The government may take the first step towards fiscal consolidation in Budget 2010-11 by partially rolling back tax cuts given to the industry last year. The service tax rate may be restored to 12 per cent, while excise duty could be increased marginally.
The Indian Banks' Association recently mooted a proposal for a centralised admission test for commercial banks in the country.
The current employee strength of all state-run banks is about 672,000.
The revised bill will give statutory powers to interim regulator Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority to make it on par with other financial regulators -- Securities and Exchange Board of India, Reserve Bank of India and IRDA.
Divestment of public sector companies gathered steam in the first year of UPA-II that saw two PSUs-- Oil India and NHPC-- raising around Rs 8,600 crore (Rs 86 billion) from IPOs and the way was cleared for divestment in three more state-run power companies in the new year.
Public sector banks have performed better than their private sector counterparts in customer service.
Centre likely to miss collection target for '09-10
The long wait for a symbol of the rupee is expected to end by March next year. A committee headed by Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor Usha Thorat has shortlisted five symbols from 4,000 entries for a public competition to select a design for the symbol.
The government is likely to ease the incidence of minimum alternate tax, or MAT, on infrastructure companies.
The Centre has turned down the proposal of the empowered group of state finance ministers to keep alcohol out of goods and services tax.
Businesses with more than Rs 10 lakh turnover may end up paying the central goods and services tax, with the Centre not agreeing to states' suggestion of keeping the threshold at Rs 1.5 crore.
Outlets of telecom companies such as Airtel and Vodafone may soon double as bank kiosks for financial services like funds transfer or bill payment, especially in parts of the country where there are very few banks or none at all.
The finance ministry is likely to drop the proposal to tax religious trusts. The proposal formed part of the direct taxes code and had raised eyebrows both within and outside the finance ministry. Under Section 10 (23C) of the Income Tax Act, any trust or institution that works wholly for public religious and charitable purposes and is approved by the chief commissioner or director general, is tax exempt.
The government has said that public sector banks have asked for much more capital than it can give.
Recently, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had assured industry that the government was open to re-examining proposals in seven key areas.
In addition, bankers also told Business Standard that they did not expect the central bank to hike policy rates or the cash reserve ratio in the third quarter review scheduled for October 27 as inflation was not rising fast though inflationary expectations were there.
The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority will consider a proposal to manage the pension funds of companies at its board meeting on Wednesday, extending its role from being manager of individual pension plans.
India has attracted investment worth $1.6 billion for projects in the fields of power, steel, construction and engineering special economic zones from Japanese companies.
The Hinduja Group chairman, who was in Davos to participate in the World Economic Forum, however, noted that the incident might not have much impact on the reputation of India Inc in the eyes of foreigners, who are more used to such scams. Raju's confession not only shocked India Inc, but investors all over the world. Such type of wrongdoings are more prevalent in the western world and foreigners are used to this kind of happenings, Hinduja said.
India has exuded optimism that it would continue to maintain economic growth rate of 7-7.5 per cent next fiscal, the same level it is expected to register in the current fiscal, even as its neighbour China termed its lower growth projection of 8 per cent in 2009 as a tall order.
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