The rupee weakened to 62.58 against the US dollar in the early trade on Thursday.
Redrafting the Direct Taxes Code is proving to be an uphill task for the finance ministry, bombarded with comments from various stakeholders. The Central Board of Direct Taxes has received about 10,000 suggestions on the code, which seeks to replace the Income Tax Act of 1961.
The Income Tax Department needs to immediately add 30,000 more employees to carry out its existing operations, a senior Finance Ministry official said.
The finance ministry has suggested forming a GST council, headed by the Union finance minister, to address disputes between the Centre and the states in the proposed GST regime.
Referring to the proposed new monetary policy framework, it said in the weeks ahead, government and RBI will work towards it.
"As far as India is concerned, the impact on us will be minimal. In fact, in the short run -- that is, purely in the short run -- it might help us in terms of India being regarded as a relatively safer haven," Chawla told reporters on the sidelines of a Assocham function in New Delhi.
The government on Friday said gains from fake currency business are going abroad through the hawala route and admitted that the quality of fake currency has gone up with better imitation of security features.
The move is aimed at cutting the fiscal deficit, which the government wants to contain at 4.1 per cent of GDP.
The finance ministry is likely to favour an approach that would take into account the payment capabilities of telecom companies while deciding the price and process for spectrum auction this year.
The Finance Ministry expects the economic growth in the current fiscal to improve to 5.5 per cent from 5 per cent last year on back of likely pick up in agricultural output on account of good monsoon rains.
India may be hit if stalemate in Washington persists over two weeks.
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The economy grew at a four year low of 4.4 per cent in the April-June quarter of current year.
The 90-day compliance window has been provided for people to pay tax and penalty of 60 per cent on undisclosed overseas assets and come clean.
On September 7, 2009, the government had instructed all its departments not to travel first class within or outside the country on government account.
Mahindra Satyam has reportedly requested Khurshid to take up the issue of taxation with the Finance Ministry as it would be unjust to tax income that was never there.
Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan, who will present his maiden policy on September 20, held discussions on Tuesday with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram on the macro-economic situation.
The shift was sudden, quite unlike Shukla's departure from North Block, which had been anticipated for some months even before Singh''s first Budget.
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Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram said India had brought its fiscal deficit down more sharply and quickly than any other country, but managing the current account deficit was more complicated because the government had less control of it.
The finance ministry today said that tax exemptions and concessions, which are estimated to cost the exchequer Rs 100,147 crore (Rs 1001.47 billion) this fiscal, should be subject to a sunset clause so as to avoid rent seeking.
Food inflation, according to the data released earlier in the day, further rose to 19.95 per cent for the week ended December 5.
Industry lobbies have begun pre-budget consultations with the Union finance ministry for 2010-11.
Punjab National Bank is the second largest PSU bank, in which government holding is 58.87 per cent.
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The ministry has been receiving representations from chambers of commerce and industry associations on tax-related issues and disputes that affect the industry as a whole or impact a large sections of the industry.
The Committee, which has been set up in pursuance of the announcement made by the Minister in his Budget speech, will also suggest whether the unclaimed deposit should come to government or be kept in a separate account.
According to sources, Kingfisher Airlines allegedly diverted funds by opening a current account in HDFC Bank and had a balance of Rs 7.5 crore (Rs 75 million) as on date.
According to sources close to the development, finance secretary Ashok Chawla, who is driving the process, is working on a concept note to provide the framework for consolidation.
Ahead of the monetary policy review, RBI governor D Subbarao is expected to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on October 23.
Finance Ministry and Reserve Bank of India on Thursday sought to play down their differences in perception on interest rates.
In a letter written recently to the Finance Minister, Pawar had said that arrears of sugar mills have risen to over Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) and there was a need to hike import duty to curb shipments, which is putting downward pressure on local prices.
The finance ministry has started the process of drafting rules for listed companies to increase public holding in case promoters hold more than 75 per cent stake.
This means only about 8000 employees will be left with the carrier over the next five years.
RBI is scheduled to announce mid-quarter review of monetary policy for 2013-14 on June 17.
The government said on Monday it would not cut its borrowing target scheduled for the first half of the current fiscal, scotching all speculations after a bond auction announcement was skipped last Friday.
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said he was confident of the DTC being recommended by the standing committee in the coming (winter) Parliament session.
Over 60 per cent of these borrowings are slated to be mopped up in the festival season.
The steel ministry has sent the proposal to sell 10 per cent of the government's holding in state-run Manganese Ore India Ltd to the Department of Disinvestment, Parliament was told on Friday.
Last year, the capital infusion budget was Rs 20,157 crore.
Ruling out any plans to restructure the National Investment Fund (NIF), the government on Friday said the proceeds from divestment of the NHPC and Oil India Limited (OIL) will be credited to the NIF.
The Ministry of Finance or Commerce would certainly need a larger hospitality budget than the Ministry of Agriculture.
The finance ministry on Tuesday said that the divestment programme will kick off with the dilution of government equity in listed entities, where public holding is less.
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