Holding simultaneous polls for the Lok Sabha and all assemblies would need any no-confidence motion to be coupled with a 'confidence motion' by a leader proposed as next prime minister or chief minister, while any mid-term election can be conducted only for remainder of the term, the Election Commission had said earlier.
The SET's findings have now been taken on record by the Central Bureau of Investigation which recently raided the 2008-batch Indian Revenue Service officer after it filed an FIR against him for corruption and alleged violation of rules in the raids that took place at the Cordelia cruise berthed at the Mumbai coast on October 2, 2021.
The health sector has been allocated Rs 89,155 crore in the Union Budget 2023-24, a hike of around 13 per cent over Rs 79,145 crore allocated in 2022-23, with the government also announcing a mission to eliminate sickle cell anaemia by 2047.
The health and family welfare ministry spent 70 per cent of its allocation till October. The ministry may need additional funds for the vaccination drive which is expected to be kicked off from January.
In Budget 2020-21, the Department of Space has been allocated Rs 13,949.09 crore, of which Rs 8,228.63 crore has been earmarked for capital expenditure.
The government has sanctioned non-productivity-linked or ad hoc bonus for central government employees for fiscal year 2020-21.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the much-awaited 2022-23 Union Budget on February 1. While there has been strong recovery in some sectors, touch services like hospitality, tourism and leisure continue to suffer after two Covid-19 waves. Household savings have been hit due to increased spending on health care. Consumption has still not reached pre-pandemic levels.
Of the cash outgo, Rs 64,598 crore is for enhanced expenditure on fertiliser subsidy under Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan 3.0 and Rs 20,466 crore for the capital outlay in defence services.
Speaking in the assembly, Fadnavis said a pen drive he had submitted contained a conversation between Waqf Board members Mohammad Arshad Khan and Mudasir Lambe.
The finance ministry will kick-start the exercise to prepare the annual Budget for 2023-24 from October 10, in the backdrop of revival of the Indian economy and fears of recession in developed countries. The budget for the next year will have to address critical issues of high inflation, job creation, boosting demand, and putting the economy on a sustained 8 per cent-plus growth path. On Wednesday, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said inflation is no longer "red-lettered" and the priority for the government now is job creation and boosting growth.
The Centre is looking to improve disclosures made by public sector undertakings (PSUs), and has asked such companies to share monthly progress made on capital expenditure targets and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives undertaken by them. New details such as gender-wise reporting of contractual workers, unused land, and profit share in joint venture companies have also been added in the list of disclosures. The Department of Public Enterprises (DPE), which publishes the Public Enterprises Survey and collects information for Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) signed with PSUs, is looking to integrate data collected from government-owned companies.
States' spending doesn't improve the public image of the police, so where is the money going?
The government has merged the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) with the finance ministry to give it a better control over state-owned firms and facilitate its ambitious privatisation programme. Finance ministry will now have six departments while DPE's hereto parent ministry, the ministry of heavy industries and public enterprises will now be called the ministry of heavy industries. Previously, the disinvestment ministry - created under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government - was merged with the finance ministry and is now a department under it. Also, Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) was abolished and administration of foreign investments was given to the finance ministry (FinMin).
'With Ramaland, the tourism department is looking to attract children and adults alike. It'll be learning with entertainment.'
The finance ministry has asked all ministries and departments not to initiate any new scheme in the current financial year and said that there is a need to use resources prudently in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. However, funds for schemes under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package, the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan package and any other special package or announcement would be allocated, according to an office memorandum by the department of expenditure, which comes under the finance ministry.
7 key areas that the Budget must address to re-energise the infrastructure sector, suggests Vinayak Chatterjee.
In the midst of the stand-off between the Congress and its ally Nationalist Congtress Party at the Centre, the urban development department headed by Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Friday came in for criticism by his Deputy Ajit Pawar over its alleged failure to spend funds allocated to it.
Sources in the Rural Development Ministry said the actual expenditure incurred in 2020-21 will be higher than the allocated funds and it will at least be at par with this year's total estimated expenditure of MGNREGS.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday said swift and transparent decision-making and availability of optimal resources were needed for a country's combat readiness.
The government, it would seem, is reserving its firepower to spend on big-ticket items that will be announced in the Budget, reports Subhomoy Bhattacharjee.
The details of FIR made public on Monday show that independent witness K P Gosavi and one Prabhakar Sail, now deceased, were included by the NCB in the Cordelia cruise ship drug raid on October 2, 2021 on the directions of Wankhede.
After the government sought Parliament's nod for a second batch of supplementary demand for grants that will cause a hit of Rs 2.99 trillion to the exchequer, doubts suddenly arose about the government's ability to meet the Budget projections of reining in its fiscal deficit at 6.8 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), or Rs 15.06 trillion, for the current financial year. Till now, many were of the opinion that the government would succeed in checking the deficit at a much lower figure than what was given in the Budget Estimates (BE). The government had sought Parliament's approval to spend Rs 3.74 trillion extra, but Rs 74,517.01 crore will be matched by equal savings on other heads.
While presenting her 2021-22 Union Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had set a fiscal deficit target of 6.8 per cent of nominal gross domestic product (GDP) against the 2020-21 Revised Estimate of 9.5 per cent. The fiscal correction in the upcoming 2022-23 Union Budget is unlikely to be that steep. Even as discussions among top Budget-makers are ongoing, the fiscal deficit target for 2022-23 may likely be in the range of 6.5-6.8 per cent.
Allocation of portfolios would be the immediate vexatious issue for the party, with supporters of Virbhadra Singh already feeling sidelined after the elevation of the late chief minister's professed rival Sukhu.
Senior tax officials were told to focus on cash collection from the arrears so that the target for FY23 was achieved and the overall revenue position improved.
The government has budgeted for total expenditure of Rs 34.83 lakh crore or 6.8 per cent of GDP. While the net tax revenue rose from Rs 5,75,697 crore in October 2020 to Rs 10,53,135 crore till October 2021, a growth of 82.93 per cent annualized, total expenditure rose only by 9.95 per cent, led by infra spending to Rs 18,26,725 crore from Rs 16,61,454 crore during the same period, the RBI said in the financial stability report.
25 student suicides in 2023 at India's coaching hub Kota have revealed the mindboggling stress children confront every day, reports Prakash Bhandari.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said data is information and it will dictate history in the future as he exhorted for strong and scientific audits to make systems strong and transparent. Speaking at the Audit Diwas event of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), he said in the past information was transmitted in form of stories.
The tax authorities may tell banks and crypto exchanges to report transactions of virtual digital assets (VDAs) as the government begins taxing gains from cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens from April 1. So far, the tax department has relied on voluntary disclosures on transactions of VDAs. Once implemented, the sale and purchase of digital assets will reflect in the Annual Information Statement (AIS). The AIS contains details of at least 46 of the financial transactions done by a taxpayer in a financial year.
It would be difficult to stick to the Budget numbers unless the departments are reined in their expenditure plans.
The breakfast scheme for government school students from class 1 to 5 was launched in Madurai on Thursday by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin who served and ate the food along with the children.
The Centre is likely to announce the Agnipath recruitment scheme for the defence forces under which troops would be recruited only for four-year tenures.
The appointment of new expenditure secretary comes a month-and-a-half ahead of the Budget for 2020-21 to be presented on February 1.
Seven of the meetings will be held in late November or early December at the finance ministry, as is the norm.
Post handing over of Air India to the Tatas, government officials will be free to book their travel with any airline that offers them the best price. And, the Centre will not have a tie up with any carrier, department of investment and public asset management (DIPAM) secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said. "The government is not mandating travel by any particular airline, going forward, after handing over Air India because there won't be any state-owned airline," he said. The department of expenditure (DoE) will soon issue instructions to government departments for official travel as this needs to be done before handing over Air India to the new buyer, he said.
The challenges before the coming Budget are more daunting than those in 2021, reveals A K Bhattacharya.
She said the grant does not cover the actual cost of vaccine and distribution expenses, which will be made separately as and when the vaccine is available.
Two-wheeler market leader Hero MotoCorp has denied the report of the IT Department finding Rs 1,000 crore false expense claims, saying it is speculative. The company said officials from the Income Tax department visited its offices in the previous week, and it has provided all support and cooperation, necessary documents and data to the authorities and will continue to do so if required. "The allegations made in the press report are not borne out of any documents that have been served on us or our internal documents.
The Election Commission on Tuesday ordered the delisting of another 86 'non-existent' registered unrecognised political parties, raising the number of such organisations red flagged by the poll panel for failing to comply with electoral rules to 537.
The Income-Tax (I-T) Department nowadays provides pre-filled forms to make the filing of income-tax return (ITR) easier. Nonetheless, you must have a number of documents handy at the time of filing return so that you can cross-check the data in the pre-filled form. "Filing ITR doesn't require you to upload any document. But in case an assessing officer makes an inquiry, you will need to present documents and certificates as proof," says Deepak Jain, chief executive, TaxManager.in.