The donations you make to religious bodies is not going to earn any tax exemptions, but the income of these entities will continue to get tax breaks, subject to certain exemptions.
Senior officials in the ministry told Business Standard the rate of taxation would remain the same in the final version of DTC.
At present, the threshold prescribed for imposition of Value Added Tax -- which will be abolished when GST comes into effect -- differs from state to state.
The government has once again tweaked the rules for selection of public sector banks chiefs.
CRR is the proportion of deposits each bank must keep in the form of cash.
Redrafting the Direct Taxes Code is proving to be an uphill task for the finance ministry, bombarded with comments from various stakeholders. The Central Board of Direct Taxes has received about 10,000 suggestions on the code, which seeks to replace the Income Tax Act of 1961.
The finance ministry has suggested forming a GST council, headed by the Union finance minister, to address disputes between the Centre and the states in the proposed GST regime.
With less than a year left for the scheduled introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), most states have increased their VAT (value-added tax) rates. The move is seen as an attempt to extract better compensation from the Centre for loss on account of GST rollout
Will come out with a response on the issue shortly.
The annual Finance Bill may soon become far less exciting as the government plans to lift the veil of secrecy surrounding tax proposals in Budget. Once the Direct Taxes Code (DTC) and Goods and Services Tax (GST) are in place, the finance ministry will adopt a public discussion approach for most future decisions, while confining the annual exercise to a few procedural changes.
The Union finance ministry may have to battle it out in court with the sponsors of the Indian Premier League cricket tournament to make them comply with its service tax payment demands.
The government is considering a proposal to allow 100 per cent foreign direct investment into the country's defence sector, despite stiff opposition from the defence ministry that has raised security concerns.
With recent issues from state-run companies receiving lukewarm response from the markets, the government has downscaled its divestment programme this year, restricting it to a maximum of eight companies.
Exporters are increasingly becoming jittery of making huge losses and apprehend large-scale cancellation of orders and delay in payments.
According to Indian officials, both the sides have had "fruitful consultations" regarding elimination of tariffs on 90-95 per cent of goods, but the EU's insistence on including non-trade issues, such as child labour, labour laws and climate change, in the trade pact are coming in the way of concluding an agreement.
After failing to convince states to keep petroleum products within the ambit of the proposed goods and services tax (GST), the Centre has finally relented. It has agreed to the proposal of the empowered committee of state finance ministers to keep petroleum products like crude, motor spirit, aviation turbine fuel (ATF) and high-speed diesel out of GST.
The central bank may classify them as foreign-owned Indian banks.
A senior official in the finance ministry said the Central Board of Direct Taxes addressed the nine areas of concern in the Code identified by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
The government has taken the first concrete step towards the introduction of the goods and services tax.
The levy had to come into effect from April 1. It would now be in force from July 1.
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