The Forum is organised by Singapore Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, with the partnership of state-trade agency IE Singapore, the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The byelections are of critical importance to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who lost the assembly poll to Bharatiya Janata Party's Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram.
Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra expressed confidence in GST.
Briefing reporters on her visit, state Finance Minister Amit Mitra said the Singapore Foreign Minister K Shanmugam has invited Banerjee to improve relations and she has accepted it.
Mitra's stout and vociferous protest to what most see as Tata's meandering and even affectionate critique has taken people by surprise.
Khardah is no ordinary constituency. It is the electoral battleground of two economists-turned-finance ministers.
Stating that people have the final say in a democracy, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday said her party TMC would win next year's assembly election.
He, however, asserted that all infiltrators will be thrown out of the country.
Shah attacked Banerjee over the alleged culture of political violence in the state, saying the only industry that was flourishing in Bengal was that of "crude bombs and illegal weapons".
Kolkata's creme de la creme turned up at the launch of Bandhan, The Making of a Bank, but the evening nevertheless had an informal touch typical of the young bank with CMD Chandra Shekhar Ghosh personally welcoming the dignitaries, reports Indrani Roy/Rediff.com.
The finance ministry has set up two committees of state finance ministers which would rework rate slabs, review GST exempt items and identify potential evasion sources. Four years after the roll out of the national Goods and Services Tax (GST), which replaced the complex indirect tax structure, the centre and states have started work on moving towards a "simpler rate structure in GST" by reviewing the current rate slabs, including special rates and merger of rate slabs. The Group of Ministers (GoM) on rate rationalisation would also review items under inverted duty structure to help minimise refund payout, and review the supply of goods and services exempt under GST with an objective to expand the tax base and eliminate breaking of input tax credit (ITC) chain.
Many states are open to the idea of petrol and diesel being brought under the goods and services tax (GST) regime - contrary to the perception that they are averse to it - but they want a concrete proposal, including a compensation mechanism, from the Centre. West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra says while the issue can be discussed, the Centre may not be keen to bring the change because it earns "much more" from taxes on petrol and diesel. "(The peak rate of) GST is 28 per cent. Under the regime, the Centre would only get 14 per cent. "So, definitely, the Union government does not want GST on fuel. It is all lies. Currently, they are in a very cozy place," Mitra said.
Of the 294 candidates declared with serious criminal cases, 76 were from the TMC, 52 from the BJP, 47 from the CPI-M and 31 from the Congress.
Cricketer Yusuf Pathan will contest from the Baharampur Lok Sabha seat, whereas Kirti Aazd will fight from the Bardhaman-Durgapur constituency.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's maiden visit to the financial capital Mumbai drew an enthusiastic response from India Inc with industry captains queuing up to attend the meeting called by her.
Till Thursday, everything was "going well", the chief minister said, adding that unfortunately, "the political meetings at the appropriate level" could not be confirmed.
Bandhan Bank is the first bank to be launched in eastern India post Independence.
Glimpses of how Indians are coping with the pandemic.
The party brought back Yashwant Sinha as its national vice-president.
Inaugurating the 'Yuvashree' scheme, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said 100,000 youths enrolled in employment exchanges would receive the amount every month in the first phase, while maintaining that it was not an unemployment allowance but 'assistance' for them to meet their expenses.
The Bharatiya Janata Party decided to put on hold Shah's proposed rally and the Rath Yatra, saying it will wait for the final order from the high court, which will now hear an appeal by the saffron party on Friday morning.
The managing directors -- Rana Sinha of Tata Hitachi Construction Machinery Company, Dibyendu Bose of TM International Logistics Limited, Sandipan Chakravortty of Tata Steel Processing and Distribution Limited, Viresh Oberoi of mjunction, and Sanjiv Paul of Tata Metaliks -- met at Nabanna, the makeshift state secretariat. Finance and industry minister, Amit Mitra, was also present.
As defence minister, Singh's most crucial challenge will be to speed up the long-delayed modernisation of the three services besides ensuring overall coherence in their combat readiness.
The Delhi police on Tuesday arrested two persons including NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha in connection with a probe in the portal's foreign funding, officials said.
On Wednesday, chairman emeritus of Tata Sons Ratan said that while driving from the airport through Rajarhat, he came across beautiful buildings but it looked like a countryside under development with no signs of industrialisation.
The MPs went right up to the entrance of South Block, but were stopped at the first check point.
While the Trinamool government, led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, tried its best to attract investors, including from Singapore, not much headway could be made.
Initially reluctant to involve the CBI in the investigation on the ground that the central agency had not been able to make any headway into the Nandigram and Netai killings, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee later changed her stance, saying that the government was not averse to it.
Facing a deepening slowdown, the auto sector is pinning hopes on the GST Council meeting on September 20 for a rate cut from 28 per cent to 18 per cent. However, states including Bihar, West Bengal, Kerala, and Punjab are of the view that the slowdown in the auto sector is not because of the GST rate but structural issues in the economy.
While Congress and the states ruled by non-NDA parties pushed for the Centre meeting its statutory obligation of covering the deficit, the Union government cited a legal opinion to say it had no such obligation if there was a shortfall in tax collections. The Centre as well as BJP-JD-U-ruled Bihar were of the opinion that the states should borrow to make up for the shortfall in the tax revenues that have been compounded by the COVID-19 crisis, sources said.
The disagreement between the Centre and states continued over administrative powers.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday hailed the Union Budget as an "all-inclusive" document while the Opposition dismissed it as "anti-people" and mere rhetoric lacking the vision for creating jobs and taming inflation.
The consensus was reached after the Centre agreed to the demand of states to go in for horizontal split
Announcing the name of candidates for the West Bengal assembly polls, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said she will be contesting from the Nandigram constituency as announced earlier.
Once implemented, customers making payments using Rupay card or BHIM UPI will get a cashback of 20 per cent of the total GST amount, subject to a maximum of Rs 100.
Shadow of elections may overshadow political consensus at GST Council meetings.
The Trinamool Congress won 211 seats.
Attacking the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal over the issue of development, Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said funds worth crores were sent from the Centre to the state but they never reached the people.
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