Low consumer demand, a slide in investments and troubles in the banking sector should prompt the government to recalibrate taxes and expenditure. It is also important to ramp up spending on health care and education, says CII president Sumit Mazumder.
Slight recovery in growth is expected only in July-September.
The government said it was willing to advance the upcoming Parliament session.
Shadow of elections may overshadow political consensus at GST Council meetings.
The income tax department on Monday released rules for equalisation levy - a tax on online advertisements that would come into effect from June 1.
Experts consider Sebi's takeover code in its present form to be on a par with any foreign code governing public mergers and acquisitions.
Once the GST is passed, the centre and states will have to adopt their own law.
The GoM will meet on Saturday to finalise single-stage, simplified, return filing under the GST; report will be placed before GST Council on March 10.
Common items between Centre and states - bread, eggs, milk, vegetables, cereals, books and salt - will continue to be exempted.
The CAD in 2012-13 was at 4.7 per cent of GDP and in 2013-14 it will only 1.7 per cent, the Finance Minister said.
As the liquidity crunch reaches crisis levels and getting tax refunds remain a big headache, exporters saw orders fall by 15 per cent till October.
The government plans to raise resources to finance capital spending beyond the Rs 3.10 lakh crore budgeted for 2017-18 through higher borrowing or divestment receipts.
Younger party leaders are livid with the Murli Manohar Joshi-headed manifesto drafting committee for not taking their suggestions, reports Archis Mohan.
Electricity has also been kept out of the GST ambit.
In absolute terms, fiscal deficit went up by 33.6 per cent in April-December 2017 and the revenue deficit by as much as 40.7 per cent compared to the same period the previous year, said Sudipto Mundle.
'I have no problems with the finance ministry or with state governments treating petrol pump prices as the last resort for meeting their ambitious spending targets with very limited revenue resources.' 'But let's do away with this smokescreen of free pricing of petrol and diesel and go back to administered pricing regime,' says Dr Sudhir Bisht.
A GST roll-out by April 1 looks difficult, giving the companies some succour.
'It would be interesting to see how Yogi Adityanath is received in Tamil Nadu, where he is due to end his Ram Rajya Rath Yatra in Rameswaram on March 23.'
A minimum levy of 12 per cent GST on tea will increase the cost, which will ultimately be passed on to consumers.
'You can't take money from Shaktikanta Das (the RBI governor) and give it to Nirmala Sitharaman (the Union finance minister). She will blow it away on Modi.'
Top firms get GST notices on credit claims on Friday; replies sought within hours.
Aerated drinks, mineral water, travel packages, coaching classes and beauty parlour services might also cost more
A glance back at some important events that occurred in 2018.
Tata Sons has moved the Supreme Court against an estimated Rs 300-crore (Rs 3-billion) sales tax demand from the Maharashtra state government.
Budget fails to cheer realty players.
It was better to first build a single-rate GST with a low rate, achieve full mastery of this, and then consider more complex possibilities such as high rates and multiple rates.
Singapore's single-rate GST structure cannot be India's model. But its practice of early announcement of rates much before their implementation should be emulated by India, says A K Bhattacharya.
The opposition parties vehemently criticised the new 'one nation, one tax' system having four different rates instead of a single rate adopted in some countries including the UK and Singapore.
He said that the voices of the weak, did not reach the BJP and the RSS.
'It is important that employees are trained to acquire skills that would be needed in future, when the company sees disruption coming -- that is, much before the disruption occurs or the company plans to change the business model,' says Asish K Bhattacharyya.
'A major thrust is required by the government to stimulate rural demand'.
Majority expect economy to slow down, but are satisfied with Modi govt's performance.
The GST Council's agenda includes trimming the number of items in the 28 per cent slab by 75 per cent, easier compliance for assessees and small taxpayers, and a presentation on bringing real estate under GST.
Finance ministry tells PM fiscal deficit target will be met, capex expenditure won't be cut and GDP growth will surpass 7.5%.
Arvind Subramanian will hold classes for a week on applied economics at IIT Delhi
Some of the players in the GST race are Payworld, Dell, Tally Solutions
The shift from 'one country, one tax' to four tax rates could dilute possible gains on GDP, warns T N Ninan.
Budget planners for now have been told to prepare with the assumption that GST will apply from April 1.
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The GST Bill, introduced in Parliament in 2010, is being vetted by the Standing Committee on Finance. Now, the states and the Centre would together finalise the draft and bring it back to Parliament.
The spotlight is back on the hawala trade in diamonds.
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