has already reorganised exemption provisions into a clearer and more coherent structure, and the accompanying procedures and forms are now being examined.
Ahead of the Union Budget 2026-27, Indian business houses have urged the government to make demergers tax-neutral, particularly in cases involving transfer of investments in associate companies with 25 per cent or more shareholding, under the new Income Tax Act. This may possibly help some companies planning to go public, according to a source.
Sebi has proposed allowing depositories to mark such pledged shares as 'non-transferable' for the duration of the lock-in period, based on instructions from the issuer.
'An asset must generate income. Equities yield dividends, bonds pay coupons, deposits give interest, and real estate earns rent.' 'Gold, silver, and even Bitcoin produce no income, they merely store value. So, they should not be compared to productive assets.'
With the Union Budget three months away, major industry chambers have submitted to the government proposals on common taxes, seeking simpler compliance and a quicker resolution of tax disputes.
'Reinvention is not a hugely difficult task. With technology as available today, you can reinvent yourself pretty quickly.'
'When you think of cross-border payments, the first things that come to mind are risk, compliance, taxation, speed, and cost.'
The government is finalising a major GST overhaul with automated refunds, pre-filled returns, and analytics-based scrutiny to simplify compliance and boost liquidity for MSMEs.
The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) has sought urgent steps to clear the huge backlog of income-tax appeals, simplify tax deducted at source (TDS) compliance, and ensure tax neutrality for fast-track demergers, during its consultation with Revenue Secretary Arvind Shrivastava ahead of the Union Budget 2026-27.
Nearly 96 per cent of new applicants will benefit from this simplified approval route.
At an estimated 1.9 billion in losses and over 5,000 UK organisations affected, the Jaguar Land Rover cyberattack has been labelled the most economically damaging cyber incident in UK history, exposing the deep vulnerability of interconnected supply chains.
To turn disruption into opportunity, NITI Aayog has recommended the launch of a National AI Talent Mission to make India the AI workforce capital of the world.
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