One of India's leading industry bodies - the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry - on Friday urged the government to bring sugar, textiles and tobacco products under value added tax.
He's the hero for forging consensus on GST, popular in the Left Front and among his students, but industrialists are less than enamoured.
The empowered committee on GST headed by West Bengal finance minister Asim Dasgupta has agreed to a dual structure of the proposed indirect tax regime, which is likely to be introduced from April 2010. The new tax regime would do away with most of the indirect taxes levied at the Centre like excise and services tax, and VAT and Octroi at the State level.
Forest land that will also be exempted includes land situated within 100 km along the international borders, Line of Control, or Line of Actual Control, proposed to be used for construction of strategic linear projects for national importance or security.
The Centre and the state governments have agreed not to unilaterally change the tax rate on goods and services, once the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is implemented from April 2010.
A plea of the UK-based Vedanta group company to export its share of crude oil from Barmer oil field in Rajasthan was on Tuesday rejected by the Delhi high court on the ground that domestic crude cannot be exported till India attained "self sufficiency".
Ready with the "groundwork", the Empowered Committee on value-added tax is likely to press for President's nod on VAT Bills of at least nine states by May 25
The panel said that vacant posts in the CBI are not being filled up at the required pace and recommended that "every effort should be made to fill up vacancies at the earliest".
Petroleum products such as crude, motor spirit and diesel, and alcohol beverages will be kept outside the dual goods and service tax (GST) structure, which will be implemented from April 2010.
Besides central cess, the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers has also recommended to keep purchase tax and octroi, which are collected at state and local levels, outside the GST framework.
Empowered group overrules DGH's recommendations.
In a setback to the Kerala government, the Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down a law promulgated by it declaring Mullaperiyar dam as endangered, and restrained it from obstructing the Tamil Nadu government to raise the water level.
Consensus emerged on the appointment of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge as the chairperson of the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), while Janata Dal-United chief Nitish Kumar's name was proposed for the convener's post, pending approval of parties absent at the alliance meeting on Saturday, according to sources.
He said that veteran party leader Jyoti Basu has also made it clear that the dispute would not affect the stability of the government.
At least 11 states accounting for two-third of the country's trade and industrial output are ready to introduce value-added tax from June
SC has asked Posco to submit a composite forest diversion proposal for its steel project in Orissa, thereby putting the company in a Catch22 situation.
The apex court raised the ceiling limit of iron ore mining from 28 MMT to 35 MMT for Ballari district, and from 7 MMT to 15 MMT for Chitradurga and Tumkur districts.
If states are to levy service tax, a combined GST will become a nightmare since a host of tax departments in each state will also have to be dealt with.
The resistance to VAT in Uttar Pradesh has been declining after the tax's success in 21 states.
The BJP cannot afford to alienate the OBCs, who have explicitly voiced their opposition to the Maratha quota.
Posco's mega steel plant in Orissa is inching forward with the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests clearing a proposal under which Posco will plant trees on an area equivalent in size to the forest land where the project is coming up.
Delhi government on Wednesday exempted life-saving medicines from taxation under the value added tax regime and decided to approach the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers for reduction in sales tax on diesel.
Quibbling between the Centre and the states on who should provide more relief to consumers on fuel prices intensified with the latter asking the Union Government to give an account of accruals to it from the latest hike in petrol and diesel prices.
With 21 states agreeing to switch over to value added tax from April 1, finance minister P Chidambaram on Thursday asked the remaining states, including Uttar Pradesh and BJP-ruled states, to implement it and add a historic dimension to centre-state
An official panel on Tuesday ruled out any increase in value added tax (VAT) rates as part of a package to compensate states on account of revenue loss due to a one per cent cut in Central Sales Tax that was to have happened in the beginning of this fiscal.
The empowered committee of state fnance ministers had recommended to the finance ministry that the Centre should provide direct budgetary support and transfer more services to states on account of the rate cut, sources said. States have refused to hike the value-added tax rate on more than 250 items like drugs, agricultural and industrial inputs from 4 per cent to 5 per cent to make up for revenue loss.
Is the DGH right about ONGC's track record?
The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation is set to win seven of the 20 oil and gas blocks auctioned in January while Reliance Industries would bag six.
Twenty one states which have switched over to Value-Added Tax on Tuesday agreed to adopt uniform rates for industrial input, capital goods and essential commodities like medicines, salt, bread and PDS items.
After the Centre, the states have joined the fight against inflation. Later this month, they will discuss a proposal to exempt rice, wheat and pulses from value added tax.
Punjab government has approved Anil Ambani Group's Rs 5,000-crore (Rs 50 billion) multi-product special economic zone in the state.
The official panel on value added tax decided on Thursday to ask the Centre to cut Central Sales Tax, imposed on inter-state movement in goods, to three per cent from the current four per cent from October.
The Centre is planning to establish a Taxation Information Exchange System to track inter-state trade of all commodities after the phase-out of Central Sales Tax.
A day after empowered committee of state finance ministers expressed its determination to implement VAT from April1, traders on Tuesday said they will "gherao" Parliament on Wednesday in protest against the new "inflationary" tax system.
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