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.
If the concerns over risking political capital are overcome, the long-term gains for the Indian economy will be immense, asserts A K Bhattacharya.
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.
Tharoor also said the Congress must decentralise authority and truly empower the grassroots office-bearers of the party.
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 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.
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.
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.
Kishore said the Congress and its supporters are bigger than any individual and Gandhi should not be stubborn that it must be him who will deliver for the party despite repeated failures.
ICICI Infotech outsmarted Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro to get the mandate from states for setting up a national tax information exchange system (Tinxsys) to track inter-state transactions and check tax evasion.
The Supreme Court on Friday said lawyers and professionals with 10 years of experience will be eligible for appointment as president and member of the state consumer commission and district forums.
The meeting of the Empowered Committee of Finance Ministers of States and Union Territories began with some states demanding that they be allowed to charge service tax on certain items pending a decision on the implementation of VAT.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday announced a Rs 100 per cylinder cut in cooking gas LPG price to ease financial burden on households. Non-subsidised cooking gas price will be cut to Rs 803 per 14.2-kg cylinder in the national capital with effect from midnight of Friday/Saturday, official sources said. Prices vary from state to state depending on the incidence on local taxes.
The threat by IT firms to boycott the annual mega IT show here in October seems to have blown over after state government promised to upgrade Bangalore's infrastructure.
The Assam government wants to ban polygamy as "a component of the Uniform Civil Code" and will form a committee to examine whether the state legislature was empowered to prohibit the practice prevalent in parts of the state, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Tuesday.
In a relief to the Hindu side, the Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay the Allahabad high court order allowing the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to conduct a scientific survey at the Gyanvapi mosque complex to determine if the 17th-century structure was built upon a pre-existing temple.
In a major step towards tax reforms, the Centre on Tuesday agreed on a 3-tier system of compensating the states that incur revenue loss on account of implementing the value-added tax from April 2005.
Six more states are set to join the value added tax regime from April
