The Budget oration of the finance minister and the confidence with which she delivered it, along with the measures and the recent upsurge in the economy would all contribute to unleashing the storied 'animal spirits' and help the economy run on the growth path quite smoothly. Or so the government hopes, notes Shreekant Sambrani.
How should one billion Indians, for whom deprivation has become an inescapable way of life, join us in celebrating 75 years of Independence? And where do we go from here? asks Kalyan Singhal.
The government should bring natural gas under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime to realise Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision for a gas-based economy and raising the share of the environment-friendly fuel in India's energy basket, an industry body that represents the likes of Reliance Industries as well as state-owned firms, has said. Natural gas is currently outside the ambit of GST, and existing legacy taxes -- central excise duty, state VAT, central sales tax -- continue to be applicable on the fuel. In its pre-Budget memorandum to the finance ministry, Federation of Indian Petroleum Industry (FIPI), which boasts of members from across the oil and gas spectrum, also demanded rationalisation of GST on transportation of natural gas through pipeline as well as on re-gasification of imported LNG to help bring down cost of the environment friendly fuel.
India is believed to have challenged in a court in The Hague an arbitration tribunal verdict that overturned its demand for Rs 10,247 crore in back taxes from Cairn Energy Plc -- the second time in three months that it has refused to accept an international award against retrospective tax.
As the voting process for the new Conservative Party leader formally opened with postal ballots being mailed out to Tory members from Monday, Rishi Sunak vowed to cut the basic rate of income tax by 20 per cent in a few years if he is elected Britain's prime minister.
The government intends to continue with the top GST slab of 28 per cent for luxury and sin goods, but is open to discuss narrowing down the three slabs of 5, 12 and 18 per cent into two, Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj said on Monday. Addressing the industry leaders, Bajaj said the rate rationalisation exercise of the GST Council is a result of introspection of GST, five years after its rollout, and the policymakers do not have a "fetish" to raise the tax rates to the revenue-neutral level of 15.5 per cent. On the industry demand for bringing petroleum products under GST net, he said since fuel constitutes a larger part of their revenues, both the Centre and states have some apprehension.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's key ally in Tamil Nadu, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Wednesday slammed the saffron party alleging that it is anti-Tamil and claimed that the party could never grow in the state.
Mihir Tanna, Associate Director, S K Patodia & Associates, answers your tax queries.
Billionaire Anil Agarwal's mining group Vedanta on Monday said it has withdrawn cases in the Delhi high court as well as before an international arbitration tribunal to settle a Rs 20,495 crore retrospective tax dispute with the government. Post slapping of a Rs 10,247 crore tax demand on UK's Cairn Energy Plc for alleged capital gains made on a 2016 internal reorganisation prior to the listing of its India business, the Income Tax Department had sought Rs 20,495 crore in taxes (including penalty) from Cairn India for failing to deduct tax on capital gains made by its British parent. Cairn India was in 2011 bought by Agarwal's group and subsequently, the firm was merged with Vedanta Ltd.
Govt may tighten presumptive taxation norms and also do away with some deductions.
The Budget announcement of taxing 'virtual digital assets' or crypto currencies will help the income-tax department measure the "depth" of this trade in the country, know the investors and the nature of their investments and it does not "attach any legality" to these transactions, Central Board of Direct Taxes chairman J B Mohapatra said.
Every patriot should learn from our history and recognise that celebrating size will neither negate nor obscure the huge economic challenges that India faces, asserts Rathin Roy.
Catch all the action from the Upper and Lower House of Parliament.
Gujarat and Karnataka have been ranked as the best performers in developing startup ecosystem for budding entrepreneurs, according to the ranking of states and Union territories by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). Among smaller states having population of less than one crore, Meghalaya has been adjudged as the best performer. The rankings are based on the initiatives taken to develop the startup ecosystem for promoting budding entrepreneurs.
Company managements need to "curtail the kind of expenditures on themselves personally" with the COVID-19 pandemic highlighting the need to build internal resources with a frugal style of functioning, Maruti Suzuki India chairman R C Bhargava said on Tuesday. Addressing shareholders in the company's annual general meeting held virtually, he also termed as "a good development for the whole of industry" recent shareholder actions that did not approve expenditures by management on themselves, without specifying details. In the wake of the pandemic, building internal resources has to become a priority of industry and companies.
A day after joining the OECD-G20 framework for global minimum tax, the finance ministry on Friday said some significant issues including share of profit allocation and scope of subject to tax rules are yet to be addressed and a 'consensus agreement' is expected by October after working out the technical details of the proposal. Total 130 countries on Thursday agreed to a overhaul of global tax norms to ensure that multinationals pay taxes wherever they operate and at a minimum 15 per cent rate. India is in favour of a consensus solution which is simple to implement and simple to comply.
The Congress on Monday stepped up its attack on the BJP-led Centre over the issue of price rise with Rahul Gandhi saying the biggest problems facing the country were unemployment, inflation and growing hatred.
The government on Thursday brought a bill in the Lok Sabha to withdraw all back tax demands on companies such as Cairn Energy and Vodafone and said it will refund the money collected to enforce such levies.
Cairn Energy has threatened the Indian government that it is looking at executing the favourable $1.2 billion international tribunal award in the retrospective taxation case by seizing India's overseas assets.
The Modi government is notoriously honest about one fact: It does not listen to economists, observes Shekhar Gupta.
Mihir Tanna, Associate Director, S K Patodia & Associates, answers your income tax queries.
Mihir Tanna, Associate Director, S K Patodia & Associates, answers your tax queries.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday reduced the time limit for reopening of income tax assessment cases to three years from six years, while for serious tax fraud cases where concealment of income is Rs 50 lakh or more it would be 10 years.
The proposed move to withdraw the DDT would help encourage investments by addressing multiple taxation of income and bringing down the effective tax rate on companies, which is among the highest in the world.
'On the road, you see only youth in Swiggy, Big Basket and Zomato uniforms.' 'Just now, I had a delivery from Amazon, and do you know what his qualification was? He was an engineering graduate!' 'The Ola driver who took me to the airport had an MCom degree. 'Where is the match between education and employment?'
Petrol price on Thursday was cut by 16 paise per litre and diesel by 14 paise -- the fourth minor reduction in rates in three weeks that followed six months of relentless price increases. Petrol now costs Rs 90.40 per litre in Delhi, down from Rs 90.56, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers. A litre of diesel comes for Rs 80.73 per litre as against Rs 80.87 previously.
To ensure free, fair and transparent assembly elections next month in Punjab, the police have intensified search operations, especially in the border districts, to keep a vigil on illegal activities in vulnerable areas.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday indicated the government's intent to appeal against an arbitration panel asking India to return USD 1.4 billion to UK's Cairn Energy Plc, saying it is her "duty" to appeal in cases where the nation's sovereign authority to tax is questioned.
Petrol and diesel prices on Tuesday were cut for the third time within a week on the back of softening international oil prices. Petrol price was cut by 22 paise per litre and diesel by 23 paise per litre, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers. Petrol now costs Rs 90.56 per litre in Delhi and a litre of diesel comes for Rs 80.87. Rates have been reduced across the country and vary from state to state depending on the local incidence of taxation (VAT). In Mumbai, the petrol price was cut to Rs 96.98 a litre on Tuesday from Rs 97.19, while diesel rates were reduced to Rs 87.96 from Rs 88.20, the price notification showed.
Petrol and diesel prices were on Thursday cut for the second straight day as international oil prices cooled fell on prospects of speedy recovery in consumption getting clouded by second wave of COVID-19 cases. Petrol price was cut by 21 paise per litre and diesel by 20 paise, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers. Petrol now costs Rs 90.78 per litre in Delhi and a litre of diesel comes for Rs 81.10.
In a bid to curb harassment of taxpayers, Sitharaman said, a faceless e-assessment scheme was launched in October to eliminate interface between an assessing officer and a taxpayer.
Deciding the goods and services tax rate on fryums papad could be a messy affair with the Appellate Authority for Advance Rulings (AAAR) of Gujarat now ruling that the ready-to-eat product would draw 18 per cent rate. In that connection, it slightly modified the ruling of the state-based Authority for Advance Rulings (AAR). The AAR had also ordered that these products would draw 18 per cent GST but under a different classification.
India conceding ground to bring only top 100 digital companies like Google, Facebook, and Netflix into the global taxation pact may have revenue implications. This will mean that New Delhi will have to withdraw the contentious 2 per cent equalisation levy on e-commerce operators by 2023. This may have revenue implications for India, experts pointed out, as the equalisation levy has a much lower annual revenue threshold of Rs 2 crore (euro 0.2 million) as against euro 20 billion agreed by 130 countries at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). India, along with other developing countries, was pitching for at least euro 1 billion threshold to cover at least 5,000 global entities. India collected Rs 2,057 crore from the equalisation levy in 2020-21, an 85 per cent growth over Rs 1,136 crore in the previous fiscal.
The about 60-pages prosecution complaint was filed by the federal agency before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act court in Delhi on May 24.
Anti-profiteering authority puts Baba Ramdev-led company in the dock for allegedly not passing on benefits received from the reduced rate of taxation under the GST regime. Patanjali to respond to notice at January 28 hearing.
'The clubbing of policy announcements in the Budget speech creates policy surprises.' 'Economic actors dislike policy surprises because they throw their plans off track,' points out Alok Tiwari.
The Union Road Transport and Highways Ministry on Wednesday said the states and union territories (UTs) will provide up to 25 per cent rebate on road tax for vehicles that are purchased after scrapping old vehicles under the new National Automobile Scrappage Policy. The ministry in a press note said that in the vehicle scrapping policy, it is proposed to have a system of incentives to nudge vehicle owners to discard old and polluting vehicles. "As an incentive for scrapping, concession is stipulated in the motor vehicle tax for a vehicle registered against submission of Certificate of Deposit, which is issued by a Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facility.
A division bench of Justices M Duraiswamy and R Hemalatha, which granted the interim stay, however, directed Vijay to remit the balance amount of 80 per cent of the entry tax levied on the import of his Rolls Royce Ghost Car from England in 2012.
'The Digital Rupee will be equal to the Indian rupee in value and backed by the full faith and credit of the RBI/Indian government.'
The inaugural Formula E race in Hyderabad is scheduled for February 11 next year, joining the likes of New York, London and Rome on the calendar.
