The retrospective amendment will help BJP and Congress escape the fallout of a 2014 Delhi high court judgment that held both guilty of violating the FCRA.
The Delhi Assembly on Monday passed bills pertaining to over 66 per cent hike in salaries and allowances of its members who are among the lowest-paid lawmakers in the country.
Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said the legislation was not against any NGO and is an effort to maintain transparency. This amendment is in the interest of good NGOs which want to do good work in the country.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said she is awaiting an approval from the Cabinet on bill on cryptocurrency as the proposed legislation is before it. The inter-ministerial panel on cryptocurrency under the chairmanship of secretary (economic affairs) to study the issues related to virtual currencies and propose specific actions has already submitted its report. It has recommended that all private cryptocurrencies, except any virtual currencies issued by state, will be prohibited in India.
The CrPC (Identification) Bill empowers the police to obtain physical and biological samples of convicts and those accused of crimes while the DMC (Amendment) Bill, 2022 seeks to unify the three civic bodies in the national capital.
Experts disagree with the idea and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which has the sole right to print money, is not comfortable with it as well.
States are apprehensive of losing their rights to raise revenue during emergencies.
With the Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Democratic Front Opposition continuing its stir against Finance Minister K M Mani, facing bribery charges in bar scam, the Kerala assembly on Monday adjourned sine die on a stormy note after passing the finance and appropriation bills without a discussion.
Amid a growing chorus in the party for his elevation, Tamil Nadu sports minister and son of Chief Minister M K Stalin, Udhayanidhi, was elevated as the deputy CM on Saturday with additional responsibility, in a cabinet reshuffle that saw the return of V Senthil Balaji to the council of ministers two days after securing bail in a money laundering case.
There was no law that prevented the government from presenting a sixth full Budget, or something similar to it.
Watch all the debates and proceedings here.
The recess allows department-related standing committees to examine demands for grants of various ministries. The Finance Bill and related demands for grants are passed in the second phase of the Budget session.
'Banks may find small ticket size lending economically unviable due to the cost of branch operations.'
'Today, let us reaffirm our commitment to strive to realise Gandhiji's dreams. His watchwords, truth and nonviolence, will continue to remain relevant for the whole world. He also taught us that rights and duties are but the two sides of the coin - indeed, the true source of rights is duty. Today we recall his lessons in compassion too - compassion not only for our human neighbours but also for our other neighbours, namely, flora and fauna, rivers and mountains.'
Initiating the debate on the Finance Bill in the Lok Sabha, BJP leader Jaswant Singh said the finance minister should not spend his time in 'accountancy' but 'apply his mind to the reality of economic management of the country." Terming the Finance Bill as the 'child' of the Union Budget, he said it (Finance Bill) should be abolished and if not, then the government should 'break it up'.
In a bid to provide a level playing field, the government has decided not to levy 2 per cent digital service tax if goods and services are sold through Indian arm of foreign e-commerce players.
One per cent TDS will apply on non-agriculture immovable property of over Rs 50 lakh on the basis of sale price or the stamp duty value, which ever is higher, after an amendment in the Income Tax Act.
The government on Friday proposed hiking the securities transaction tax on Futures & Options (F&O) contracts, a move that will increase the trading costs in the derivatives segment as well as help in curbing excessive trades. In the Finance Bill 2023, passed by the Lok Sabha on Friday, the Securities Transaction Tax (STT) on options is proposed to be increased to 0.0625 per cent from 0.05 per cent and on futures contracts to 0.0125 from 0.01 per cent. Analysts opined that higher STT will shore up the government's revenues to some extent and also discourage excessive trading since a large number of retail traders are losing money in the segment.
United States President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday announced the nomination of popular Fox News host and Army veteran Pete Hegseth, 44, as his defence secretary.
As the fight reaches its crescendo with the big election day just a few hours away, many political observers billed the unpredictable race for the 47th President of the US as the most consequential one in decades while appearing to project a grim picture for the country's future under a Trump presidency.
Ratan was extremely ethical in his dealings, which he brought to bear on the business house which he helmed, remembers Sailesh Kottary.
Parliament on Tuesday passed amendments to the Banking Regulation Act to bring cooperative banks under the supervision of the RBI, a move aimed at protecting the interest of depositors.
Days after saying that there is no need for subsidies to achieve greater penetration of electric vehicles (EVs), Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Monday clarified that the view is his own, but any official call on EV subsidies is not one that he can take.
Congress members also vociferously pressed for a discussion on the Comptroller and Auditor General report.
Proceedings of both Houses of Parliament were disrupted on Monday as the treasury benches accused top Congress leaders of colluding with billionaire investor George Soros to destabilise the country, triggering protests from opposition members.
The government would be ironing out issues related to the controversial 'bail-in' clause in the earlier Bill, explore hiking the deposit insurance cover of customers, and decide whether the resolution framework should apply to public sector banks.
Replying to the debate on the Finance Bill in Lok Sabha, the minister said he did not propose any change in the tax rate but only provided few rebates which will boost spending and help the economy.
'We crossed Rs 1.7 trillion in three months this financial year.'
With the fiscal deficit target staring at the government, the FY25 Budget has limited expenditure options, points out A K Bhattacharya.
Despite the objections raised by Reserve Bank of India and Election Commission, India's politics has been funded anonymously and it is time to end this, asserts Aakar Patel.
At present, the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015, covers only resident Indians. The Finance Bill has expanded the definition of assessees to include NRIs.
India SME Forum, an organisation for small and medium businesses, has called for creating a dedicated fund of Rs 5000 crore for the export capacity development, promotion, and marketing of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in its Budget recommendation. The forum for MSMEs with over 98,000 members said that to enhance India's global competitiveness and increase its market share in global exports, it was "crucial to increase the number of active exporters and enable at least 3-4 lakh first-time micro, small, and medium exporters while supporting them in promoting Indian products globally."
Discussion on the two bills could not take place as Opposition members continued to stage protests demanding a discussion on the Pegasus snooping allegations and the farmers' demand of repealing the three new agri laws.
When a strong executive decides it wants something, even something that is dangerous and unconstitutional, there is little resistance from within to stop it, notes Aakar Patel.
Megha Engineering had emerged as the second-biggest buyer of electoral bonds and donated the highest amount of about Rs 586 crore to the Bharatiya Janata Party, according to the data released by the Election Commission on March 21.
The GST will replace more than a dozen levies central and state levies, including central excise duty, service tax and central sales tax as well as VAT on sale of goods and entry tax, to make movement of goods seamless across 1.3 billion market.
The Centre is likely to introduce the Central GST and integrated GST bills in late November or early December in the ongoing session in the form of money Bills.
The Bills adopted in 2017 for the same purpose during the AIADMK regime did not get the President's assent.
The central government has given banks and credit card entities six to eight months to put in place the requisite reporting mechanism and related features to collect tax at source on international credit card transactions, a senior bureaucrat told Business Standard. According to the bureaucrat, the plan to bring overseas credit cards under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) has not been mothballed and is simply being deferred so that banks get adequate time to get the system up and running. The official expects the reporting mechanism to be ready in the given time, and the rule could be implemented in the next financial year (2024-25, or FY25).
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, along with her team of bureaucrats, delved into the fine print of the 2024-25 Budget documents in a press conference, detailing the government's road map on bringing down the debt-to-GDP ratio and bold tax measures.
