Recalling the steps taken by the government to deal with the issue, Mukherjee said, "Our efforts to tackle this menace have been increasing (and) we are committed to the goal of achieving zero tolerance against corruption."
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has rejected a proposal by Communications Minister A Raja for refund of the Rs 29,598 crore paid by state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited for third generation (3G) and broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum.
The tsunami of recession that originated in the Wall Street and spread to Europe did not affect India because our banks are conservative, said Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi while addressing a seminar at the 10th Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas in Jaipur on Sunday.
Government on Friday ruled out replacing its Lokpal Bill with another, saying it will be better to have amendments to the one already introduced.
Budget ideas from industry are irresponsible
"Oil marketing companies are to take decision depending on cost of their imports. It is market related as per as oil market companies are concerned on petrol," Mukherjee told reporters.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday announced a stimulus package for the economy, the third this financial year, cutting excise duty and service tax two percentage points each, effective midnight, and extending previous excise cuts beyond March 31, 2009.
The praise for peasants, most of whom are subsistence farmers, comes ahead of general elections due in a few months. The minister presented statistics to hard-sell the government's initiatives to prop up the agriculture sector and improve the conditions of roughly about 60 per cent of the country's population depending upon it.
The government has pegged fiscal deficit at 5.5 per cent of gross domestic product for the next financial year, against the revised figure of 6 per cent in the current financial year. The fiscal deficit target for the current fiscal was 2.5 per cent. However, fiscal measures initiated in the wake of the global economic downturn and reduction in revenue collection have impacted resource mobilisation resulting in widening of deficit.
As Pranab Mukherjee passes away, we remember the man, the politician, the Rashtrapati.
For the past one-and-a-half months, railway minister Mamata Banerjee has stopped her informal interactions with finance minister Pranab Mukherjee after a sharp exchange on telephone over a municipal election issue.
The government on Friday shot down a suggestion in the Lok Sabha for setting up a committee under the member of Parliament in respective constituencies for monitoring disbursement of loans by banks to priority sector like agriculture, small and medium enterprises.
As the United Progressive Alliance government desperately fights the perception of a policy paralysis, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee dismisses it with equal vehemence contending that the coalition was set on achieving higher economic growth.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is cutting short his visit to Washington and rushing to New York to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, amid a storm back home over his ministry's note to the prime ministers on the 2G scam.
The overall inflation increased marginally in February to 8.31 per cent from 8.23 per cent a month ago.
Reverting to high growth, managing inflation and insulating India from adverse global economic situation are the major challenges before the country, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Friday.
Sharmishtha, who has quit politics, also clarified that she has not tried to tweak her father's views about anyone.
Insisting that the controversy over the finance ministry note on 2G spectrum issue with inferences against P Chidambaram is not over, Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday said Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has bowed to wishes of the "head of the family" and asked him to clarify where he disagreed with it.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday held a meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the sidelines of a meeting of CEOs from India and the US.
Strongly defending its decision to allow FDI in retail, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday told Congress Members of Parliament that the government was "compelled" to suspend the move to avoid "pre-mature elections". Addressing the Congress Parliamentary Party, Mukherjee also apologised to members who had supported the government in allowing FDI in retail but said going ahead with the decision could have created a "crisis" for the government.
Maharashtra's beleaguered Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on Saturday met Congress president Sonia Gandhi after his name cropped up in a controversy surrounding the Adarsh housing society in Mumbai. Earlier, Sonia met Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, political secretary to the Congress president Ahmed Patel, All India Congress Committee general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi and Union minister Prithviraj Chavan over the issue.
The finance minister also provided some relief to readymade garment manufacturers by raising the abatement available for levy of taxes on retail price of some branded garments and textile made-ups.
The President may not have agreed with the government on many occasions. Not once was this ever made public -- though he told off ministers in private.
Amid recessionary fears in advanced economies, India's Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has called for channelising global surpluses to build infrastructure in developing nations to boost world economy.
He, however, also felt that inflation has peaked and would begin falling and be lower than the 5.5 per cent projected by RBI for this fiscal.
India Inc on Tuesday described Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee as industry's Sachin Tendulkar saying the veteran leader was steering the economy "with ease of a seasoned player" in difficult times.
The standoff over Women's Reservation Bill ended on Thursday with the government announcing that the proposed legislation would be brought in the Lok Sabha only after consultations with all sections.
The minister said at a time when banks in the US and Europe needed government support for survival, banks in India were strong enough to sustain on their own.
A day after the Reserve Bank raised its key interest rates to check inflation, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday indicated it may not be the last increase for now.
Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday said that the United Progressive Alliance government was ready to bring in and get the Lokpal Bill passed in the next session of Parliament if the Opposition cooperated with it.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday described the failure of talks between India's telecom giant Bharti Airtel and South Africa's MTN on the $23 billion merger deal as "part of the game".
On the eve of the Supreme Court hearing of his petition on age, Army Chief Gen V K Singh on Thursday met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee who has been informally acting as a trouble-shooter in the controversy.
Mukherjee said about Rs 2.42 lakh crore (Rs 2.42 trillion) in taxes is locked up in litigation before the CIT appeal, ITAT and high courts.
He pointed out that wages under the NREGA have been increased from Rs 61 to Rs 100 which would lead to earnings of Rs 10,000 annually 'irrespective of qualification'. Mukherjee, who is the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee chief urged party workers to pinpoint failures in implementation of the scheme at the block and panchayat levels.
Presenting the Interim Budget in Lok Sabha, the minister said the enactment of the Act by the Centre and many states has 'bridged a critical gap in the public decision-making process and ushered in greater accountability of public servants.'
Kashmiri Pandits have impressed upon the central government that there should be no dilution of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and nothing should be done to weaken the state's integration with the country. A group of Kashmiri Pandits met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in Delhi on Sunday night and apprised him of their views on the current volatile situation in the state.
Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday maintained that he will speak, if necessary, on the finance ministry note on 2G spectrum allocation issue only after talking to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday.
The sharp decline in rupee against the dollar is a cause of concern and there are expectations that steps would be announced to boost the domestic currency, the finance minister said.
Industrial production, measured by the index of industrial production, slowed to a 20 month low of 1.6 per cent in December, from 2.7 per cent in November 2010.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh continues to be in the hot soup. The crisis regarding the Indo-Pakistan joint statement simply refuses to blow over with the party now giving charge to Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Defence Minister A K Antony to diffuse the situation, retrieve the issue with the least damage to the government.
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