More than half the transactions under four of eight categories tracked under a scheme to reduce tax evasion lack a "valid" identification number issued by the Income-tax (I-T) Department.
The government is pushing state-owned banks to offer interest rates on housing loans up to Rs 20 lakh (Rs 2 million) at pre-2004 levels.
The government aims to make highway projects more attractive to the private sector by raising the approved or sanctioned cost of all projects to be implemented under the private-public partnership mode by 15 per cent.
Indian economy is expected to grow between 7 and 7.4 per cent in the three months up to September 2008, as against 9.3 per cent in the year-ago quarter, five top economists of the country told Business Standard. The government is slated to release the quarterly numbers on Friday.
The rate cuts are expected to infuse Rs 80,000 crore into the banking system.
Interest charged by government lower than bank rates.
A department committee, set up to look at ways to expand the TDS net, is scheduled to meet in Hyderabad to discuss the proposal. hile some services like contracts, construction and rentals are under the TDS net, a large number of services like beauty treatment, connectivity between mobile operators, event management, credit rating agencies, market research firms and authorised automobile service stations are not.
With the global financial crisis hurting more companies in developed countries, Indian insurance firms have hiked premium rates by 25-30 per cent for export credit insurance covers and have imposed a host of restrictions such as maximum liability and credit limit in case of single buyers.
The decision by the Union government and the Reserve Bank of India to infuse Rs 1,25,000 crore (Rs 1,250 billion) into the banking system in the last two weeks alone is unlikely to fuel inflation, say economists, since this infusion will only meet the basic demand and not lead to a spillover.
In a move to boost liquidity, the government and the Reserve Bank of India are considering a special window to enable banks with farm loan relief scheme arrears, a major factor impacting liquidity, to raise funds. The move will help inject liquidity into the system till Parliament approves the Rs 25,000-crore reimbursement.
With the government and the Reserve Bank of India taking steps to ease the liquidity crunch, home borrowers and small enterprises may get 25-50 basis points relief from high interest rates in the short term.
The finance ministry is likely to float a discussion paper next month on the proposed new income tax law, which aims to simplify the existing law and phase out tax exemptions.
The school voucher programme, which gives poor parents a certificate they can use to send their children to a school of their choice instead of a government school, has gained acceptance and is now being implemented in three states -- Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. Many more states like Tamil Nadu and Orissa are witnessing grassroots mobilisation to press the respective local governments to implement the programme.
'There has been an enormous amount of attention paid to issues like capital account convertibility, bank privatisation and bank priority sector norms. There are many other areas where reforms are less controversial, but perhaps as important,' the report of the high-level Committee on Financial Sector Reforms headed by Raghuram Rajan, a professor at Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago, said.
The Income Tax Department has put real estate firms, who developed housing projects for low- and medium-income groups, under the scrutiny for wrongful tax exemption claims.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes is considering a proposal to widen the ambit of the Annual Information Return to cover cash cards issued by non-banking financing companies in the country, official sources said. The AIR currently covers seven kinds of transactions, including cash deposits in savings bank accounts of over Rs 10 lakh in a year, credit card billing of over Rs 200,000 a year and purchase of property over Rs 30 lakhs (Rs 3 million).
A separate law for faster enforcement of high-value business contracts is on the anvil. The aim is to boost the business and investment climate in India, a country that many perceive is bedevilled by difficulties in doing business.
India's wholesale price index, the inflation measure most widely followed by policy-makers and investors, does not need another revision after the release of the final number eight weeks after the provisional numbers, as more than three-fourths data are collected by then, Pronab Sen, chief statistician, Ministry of Statistics has said.
Decision on additional Rs 2 lakh debt at 7% rate shortly.
India's chief statistician Pronab Sen has said there is no need to construct a separate price index for government employees as suggested by the Sixth Pay Commission.
© 2025 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances